Ansel Adams photo

Ansel Adams was a great American photographer, most well known as a master landscape artist. Most of his photographs depict natural landscapes of the American west.  Born in San Francisco in 1902, Ansel Adams trained as a concert pianist before deciding to become photographer. He became famous for the technical skill with which he produced spectacular images of the American landscape.  He advocated straight and un-manipulated photography.  His works were exhibited all around the country, and he helped establish the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1940, and was awarded a number of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation to photograph National Parks in America.

Influential as both a teacher and lecturer, he was also an avid conservationist. He published many books of his images, and also technical and training guides to teach beginning photographers. In 1980, Ansel Adams was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Throughout his long and storied career, he also was frequently quoted about photography, and often conservation of our natural resources.  Following are some of his simple, though often deep, quotations, sourced from brainyquote.com.

1. “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”
2. “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.”
3. “A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.”
4. “A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.”
5. “Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.”
6. “I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!”
7. “In my mind’s eye, I visualize how a particular… sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.”
8. “In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.”
9. “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”
10. “It is my intention to present – through the medium of photography – intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators.”
11. “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer – and often the supreme disappointment.”
12. “Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.”
13. “No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.”
14. “Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.”
15. “Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”
16. “Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.”
17. “Some photographers take reality… and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.”
18. “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”
19. “The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.”

1. “The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.”
2. “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
3. “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
4. “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
5. “These people live again in print as intensely as when their images were captured on old dry plates of sixty years ago… I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. Any they in turn seem to be aware of me.”
6. “To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”
7. “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”
8. “We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium.”
9. “When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without.
10. “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”
11. “Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”
12. “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”

If you liked this article, please be sure to bookmark it below. That way you’ll be able to find it again and so will others. By the way, if you found this article stimulating then you’ll probably like  The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams. Oh and before I forget, here’s Ansel Adam’s pageat Amazon.

HDR (high dynamic range) imagery has helped professional photographers to record photos other than those that they could capture with a camera.  It has opened up the photos so that they can record a great range of lighting detail, and makes photos that would otherwise have very dark tonal areas aesthetically pleasing.

Photoshop has added a new feature, “merge to HDR” which lets photographers combine a series of exposures into a single shot that takes the best tonal detail of all of them.  Learning to use this new feature in Photoshop can help photographers, both professional and hobby, make the most of each shot taken with tricky lighting.  The only downside to the merge to HDR function is that it sometimes causes decreases in contrast, so part of the learning curve will be balancing that trade-off.

Why is it needed?

Digital cameras have become increasingly more complex, with higher resolutions and smaller pixels, over the last ten years. Dynamic range is the one area that has not been improved by this, and cameras around eight megapixels are quite susceptible to noisy shadow detail and blown highlights.  There are some lighting situations that can’t be captured well by digital cameras at all. However, these same cameras can capture a large dynamic range- just not in one single picture. Just by varying the shutter speed, it varies the amount of light let in, and allows the Photoshop HDR photography to create good images put together by multiple exposures.

When to use Photoshop HDR Photography

Of course, many photographs can be successfully taken using a (GND) graduated neutral density filter that extends dynamic range and maintains contrast. GND is especially well suited to landscapes and the dark blend of land and the bright sky.  There are other times when GND filters really can’t help too much, and these images can be enhanced with Photoshop HDR photography.  Tonal mapping is the name of the technique involved, and it can best be related to our eyes adjusting to what we see, even when there are several different tones and shadows involved in a setting.  HDR photography can mimic this for us in our photographs.

Though the inner workings of an HDR file are rather complex, the actual process of learning to use the technique is much simpler.  It creates a 32-bit HDR file format that allows for much greater dynamic range.  The extra bits allow for an almost infinite brightness range via the use of tonal mapping.

Taking the Shots

A sturdy tripod is imperative to getting an adequate series of identically-positioned exposures to use in creating an HDR image.  There is a feature in Photoshop that will attempt to line the images up when the camera moved slightly between shots, but the best results will be gained when this is not depended upon.

Take at least three to five exposures so that you have enough to merge for best results.  The Photoshop HDR photography works best when the HDR program has more exposures so that it can tell how your camera captures the light.  Be sure that the darkest one doesn’t have any blown highlights, and that the brightest also shows the darker areas so that they are visible. Separating each exposure by one or two stops, set by changing the shutter speed; this will either double (adding 1 stop) or cut in half (subtracting 1 stop) the light that your camera captures in each image.   Also, keep in mind that the subject must be static; ocean waves or waving tree branches probably will not work, as those things will have moved considerably between exposures.

Photoshop HDR photography is very new in the field of digital photography.  The existing HDR tools will likely improve a lot over time, but there isn’t an automated process to convert images into those which look best. Currently, getting the best HDR conversions takes a lot of work and trial and error to find the most pleasing images.  Be careful also not to overdo it.  Over-editing with HDR can make the image lose its realism. To learn more about HDR images check out this article. If you want to learn some advanced Photoshop techniques, try this on.

