Early Photographic Processes

A very brief history of

Photographic Manipulation

Digital Photography

Many books have been written about how Photoshop and other software can be used now to manipulate images on the computer.

Sometimes the results are not intended to bear much resemblance to reality.

On other occasions, the results look true but subtle changes, such as slightly enlarging a model's eyes, may have been made to create greater impact.

However, manipulation is not new. It was happening long before digital photography arrived. The notes below work backwards to the early days of photography.

Silver Photography

It has been common practice to use filters to alter the tone of different colours when taking a photo, and to 'dodge' and 'burn' parts of a print in the darkroom, to make those parts lighter or darker, perhaps to retain the detail in the highlights and shadows or perhaps to create a more dramatic effect.

Press Photography

I heard from a newspaper photo editor that in the days when photographers printed their own photos, some of the photographers found that they had not captured the ball in their shot, so they would print one in, in the darkroom.

On one occasion the photographer did not notice that his photo already included the ball, until it was pointed out to him the next day that the photo published in the newspaper had 2 balls in it!

Old Postcards

Many of the publishers of early postcards appear to have had no hesitation in manipulating their images. Sometimes they would make changes in pencil on the negative. They might

- combine the sky from one photograph with a view from another.

- add figures in costume to make city views more attractive.

- printi an image dark so as to give a 'moonlight' effect.

- add or remove vehicles to keep their postcards up to date.

Here are two views with the same sky used in each, even though the first looks to the east along Princes Street, Edinburgh and the second looks to the west:

In these two views of Newhaven, Edinburgh, different colours have been given to the clothing:

Here is detail from Valentine postcards of 1900 and 1935. Both cards have used the same negative, but a horse-drawn vehicle has been remove in the second image:

Here is a Valentine 'Moonlight Series' postcard, created from a negative taken during the daytime:

Late 19th century

Here is a photograph by O'Keefe that appeared in the December 1895 edition of The Practical Photographer.

The journal commented:

"The New Woman", fresh from the moon, illustrates a branch of photography not much practised on this side of the water.

Messrs O'Keefe & Stockdorf, of Leadville, Colorado, have found it a distinct acquisition to their business.

Mid-19th century

Since the early days of photography, images have been manipulated. On occasions, these images have caused controversy when entered in photographic exhibitions.

Sometimes the manipulation consisted of drawing skies in pencil, on a negative. The photographic emulsions at the time were not able to cope with the wide variation of light between a bright sky and darker land in a landscape.

In other cases an image would be 'created' in the darkroom, using several negatives to create a single print. Some of the more renowned photographers, such as O G Rejlander, H P Robinson, used this method to create their 'composite images'.

Here is one such image by H P Robinson, titled 'Here They Come'. It won a silver medal in the 4th Photographic Society of Scotland Exhibition in Edinburgh in 1859.