the-BA : The camera never lies

When photography was invented in 1839, a French history painter named Paul Delaroche said: “from this day on, painting is dead”. He was being a bit melodramatic, if you ask me. However, it’s true that anyone can take a photograph and capture a moment in time – even if some of us are less good than others. It’s particularly easy because someone else does the processing for us. And now we have digital cameras we can take snaps really easy, and manipulate them however we want.

Have you ever wondered if the camera ever lies?

You might like to …

• conduct some research into the history of photography; find out how photographs have been manipulated in the past; see how digital cameras have made it easy to manipulate images
• carry out some tests to see if different brands of film make a difference to picture quality
• make a pin-hole camera and develop photographs yourself; try manipulating photographs when processing them (investigate the difference of using different amounts of chemicals, for example)
• design a camera for a specific use (for example, an underwater camera or a spy camera that’s disguised as a tie pin)
• investigate the best ways to store photographs so they don’t fade or get damaged, but can still be viewed easily; see if factors such as room temperature or humidity make a difference.

Further links:
http://www.pinholespy.com/

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