Banquet camera

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A banquet camera is a type of large format camera used in the early 20th century for photographing large groups of people in formal occasions. [1]

Contents

Specifications

The film format of banquet cameras were of narrow aspect ratio, with formats of 7x17 in. and 12x20 in. being common. The large, wide negatives were ideal for fitting everyone around a table in a recognizable way. Their use died out as enlarging smaller formats became more popular , wide angle lens use increased, and the snapshot aesthetic became acceptable to record even highly formal events. [2]

Use today

While a few photographers today use banquet cameras for their original purpose, their most common use today is for landscape or architectural photography.

Related Research Articles

Camera Optical device for recording images

A camera is an optical instrument that captures a visual image. At a basic level, cameras consist of sealed boxes, with a small hole that allows light through to capture an image on a light-sensitive surface. Cameras have various mechanisms to control how the light falls onto the light-sensitive surface. Lenses focus the light entering the camera. The aperture can be narrowed or widened. A shutter mechanism determines the amount of time the photosensitive surface is exposed to light.

Digital camera Camera that captures photographs or video in digital format

A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devices like smartphones with the same or more capabilities and features of dedicated cameras. While there are still dedicated digital cameras, many more cameras are now incorporated into mobile devices like smartphones. High-end, high-definition dedicated cameras are still commonly used by professionals and those who desire to take higher-quality photographs.

View camera Large-format camera

A view camera is a large-format camera in which the lens forms an inverted image on a ground-glass screen directly at the film plane. The image is viewed and then the glass screen is replaced with the film, and thus the film is exposed to exactly the same image as was seen on the screen.

Hasselblad Swedish camera manufacturer

Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist-level viewfinder. Perhaps the most famous use of the Hasselblad camera was during the Apollo program missions when the first humans landed on the Moon. Almost all of the still photographs taken during these missions used modified Hasselblad cameras. In 2016, Hasselblad introduced the world's first digital compact mirrorless medium-format camera, the X1D-50c, changing the portability of medium-format photography. Hasselblad produces about 10,000 cameras a year from a small three-storey building.

135 film Photographic film format

135 film, more popularly referred to as 35 mm film or 35 mm, is a format of photographic film used for still photography. It is a film with a film gauge of 35 mm (1.4 in) loaded into a standardized type of magazine – also referred to as a cassette or cartridge – for use in 135 film cameras. The engineering standard for this film is controlled by ISO 1007 titled '135-size film and magazine'.

120 film Medium format roll film

120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film. 120 film and its close relative, 220 film, survive to this day as the only medium format films that are readily available to both professionals and amateur enthusiasts.

Medium format Photographic cameras with an aspect ratio in the range of about four to ten centimeters edge length

Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in photography and the related cameras and equipment that use film. Nowadays, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than the 24 mm × 36 mm used in 35 mm photography, but smaller than 4 in × 5 in.

Wide-angle lens Type of lens

In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows more of the scene to be included in the photograph, which is useful in architectural, interior and landscape photography where the photographer may not be able to move farther from the scene to photograph it.

Cinematography Art of motion picture photography

Cinematography is the art of motion picture photography.

CinemaScope Early widescreen filming system

CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by Spyros P. Skouras, the president of 20th Century Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal 2.55:1, almost twice as wide as the previously common Academy format's 1.37:1 ratio. Although the technology behind the CinemaScope lens system was made obsolete by later developments, primarily advanced by Panavision, CinemaScope's anamorphic format has continued to this day. In film-industry jargon, the shortened form, 'Scope, is still widely used by both filmmakers and projectionists, although today it generally refers to any 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.40:1, or 2.55:1 presentation or, sometimes, the use of anamorphic lensing or projection in general. Bausch & Lomb won a 1954 Oscar for its development of the CinemaScope lens.

Sheet film is large format and medium format photographic film supplied on individual sheets of acetate or polyester film base rather than rolls. Sheet film was initially supplied as an alternative to glass plates. The most popular size measures 100 mm × 130 mm ; smaller and larger sizes including the gigantic 510 mm × 610 mm have been made and many are still available today.

Large format Imaging format for film camera of 4×5 inches or larger

Large format refers to any imaging format of 9 cm × 12 cm or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6 cm × 6 cm or 6 cm × 9 cm size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras, and much larger than the 24 mm × 36 mm frame of 35 mm format.

Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio, like the familiar letterbox format in wide-screen video.

616 film was originally produced by Kodak in 1932 for the Kodak Six-16 camera, along with slightly smaller 620 film for the company's Six-20 size cameras. Seventy millimetres wide, the 616 film produced 63.5 mm × 108 mm negatives, about the size of postcards and appropriate for making a contact print without the need for an enlarger. It is the same format as that of 116 film but on a slimmer spool, for use in more compact cameras. The format is used in many other cameras such as the Kodak Brownie Junior and the Kodak Target Six-16. The first "6" in the name refers to the number of frames that could originally be exposed on a single roll of film. To avoid customer confusion, the name was not changed when this was increased to eight exposures. From the 1930s on, 616 film became less and less popular in favor of 120 and other film formats—as film resolution became better and the use of enlargers common, the need for a large postcard-size negative became moot. The last 616 film cameras were made in 1948. The film was finally discontinued in 1984, while 620 film was discontinued in 1995. However, 120 film, a close relative of 620 film, remains available today to both amateur and professional photographers.

Full-frame DSLR Image sensor format

A full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format. Historically, 35 mm was considered the standard film format, in contrast with bigger formats, such as medium format, large format and even larger. However, due to the decreasing popularity of analog photography in favor of digital photography, the format is now leaning towards professional users, due to the higher prices of digital full-frame bodies.

Digital photography Photography with a digital camera

Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing, or digital printing.

A film holder is a accessory that holds one or more pieces of photographic film, for insertion into a camera or optical scanning device such as a dedicated film scanner or a flatbed scanner with film scanning capabilities. The widest use of the term refers to a device that holds sheet film for use in large format cameras, but it can also refer to various interchangeable devices in medium format or even 135 film camera systems.

Banquet photography Photography of large groups of people with the objective of commemorating an event

Banquet photography is the photography of large groups of people, typically in a banquet setting such as a hotel or club banquet room, with the objective of commemorating an event. Clubs, associations, unions, circuses and debutante balls have all been captured by banquet photographers.

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height, and is expressed with two numbers separated by a colon, such as 16:9, sixteen-to-nine. For the x:y aspect ratio, the image is x units wide and y units high. Common aspect ratios are 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 in cinematography, 4:3 and 16:9 in television photography, and 3:2 in still photography.

Brenizer Method

The Brenizer Method, sometimes referred to as Bokeh Panorama or Bokehrama, is a photographic technique characterized by the creation of a digital image exhibiting a shallow depth of field in tandem with a wide angle of view. Created by use of panoramic stitching techniques applied to portraiture, it was popularized by photographer Ryan Brenizer.

References

  1. Van Riper, Frank. "A Magnificent Platinum Obsession". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  2. Mallozzi, Vincent M. (21 October 2011). "Making Sure No Guest is Forgotten". The New York Times.