How Do I Become a Photojournalist?

A press-photographer is a professional who performs news reporting by photography. As the name implies, it requires the ability of photography to coexist with the ability of reporters.

Photojournalist

Photojournalist is not a "photographer". Their work is an independent report, the picture is the news! Photojournalists use this language to convey the conscience of news!

Education and training: Bachelor degree or above in photography, art, journalism and other related majors.

Work experience: Passion for photography, picture editing, and unique appreciation of pictures

Salary structure: basic salary + draft fee. The general salary is about 3,500 yuan, which can rise to 6,000 in three years.

Photojournalists are under a lot of work pressure, requiring practitioners to be healthy and suitable for passionate people. Suggestion

Job duties of a photojournalist

1. Responsible for group media product picture shooting, picture selection and picture post-production

In my country

Facing the advantages of the spread of newspapers, radio and television

Photojournalist Section 1

Prehistory of Photography

The first human understanding of Imaging began in the fourth century BC. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Mo Zhai, a thinker and representative of the Mo School in China, had already discovered the phenomenon of pinhole imaging. He recorded his findings in the Book of Ink: open a small hole in the wall of a dark hut, and the scenery under the sun outside the small hole will appear upside down on the wall opposite the small hole. Mozi not only discovered the phenomenon, but also explained the phenomenon scientifically. He believes that light travels in straight lines like arrows. For example, when a person stands outside the house, the light from his head hits the wall through the small hole, and the light from his feet hits the wall through the small hole, so the portrait is inverted. This is the earliest record of humans on the principle of the linear propagation of light. The pinhole imaging phenomenon discovered by Mozi was 2000 years earlier than in Europe.

By the eleventh century, an Arab scholar named Al Hazan gave a more detailed explanation of the solar eclipse, which became the research clue of European scholar Bacon. In the 16th century AD, Bacon discovered that the method of small hole imaging can observe the solar eclipse without glare. However, the image formed through the small holes is the opposite of the image of the solar eclipse viewed directly with the naked eye. His discovery was graphically published by Dutch doctor and mathematician Prisins in 1545 in his book Light of the Universe and Geometry of Space.

Prior to this, Cesaliano, a student of the great Renaissance artist Da Vinci, had written the theory of pinhole imaging in his 1521 edition of Architecture, and his theory benefited from the influence of Da Vinci .

By the middle of the 16th century, due to the invention of convex lenses, people began to use convex lens lenses instead of small holes. They found that the image made with a convex lens was much brighter than the image made with a small hole, and it was clearer.

In 1558 Napoli's scientist Porta introduced an auxiliary painting tool called CameraObscure in his book Science Magic. With this device, even people who ca nt paint can easily paint, just by using a pencil to trace the image formed by the convex lens. Later, Milan-based physicist Cardano strongly recommended this black box and reformed it. This obscure box was used by the great German astronomer Kaipule until 1920.

In the mid-17th century, this black box was improved to be miniaturized. In 1657, Schott, a teaching professor at the University of Bulzburg, introduced a portable dark box in his book "Magic of Optics", which was composed of two boxes of different sizes. To adjust the focus.

In 1676, Srurm, a professor of mathematics at Adolf University, suggested in his book "Experiment and Curiosity" that a 45-degree reflector should be added to the dark box, and a transparent glass should be placed above the dark box. The upper translucent oily paper can be used for painting. In 1685, the monk Zahn of Bulzburg further improved this small reflective black box, making this black box more and more widely used until the 19th century.

From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, painters used it extensively during the Renaissance. This has helped the painter intuitively grasp the perspective, the distance relationship, the size ratio, etc., and also created the conditions for the invention of photography.

In the 18th century, the use of dark boxes has become a common fashion of the intellectual class, and all papers related to optics or painting have various discussions on the use and improvement of dark boxes. By the early 19th century, the development of black boxes has become a trend. Just like modern cameras, various black boxes have spread throughout Europe and around the world. The collection in the French Museum of Photography mentioned earlier has a large number of black box representatives of this era. This camera continued to reach the Gaelic period.

Photojournalist Section II

Photography of the Daguer Period

Although various black boxes were invented before the 19th century, they were only used as auxiliary tools for painting, and they were still unable to perform "photography" in the modern sense. That is to say, it is not possible to record an image by putting a material that can be "photosensitive" into a dark box. However, the origin of photography is derived from this "painting with light", so that the word "PHOTOGRAPHY" in English is composed of the prefix "Photo-" and the suffix " ... "(graphy).

Since the beginning of the 18th century, people have been thinking hard about how to fix the images created through the dark box for a long time. In 1725, Schulze, an anatomy professor at Adolf University, discovered that the silver salt (that is, the photosensitive chemical we still use) can turn black after being illuminated by light, and use it to form a glyph image. The image disappeared shortly after seeing light. Swedish chemist Scheele and Swiss librarian Senebier successively developed Hurce's theory, which played an indelible role in the final birth of photography. It is now at the end of the 18th century.

