In the early days of
photography, the only source of light was, of course, the sun. Subsequently
photography depended mostly upon long days and good weather. It was obvious
that artificial light would be indispensable: not dependent on the sun anymore,
pictures could be taken where natural light wasn’t sufficient, or on dull days
when studio work was impossible.
The first artificial light
photography dates back to 1839, when L. Ibbetson used oxy-hydrogen light (also
known as limelight, discovered by Goldsworthy Gurney) when photographing
microscopic objects. Limelight was produced by heating a ball of calcium
carbonate in an oxygen flame until it became incandescent.
Despite being used widely
around 1839-1840, the results of using the chemical were rather poor:
chalk-white pale faces and a harshly lit picture, an effect created due to the
imperfection of the light source and differentiation of the reflectance of
different parts of the scene (due to different distances and materials).
Attempts of using limelight
and other chemical sources for lighting the picture can be considered to have
been a failure, either because they did not contain the rich blue, that the
plates of the day required, as well as due to the chemical’s low intensity.
Other possibilities had to be
explored. Nadar – an early French photographer and journalist – for example,
photographed the sewers in Paris, using battery-operated lighting. Later arc-lamps were introduced to aid photographers, but it was not until 1877 that
the first studio using electric light was opened.
Powered by a gas-driven
dynamo the studio by Van der Weyde in Regent Street, Westminster, had sufficient light to allow exposures of 2 to 3 seconds.
Flash Powder
Despite being quite a step
forward in artificial lighting development, the early chemicals could not
provide the satisfying result for the photos. Producing a shorter, and
therefore more predictable flash became the goal. There was one solution:
magnesium.
In 1862 Edward Sonstadt began
experiments to prepare the metal on a commercial basis and by 1864 magnesium
wire was finally placed on sale.
Magnesium wire
The wire was extremely
expensive, but following an extremely successful demonstration in February the
same year, where a photograph was produced in a darkened room in only 50
seconds, the highly actinic light proved ideal for photography and became
incredibly popular.
The technology of the wire
wasn’t too complicated. Magnesium was burned as a wire or ribbon twisted into
tapers or clockwork lamps with a reflector. There were different lamp designs,
each for different use. Despite different ways of using the magnesium, there
was no ideal variant for this method.
Clockwork driven magnesium
wire lamp
Burning was often incomplete
and unpredictable. Exposures varied considerably and the air remained laden
with grey, opaque fumes, making the method unsuitable for studio use.
Even more, the technique was
not without its obvious dangers and it also released a lot of smoke, smell and
a fall-out of white ash.
Nevertheless, magnesium lamps
gained in popularity through the 1870s and 1880s despite the expenses and
danger. Trying to solve the unpredictability of the popular magnesium
technique, Charles Piazzi Smyth, experimenting in the pyramids at Giza, Egypt,
in 1865, had attempted to ignite magnesium mixed with gunpowder. The resulting
picture was quite poor but the principle of combining magnesium with
oxygen-rich chemical resulting in a combustion was developed.
In 1887, Adolf Miethe and
Johannes Gaedicke mixed fine magnesium powder with potassium chlorate to
produce Blitzlicht. This was the first ever widely used flash powder.
Blitzlicht gave the photographers the ability to produce instant photographs at
night at a very high shutter speed. This caused quite an excitement in the
photography world.
Being the explosive that it
is, flash powder accidents were obviously inevitable. Simply grinding the
components was dangerous enough, and a number of photographers died while
either preparing the flash powder or setting it off.
In the beginning of the 20th
century, the flash powder formula was refined and improvements were made to
make the process simpler and safer. The flashes now lasted for 10 ms only, so
subjects no longer closed their eyes during the exposure which helped portrait
photography.
There were still enough
disadvantages to the method, for example, the smoke was still causing trouble,
making studio work quite difficult, so another invention was awaited.
Early commercially produced, prepackaged flash
powder
Flash powder "flash gun" with flash
powder dispenser
Pushing the spring loaded
button on top of the dispenser
would release a premeasured amount of flash
powder.
Turning the igniter wheel
would create a spark to set off the flash
Agfa flash powder with Haka
Flashlight
A lit candle would be moved
toward the igniter strip via a clockwork mechanism and set off the flash after
a predetermined amount of time.
Preloaded flash powder
capsules with built-in percussion caps for firing
Flash gun for preloaded
capsules
A spring-loaded firing pin
would set off the flash via the percussion caps.
Firing pin
Flash Bulbs
In his experiments in
underwater photography in the 1890s, Louis Boutan – a French zoologist and a
pioneer underwater photographer – used a cumbersome magnesium lamp. Powdered
magnesium, sealed in a glass jar fixed to a lead-weighted barrel to supply
oxygen during burning, was ignited by means of an alcohol lamp.
Paul Vierkötter used the same
principle in 1925, when he ignited magnesium electronically in a glass globe.
In 1929 the Vacublitz, the first true flashbulb made from aluminum foil sealed
in oxygen, was produced in Germany by the Hauser Company using Johannes B.
Ostermeier’s patents. It was quickly followed by the Sashalite from the General Electric Company in the USA.
Early magnesium foil filled
flash bulb
Early flash gun and flash bulbs
The flash bulb was an
oxygen-filled bulb in which aluminum foil was burned, with ignition being
accomplished by a battery. The light of the bulb, although powerful, was soft
and diffused, therefore less dangerous to the eyes than flash powder.
Using a flash bulb produced
neither noise nor smoke when the charge was fired. This provided an opportunity
to using flash in places where flash powder use was questionable or simply
dangerous. The first photos using the “Sashalite” flashbulb were published by
The ‘Morning Post.