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Improve my camera skills ...what for?

Learn to know your camera and take better photos. This review has come about because of you. As a result of recent emails  referring to the ‘nuts and bolts’ eGuide slant I had in my last post,  I now understand I should have created a review instead of expecting everyone to know what I was talking about …oops!  Anyway, rather than go into a long winded list of excuses why I didn’t do that (…cause I’m sure that’s exactly what you don’t want), here’s my review.

Photo Nuts and Bolts is a how-to guide for the novice to intermediary photographer who would like to learn more about taking better photographs. Written by Neil Creek, this book is essentially a series of lessons to teach the basic fundamentals of photography and take the guesswork out of getting great shots. The author is passionate about digital photography and also loves to teach others. He has written a photography blog for over four years and is also a staff writer for Digital Photography School, and he currently is teaching a series of portrait photography classes.

This book grew out of Neil’s photography blog and writing for the Digital Photography School, where he ran a series of articles titled “Photo 101” which taught people how to use their cameras to best advantage, and venture away from the automatic settings to get truly great pictures.  Neil Creek offers a series of simple lessons that explain the how and why certain things are with respect to photography, and also explains why it’s relevant and important to the photos that you take. Each short chapter also gives you a series of resources to check out for further information, as well as some “homework” so that you get some hands-on experience with the theories and fundamentals he is introducing you to.   Each chapter explains in detail, but in laymen’s terms for easy understanding, a different aspect of photography and how it can help you to take better photographs.

In ten relatively short lessons, the author begins by explaining light and how simple things like pinholes and bending light can make a great difference on the pictures you take. He moves on to more advanced things that many of us think are truly complicated- like lenses and F stops, and explains them so simply that anyone can understand. The book gets into more complicated territory further on- like lessons on aperture, ISO, and shutter speeds, but if you start at the beginning and read all of it as well as doing the hands-on homework assignments, you will be well prepared to delve into those complex areas.  By the time the author discusses light meters and explains how to get great shots of difficult images- like fireworks or shots with little natural light, you completely understand why you’re doing each thing and how to go about getting a great shot.  There is also a lot of information about white balance and metering modes that will help your shots to be perfectly exposed.  The appendices offer a glossary of photography terms in easy to understand language, as well as a section about reading diagrams that helps to understand a lot of the concepts of physics and optics from the earlier chapters with charts and illustrations.

The book is very clearly written, in language that is easy to understand even for those who are photography novices. The author definitely lays out the information in a format that helps those who are new to the “non-automatic” world of photography to understand why it’s important for them to learn these things and how much better their good pictures can be by using these techniques.

Having once been one of the “novices” I referred to above, who only knew how to point and shoot my camera and hope for the best, I really enjoyed Neil Creek’s book, and his detailed explanations.  I also like the way he presents a subject, offers additional reading resources, and then gives you some “homework” to help you learn in a more hands-on way.  Though it might be a little basic for those with highly advanced photography experience, it is a “must-read” for those who wish they could do so much more with their existing digital camera. Do yourself a favour and check this out. You know I wouldn’t go to this much trouble unless I thought this guide (cleverly disguised affiliate link) was pretty cool.

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Garden Photography

Automatic cameras are great for everyday snapshots, but can be challenging when it comes to photographing nature. After all, it’s difficult for you to make adjustments when your camera insists on doing things its preprogrammed way.  Here, however, are some things you can do to get some good shots:

• The middle of the day, around noon, or when the sun is really bright, is the worst time to try and get some nature shots. The sun typically bleaches the pictures out pretty badly.
  

- Believe it or not, gloomy, overcast days will yield much better photos. Early morning or late afternoon is good as well, and you can often get some interesting pictures with the sun’s slanted rays.  Timing, as they say, is everything- and that definitely pertains to shooting photos outdoors.

- Watch the wind. You will want to set up a tripod, and tripods and wind do not get along.

• Tripod use will let you shoot at slower speeds, not to mention stabilize your shots. Slower speeds help to saturate the pictures with color, and turn ho-hum pictures into “wow” pictures.  There is a reason why professional photographers utilize tripods, and why you should, too. Have a look at these few tripod techniques.
• Shoot your pictures at the lowest possible speed.  That means a shutter speed of 1/30^th of a second or less, if you can.
• Think carefully about your composition.  Especially with close-up photos, you’ll want to avoid any distracting objects, like sticks and dried leaves.
• Always use a professional photography shop that uses high-quality papers and chemicals. The small extra cost is well worth it.
• To take even better garden photographs, invest in a good-quality camera with manual over-ride settings.
• Take photographs of your garden in all of the different seasons. The colors will change, and in winter might be devoid of much color at all, but even those pictures will be interesting with patterns and textures.
• Pictures of flowers, birds, and even insects look beautiful when set against a colorful garden. You may even have a deer or bunny wonder into the frame.
• Flower photography is tough, but the key is to get as close as you can with a telephoto lens set on a tripod.
• Using a low F/number will isolate the flower that you’re trying to photograph and get rid of the unwanted background clutter, keeping all of the focus on your beautiful flower. Experiment with your depth of field.
• Using your flash can rid of your outdoor photographs of blur and make your pictures sharper.
• To get good pictures of birds, get up early when they do.  Set up your camera before sunrise and try to create a camouflage so that they don’t really see you. Put out some bait in the garden to attract them in and draw them close to you.
• Early morning mist on the garden leaves and flower petals can look absolutely stunning when photographed close-up.
• In the evening, use garden statues, trellises or other garden objects to create silhouette photographs as the sun sets.

