Old Vintage Cameras: Random Black and White Panoramic Photo

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Random Black and White Panoramic Photo

View of Soldiers from the 331st Machine Gun Battalion Performing Exercises at Camp Grant in Rockford, Illinois c.1917

This panorama was taken by the Duce & McClymonds Studio of Rockford, IL. The date was November 1917, not long before these soldiers pictured were sent off to fight in World War I. The original measures 28" x 10". Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs - Panoramic Views of Army Units, Camps, and Related Industrial Sites (Source National Archives and Records Administration)

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What is a Camera Obscura?

The camera obscura (Latin; camera = vaulted chamber | obscura = dark, thus darkened chamber or room) is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved. The image can be projected onto paper, and can then be traced to produce a highly accurate representation. Using mirrors, as in the 18th century overhead version (illustrated in the History section below), it is possible to project a right-side-up image. Another more portable type is a box with an angled mirror projecting onto tracing paper placed on the glass top, the image being upright as viewed from the back. As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole the sharpness again becomes worse due to diffraction. Some practical camera obscuras use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperture, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus.