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Every Photo is a Story
Part 3: Consider How the Photos Were Made

Try It Yourself Exercise

Prints and Photographs Division


Exercise 1: Name the Process
Exercise 2: The Process and the Product


Part 3 - Consider How the Photos Were Made
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"Every Photo is a Story"

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Watch "Every Photo is a Story" Part 3: Consider How the Photos Were Made

Review the Top Tips for Part 3: Consider How the Photos Were Made:

  • Identify the characteristics of the original photographic objects--for example, the size. What kind of time and money were invested? What influence did a camera or film technology have on the final image?
  • Consider the photographer's time and income as well as the client's needs.
  • Think about what happens after the photograph is taken. What can or did the photographer do to the image when developing it, cropping it, adding or changing colors? How has it been manipulated?
  • Ask yourself who the audience for the photos is and how their expectations of what makes a good photo might have influenced a photographer's work.

Exercise 1: Name the Process

Learn more about how to identify photographic print processes by visual characteristics. Explore the resources provided about photographic print processes. Then, try to identify the process used for the three provided images.

  1. Look at entries in the resource guide: Popular Photographic Print Processes Represented in the Prints and Photographs Division

  2. With this information, try to identify the type of photograph shown below.
    (Note that it is not always easy to determine the process when viewing a digital image. Read the clues about identifying each process and make your best guess before checking for the right answer at the end of the page.)
  1. Unidentified African American soldier in Union uniform
    Answer 1

  2. Yosemite's Domes
    Answer 2

  3. Students conducting electrical experiments with batteries, Western High School, Washington, D.C.
    Answer 3


Exercise 2: The Process and the Product

Learn more about the three processes. Then, view images made with those processes and consider how the process influenced the final image.

  1. View the sample images below.
  2. Read the description of the process.
  3. View additional examples of the process from the Prints and Photographs Division.

Questions: In what ways does knowing how the image was created affect your viewing of the images? What questions do you have now?

Photochrom Print

  1. View an example of a photochrom print:
    St. Mark's Place with campanile, Venice, Italy
    Catalog Entry for this Photochrom Print

  2. Read about the making of a photochrom print: The Photochrom Process

  3. Explore the Photochrom Prints from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division.

Daguerreotype

  1. View an example of a daguerreotype:

    Emily Everett Abbot and Mary Susan Everett Abbot
    Catalog Entry for this Daguerreotype

  2. Read a description of creating a daguerreotype: The Daguerreotype Medium

  3. Explore the daguerreotypes from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division.

Panoramic Photograph

  1. View an example of a panoramic photograph:

    Washington baseball team, season 1913
    Catalog Entry for this Panoramic Photograph

  2. Read a description of shooting a panoramic photograph: Shooting a Panoramic Photograph

  3. Explore the panoramic photographs from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division.

Answers for Exercise 1: Name the Process

1: Tintype
2: Albumen print
3: Cyanotype
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  July 6, 2015
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