In 1800, Wedgwood, the son of a British pottery worker, placed opaque leaves on leather coated with silver nitrate, and then exposed to sunlight. As a result, the leather illuminated by light turned dark black, and the leaves Under the unexposed place, the white shadow of the leaves was left. Wedgewood called this kind of image "SunPicture". This is probably the earliest Expose experiment in the world. However, like many previous experiments, the sunlight picture experiment eventually failed because the unexposed white leaves and shadows still had photosensitivity, and all of them soon turned black under the light when viewing.

The first person in the world to successfully fix the image created by the black box was Niepce, a retired French officer. In 1816, Nipps also painted silver paper with "the first" black and white negative image (the black and white of the image is exactly the opposite of the image you see, which is equivalent to the current negative), which is similar to Wedge Wood's same fate is that this black-and-white negative image could not be saved because of continued photosensitivity.

It is already in the 1920s of the 18th century. Nipps wanted to get a positive image (black and white is the same as the image you saw) on a metal plate, so that after etching, it could be printed on white paper with ink. After many experiments, he finally coated a lead-tin alloy plate with an oil-soluble white asphalt. He put the metal plate in a dark box and pointed the camera at a dovecote outside his studio window. After eight hours of exposure, the asphalt that saw the light hardened. At this time he took the metal plate out of the dark box, put it into lavender oil, and washed away the unhardened white asphalt. In this way, the bright part of the image becomes white, and the black part of the black metal plate is not exposed in the light part, and a black and white positive "photo" is successfully taken. Nipps called his method "Heliography." The dovecote photo taken by Nips with sunlight photography is considered to be the first photo in the world. This photo was taken in 1826. However, the birth of photography has not been counted from this day. The reason is that Nipps's sunlight photography method is too low in light sensitivity and has no practical value. It was later improved and adopted by the printing plate making at that time.

The now recognized birth of photography began in 1839 with Dagel's silver photography. Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), a landscape painter and stage designer in Paris, France, was a well-known French artist at the time, and he had a long cooperation with Nipps. Daguer started to paint carefully with a Chaane black box. When he learned about Nipps's sunlight photography method, he communicated with Nipps and collaborated with him to discuss new photography methods. But Nipps didn't agree with Daguerre's claim and used silver salts for further experiments. Therefore, until the death of Nipps, the sunshine photography method did not improve fundamentally. Until 1837 Daguerre had formed a complete set of new experimental methods to completely improve the technique of photography.

In 1838, Daguerl fumigated with iodine vapor in a dark room with a copper plated silver plate to produce a layer of silver iodide on its surface. Silver iodide is one of the silver salts that we currently use (silver salt is also called silver halide, which includes silver chloride, silver bromide, and silver iodide). It has photosensitivity and will decompose silver when it is exposed to light. He exposed this copper plate coated with silver iodide in a Schott-type dark box for exposure for about 15 minutes, and then took out the copper plate and put it on mercury vapor to fumigate again. The image taken after the exposure was strengthened and appeared, but The video at this time cannot be viewed, otherwise the above "tragedy" will be repeated. Therefore, the image at this time is called "latent image". The above process is equivalent to our modern "development". Finally, fix the image with sodium hyposulfite (sodium sulfate), that is, dissolve the unsensitized silver iodide. This process is equivalent to our modern "fixing". The above processes must be performed in a dark room or a special developing dark box. The developed and fixed copper plate was washed with distilled water and a "photograph" was formed. Daguerre called his photography method "Daguerre-type photography", while modern people refer to his photography method as "silver photography".

Due to funding issues, Daguer couldn't continue to improve his photography methods. Through many walks, his invention has been valued by the French government and won the National Allowance Award. In order to repay the government's care, Dagel announced all his technology patents to the public in 1839 and offered them to the people for free. Therefore the birth of photography began in 1839.

Photojournalist Section III

The Development of Photography in the Post-Dagher Era

Shortly after the invention of silver photography by Daguerre, it spread rapidly throughout Europe and was improved several times. Daguerre's photography has promoted the development of European science and technology and industry, tourism, and railway transportation.

At the same time as Daguel, Talbot, a British landlord and amateur scientist, also made similar photography attempts. He applied silver chloride to paper as a photosensitive material, and then immersed the exposed silver chloride paper in concentrated brine to prevent further blackening of the image. Finally, the negative image that appeared appeared was exposed to another image by light A positive image is formed on the photosensitive paper. It was only that Talbot did not apply for a patent at that time, so that his photography methods did not spread. Talbot's method of photography is called the Carlo method.

After Daguerre, portrait studios were established in most European countries and major cities in the United States. These studios were called "DaguerreamParlors." At that time, it took about 1 minute to take a Daguer style photo. Due to the development of Daguerre photography, both the camera manufacturing industry and the photosensitive material manufacturing industry have developed rapidly. A large part of the old cameras we mentioned at the beginning of this article are products around this period.