The pictures were of the
engine-room and other compartments of a submarine. These were not only
interesting as unusual subjects, but they indicated a high technical standard.
It was not to be until 1927, however, that the simple flash-bulb was to appear for
sale.
Flashbulbs were a big step
forward. They weighed little, were easily fired electrically and were extremely
powerful and convenient. Another important aspect of the technique
was that it was extremely safe, especially compared to the previously widely used flash powder.
Due to the high quality of the
invention, mass-market cameras were soon fitted with flashguns or synchronizers
to fire a bulb when the shutter opened. This was a huge technological leap
forward for photography and a very advanced technology in its own, so by
the 1950s bulbs had virtually replaced flash powder on the market.
Kodak Brownie with flash
attachment for flash bulbs
There were also several
versions of the flashbulbs released to the consumer that fitted everyone from
professional to amateur photographers. The purpose was mainly to make the use
of the flash more convenient for a novice or an amateur user.
For example, the rotating Flashcube, a
popular bulb by Kodak, was a device that had 4 bulbs installed in one, making it
easier to take several pictures in smaller amount of time.
Flash cube on Kodak
Instamatic camera
Flash Synchronisation
Early flash photography was
not synchronized. It’s hard to imagine an non-synchronized flash today, but the
way those worked was that one had to put a camera on a tripod, open the
shutter, trigger the flash, and close the shutter again – a technique known as
open flash. The exposure time had to be managed manually, and the process was
very inconvenient compared to today.
Despite all of the problems,
the open flash technique with using flash powder was being used quite widely until
the 1950s. But with the success and ease with which flash bulbs were used,
flash powder slowly became history. With the marketing success of flashes, and
the value of the idea of taking pictures at any time of the night or day, by
the late 1930s manufacturers began to incorporate flash synchronization into
their cameras. Even accessory devices that would allow flash sync on cameras not equipped for flash use were offered.
Leitz VACU flash sync device
for Leica cameras without built-in flash sync
The flash was triggered by a cam added to the
rotating shutter speed dial
VACU cam on shutter speed dial
VACU installed in Leica III
Geiss flash sync device
This used the same principal as the Leitz VACU by triggering a
switch via a cam attached to the rotating shutter speed dial
Some of the first mass
produced cameras with this facility were the Kine Exakta, Falcon Press Flash,
Agfa Shur-Flash and the Kodak Six-20 Flash Brownie box camera released in 1939
and 1940. After World War II, it became usual for a camera to have a flash synced
shutters.
Cameras designed to be used
with flash bulbs usually had different sync modes in order to be used with
various bulb types. Depending on the requirements, the flash contacts were
triggered accordingly prior to the shutter being open.
The principles of flash bulb
synced cameras are still used today in modern cameras with electronic flashes
and with big studio lights.
Electronic Flash
It was in 1931 when Harold
Edgerton – a professor of electrical engineering – produced the first
electronic flash tube. One of the most important advantages compared to the
flash bulbs was that the electronic flash intensity could be controlled and
adjusted.
Another great advantage, of
course, was the rechargeable aspect of the electronic flash. Flash bulbs, despite
being extremely useful, were fairly expensive and initially were only used by
professional photographers. Electronic flash used either replaceable or rechargeable batteries.
Today’s flash units use electronic flash tubes filled with xenon
gas, where electricity of high voltage is discharged to generate an electrical
arc that creates a short flash of light.
Modern electronic flash for
on-camera use
Metz 60 series flash, one of the most powerful
portable flash units available
Multiblitz, a modern studio flash with built
in modeling light
Photo by Multiblitz
Photographic flash has moved
through chemical to electronic phase, mostly driven by a desire to shorten
duration and increase intensity of the light. In addition, a sensor either in
the flashgun or within the camera is now used to detect that enough light has
reached the film (‘auto’ flash).
For that, an infrared sensor
is usually used to determine the distance between the camera and the subject,
therefore setting the aperture and flash intensity automatically.
With every automated process
there is always a possibility of something going wrong. The disadvantages with
automatic electronic flash lie with unequal lighting in subjects at dissimilar
distances from the camera with the flash, however, this problem is easily
solved by using several light sources when working with the subject.
An Interesting Side-Note
The red-eye effect happens
because the light of the flash occurs too fast for the pupil to close and much
of the very bright light from the flash passes into the eye through the pupil.
The light then reflects off the back of the eyeball and out through the pupil.
The camera records this
light. Since the light goes through the blood in the choroid which nourishes
the back of the eye, the color of the eye is red, hence this annoying effect
everyone is aware of. Various techniques are available to combat the problem
today, but it’s interesting to know why it occurs.
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This makes me appreciate the convenience of modern electronic flash equipment
ReplyDeleteFlash powder must be quite volatile to achieve short exposure times.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. I vaguely remember my dad using some when flashbulbs were not available shortly after WWII. The picture of the flash gun with flash powder dispenser in the article was the unit he had been using, Many years later he decided to discard a canister of the stuff because he deemed to be too dangerous to keep in storage any longer. I am guessing there was about one pound of it, He asked me to get rid of it. Of course, as a teenager, I immediately gave some thought how I might have the most fun with it. I knew that the stuff demanded great care. I ended up pouring a line of the flash powder along the top of a wall in our backyard. I then used a long piece of newspaper as a fuse. I expected to see the flash powder burning from one end of the line to the other. To my surprise, the entire line went off virtually simultaneously, crating a wall of a flash, about 15 feet long and 5 feet high. That was a very short exposure time to be sure.
Delete