Posted 8 years ago
PostCardCo…
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Two sweet ladies dressed up for their photo, in Port Huron, Michigan and no smiles for the camera. Times may have contributed to the sobersides--if they had kin in the war. The first photo is taken by same photographer, and you'll note-- no backdrop or much for the sake of ambience was used! Why so DRAB!!
Prior to the Civil War, Port Huron served as an important terminus of the Underground Railroad.During the Civil War era, Port Huron was largely involved in the Underground Railroad as a final stop before the Canadian border. Perhaps its most significant historical achievement was becoming the world’s first international railroad tunnel between Port Huron and Canada
Sometimes only my first photo will show up enlarged..
Oh, these photos are really wonderful!! It seems that nobody smiled in any of the old photos from that period thru the early 1900's. I've always wondered why.
So do i
Guess it took that long for everybody to realize that both sides lost the War.
The reason there are typucally no smiles is because exposure times were many seconds. Smiles started appearing frequently when instantaneous exposures (less than 1 second) became the norm.
ThAnks for that!
People can only hold a smile for less than a second for photos ? Yeah ! About right.
Yep ... since the early years of photography, keeping rock-still was a huge challenge. The challenge with smiles is holding all facial features steady; mouth, cheeks, eyes and so forth. The slightest movement, even the smallest tremor or twitch, creates a blur. Photographers would then end up wasting materials that cost them money because the images were unacceptable.
Except for blinking I just tried and I can hold a smile a really long time-- now I wonder is something peculiar about me ( ahhhh, well--we already know the answer...! )
Hi PCC ... Yep ... I understand what you're thinking; however, most everyone thinks they can hold a rock-steady pose. And this is a really good discussion and something often observed and asked.
In reality it's very difficult even when using furniture with posing braces. Additionally, these are large format studio cameras making the pictures. They reveal every tiny flaw (twitch, flinch, blink, and involuntary movement). I was a practicing photographer years ago and still do a lot of non-pro photography today. Granted it's digital these days but the concepts still apply.
Having shot pictures with 1880s to early 1900s equipment from my collection (including development and printing), I've never had a long exposure 'smiling' picture turn out correctly even when using modern sheet film materials instead of plates. Also, long multi-second exposures done in the timeline of your pictures were usually managed by lens cap (not a shutter). The action of removing and replacing a lens cap is distracting to the subject and a contributing reason why smiling facial portraits are so difficult. Granted, there are probably people who can hold a long smiling pose but, as I noted, photographers would end up wasting a lot of time, materials and chemistry to get one good picture.
I can hold a smile a real long time, but I think it's called dementia.
Ohh ... and one other thing to consider aside from my replies. Culturally, and I'm just speculating here, smiling in pictures might not have been a normal thing to do. Kind of like classical painting ... how many early (pre-1900) portraits have smiling subjects? Could be an interesting bit of research.
I'm going to look tonight--if anyone smiles pre-1900, I'll post it. Fun idea, and will be interesting too! Cheers! Lois
Rniederman...l posted a cdv smile today. A. Big one go see!
NevadaBlades.
martika
Peasejean55
TassieDevil
Alan2310
btrue
jscott0363
Efesgirl
You are all just the BEST!!
I added Picture #4---That elusive "SMILING" guy!
Thank you Kyratango.