In the 1850s, photography underwent another major change. A photography method known as Collcodion photography or WetPlate photography became popular worldwide. . This method is more complicated than the Daguerre and Carlo methods, but it has attracted more people's interest, so it has spread rapidly and lasted for a long time.

The Daguerre photography method is expensive due to the use of silver-plated copper. The Carlo method is obviously cheaper, but because the negative image "negative film" used to "copy" the positive image is a paper medium and opaque, the image is not clear. So people tried to apply silver chloride on glass as a negative. But it is necessary to find a glue to make the silver chloride firmly adhere to the glass, or it will be easily washed away by water. So people began to think of using egg white as a glue, but the number of photosensitive chemicals that can be mixed in egg white is limited, which affects the sensitivity of the glass negative and makes the exposure time too long.

In 1851, at the height of the British Industrial Revolution, a London sculptor discovered a viscous liquid called "colander", which could be an ideal adhesive for photosensitive materials. This collodion is made from nitrocellulose dissolved in ether and sake. After mixing it with a photosensitive drug, it is coated on glass. After photosensitization, it is loaded into a camera for exposure. Immediately after exposure, it is developed, fixed, and washed with water, so a glass negative is produced.

The "dry plates" and films that represent modern photography have been around since the 1870s.

Photojournalist Section IV

From wet plate to film

First, from wet board to dry board

The invention of collodion promoted the development of wet-plate photography, which greatly shortened the exposure time. It can be said that photography in the true sense started from this period. Wet plate photography has also greatly promoted the popularity of photography, and more and more photographers have mastered this technology. In Europe and the United States, due to the spread of wet-panel photography technology, a portrait photography fever has been set off, and more and more photo studios have sprung up. Wet board photography has also driven an amateur photography group, and more and more photography enthusiasts have begun to get involved with photography. It was also during this period that a group of people who were determined to take photographs appeared. They photographed a large number of natural and human landscapes of that period, and also took a large number of portraits of famous people. These photos have left a rare record of early photography for humans.

Wet plate photography also led to the development of photographic equipment, mainly cameras. At that time, two-lens stereo cameras and four-lens multi-bottom cameras appeared.

However, the wet plate photography method is too complicated, and a large number of auxiliary equipment and medicines must be taken when going out for photography, and a tent used as a dark room must be carried. Wet plate photography is an important milestone in the history of photography, but it was eventually replaced by more advanced dry plate photography.

Photojournalist Section V

Camera development

1. Viewfinder camera with wooden back

Since the invention of silver photography by Daguerre, people have begun to convert small black boxes for painting into cameras that have better sealing performance and can be equipped with photosensitive plates. The first cameras were back-viewed wooden cameras with leather cavities. Because there is no need to draw the image in the horizontal direction, the 45 ° angle reflector inside the dark box is removed. This kind of camera, because the image on the back glass is very dark, so when shooting, the photographer must cover the camera together with the person's head with a large black cloth, and only expose the photographic lens. This camera was produced for a long time from 1860 to the middle of the 20th century, and until the end of the 20th century, improved versions of this camera were also being produced. In the middle of the 20th century, people can still see portrait photographers in a photo studio with a black cloth overhead. Until the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, a large number of photographers who liked to use large negatives to take landscape photos were still using the rear viewfinder camera to cover the head with black cloth for shooting. The famous American landscape photography master Ansel Adams is an example of taking black-and-white scenery photos with a back view camera.

The wooden rear viewfinder camera, originally shot with a dry plate, was a fold-down camera, which was not a fundamental improvement over the wooden camera used in the Daguer period. The photographer packed the dry board in a wooden cassette before shooting for easy carrying. The common specifications of dry boards are 120 × 170mm (commonly known as 1/2 board) and 85 × 120mm (commonly known as 1/4 board). Before shooting, cover your head with a black cloth, and use a magnifying glass to focus on the frosted glass on the back of the viewfinder. The image on the frosted glass is inverted. After the focus is set, close the shutter on the lens, then place the dry plate cassette on the frosted glass, pull out the shading plate in front of the cassette, and you can open the shutter to shoot. Early wooden cameras used pneumatic shutters. They first pulled a string to wind the shutter, and then pressed the rubber ball with their hands to open and close the shutter with compressed gas. The shutter opening time is completely controlled by hand pressing the balloon.

The early wooden folding camera used a "Dagor" astigmatism lens with a maximum aperture of only F8. Later, it switched to a three-piece, three-group "Cooke" type lens. Its maximum aperture Reached F4, the amount of incoming light increased by 4 times. Subsequent production of this kind of landline used a variety of German brand lenses, such as ZEISS, Rohde & Schwarz and Naide, but due to the need for imaging area and shift axis, the maximum aperture of these lenses is still maintained at F4.5 to F5. Around 6. Until 2000, China still produced this kind of improved wooden folding rear viewfinder.