How instant photography and polaroids work

The first instant photography camera, as we know it today was invented and released in 1947 by Edwin Herbert Land, the head of the Polaroid company. Apart from the fact, that initially polaroids used black and white films, the technology remained largely the same. Understanding the basics of photographic films is essential when it comes to comprehending instant photography. Color films consist of three layers. While the top layer is sensitive to blue light, the middle one is sensitive to green light and the bottom layer is sensitive to red light. When the film is exposed to light, a chemical reaction sets in, which causes the grains to form metallic silver on the sensible parts of each layer. The pattern, which becomes visible, is a chemical record of the light. In order to get a picture, the film needs to be developed. Therefore, dye couplers attach to the non-exposed areas. The color types include combined colors such as cyan, magenta and yellow. Just as it happens with slide films, the instant camera combines the colors and arranges them on the plastic sheet. As the polaroid camera has a built-in developing system, it provides all necessary chemicals for the developing process.

Camera Lucida instructions

As we thoroughly considered the quality of the set of instructions, we found it lacks some vital points. First of all, a list of materials is missing. It is not very helpful if the items needed for the camera lucida have to be guessed from the text. The next critic regards the order of the instructions. Numbers for each step would have definitely been useful. The author seemed to have taken for granted a lot of things as he wrote the instructions. Not only did he choose to put the images without referring to what exact part of camera lucida was meant, nor did he establish a clear link between the paragraphs and the visual information. We agreed that if we were asked to build a camera lucida resorting only to this very set of instructions we would definitely end up with a bad result. We recommend to tackle these problems in order to render  it  a more structured, comprehensible and therefore useful instruction.

Description of the boy with the toy hand grenade

The black-and-white photograph of the boy with the toy hand grenade was probably taken in a park during daytime. A few people can be discerned in the background. The shadow of a tree falls on the small and delicate figure of a young boy, wearing a patterned shirt and dark shorts. He has suspenders of which one side has slipped down his left shoulder. In his right hand he firmly holds a toy hand grenade. His fragile legs seem to disappear to the thick socks in his shoes. He slightly leans his head to his left side and despite the colorless picture one might guess his blond hair. The expression on his face seems awkwardly tense. His lips are pinched and he is starring with wide-open eyes. The rest of his body, especially his left hand looks cramped and nervous as well. The boy’s knees are covered with dirt. He appears desperate and lonely standing on the asphalt amid the park.