Probably the most important tip anyone can give about nature photography is that patience is the most important thing.  You’re at home, in your own garden, but waiting until just the right moment can give you the best results from your garden photography.  Be patient, and you will find some absolutely amazing shots in your own yard.

Wedding photography

Wedding Photography Prices

While it can’t be emphasized enough, the photographs from a wedding are the one tangible thing that will last, long after the candles are all blown out and the guests have gone home.  It makes sense, then, to rank the wedding photographer fairly high in importance when planning a wedding.  That doesn’t mean, however, that the photography needs to completely overwhelm a wedding budget.  Here are some tips for wedding photography that will ensure the photographs are a wonderful keepsake of the event.

Typical Costs

To decide on the type of photography package, it is important to know the typical costs and range for certain categories.   Luxury wedding photographers will range between $5,000 and more than $10,000. Upscale photographers generally charge between $3,000 and $5,000, moderate photographers between $1,000 and $3,000, and budget photographers under $1,000.  The differences will be in the amount of time spent with the bride and groom, and how comprehensive a photographic record of the day the couple desires.   Certainly, the experience level of the photographer is important as well, and those who’ve photographed many weddings successfully will command a higher price.

Even those on a very limited budget can get some excellent photographs by asking a relative or friend who has an eye for photography to take photos of the ceremony and reception with a digital camera. Compiling a list of must-have pictures is crucial so that the couple is not disappointed.   Another budget-friendly idea is placing a disposable camera on each table and encourage the guests to take random shots of the evening.

What should you expect?

When hiring a photographer, it’s important to carefully consider wedding photography prices and what is included in the cost of each package that is presented.

Basic packages (under $1000) will normally include from one to four hours of photography by one photographer, online proofs, and a limited amount of prints or images burned on a disc.

A moderate package ($1,000 to $3,000) should include more hours, and possibly an assistant, with more prints and maybe special albums.

Upscale packages ($3,000 to $5,000) will probably include up to eight hours with two photographers, and special albums, special parent’s albums or keepsake photo books.

Luxury packages (over $5,000) will most likely include extensive photographic coverage by as many as three photographers in multiple shoot locations, plus extra albums or photo books.

Saving money

No matter which photographer does the shooting, there are some common ways that can help to save money on wedding photography prices.

Consider purchasing just a basic package from a skilled photographer and put together your own custom albums and prints to save substantially.  Paying for an expert’s hand will assure you of great images, and give you ample time to recover financially from the costs of the wedding before putting together an album.

Do not be afraid to negotiate with the photographer; ask for a discount, and even ask to barter if there is something of value, in goods or services, that might be useful to him. Packages are typically the most budget friendly way to save on wedding photography prices, and will give the photographer the most room to negotiate.

You can save money by avoiding added services like multiple exposures, split frames, or sepia tones. Select digital photography, and get a copyright release so that you can do whatever prints you like later at discounted prices. In this way, you can cut down on the number of prints you need to order, and you can also post them on one of the photo-sharing sites so that your friends and family can see them and also order prints that they want for themselves.

Wedding Photography Must Have List – If you are thinking of doing wedding photography properly, you need to know about preparing invoices correctly, wedding poses or posing the bridal party and couple. Then there are things you must know like; extended time agreements, the photographers contract, skilled thank-you letters (you want more business later from this – right?), and a tactful photographer’s deposit reminder. It would be wise to have a better and more detailed wedding photography checklist than this helpful though basic list above. A wedding photography website is also a must and there are templates specifically for that purpose available. Here’s one of the few places we know of that can help with all the above - at least it gives an idea of what you should be looking for if you would like to get started as a wedding photographer.

You can get more information about wedding photography here.

Boudoir photography

Where does the term boudoir photography come from and why is it becoming more popular? The meaning of the french word boudoir is bedroom and is seen as having a romantic sensual feel about it more than most words with the same meaning. So too should the photographs. The demand for boudoir photography is growing rapidly for reasons I can’t explain because it’s not new yet its popularity is growing by the day. Do not confuse glamour photography or boudoir photography. Glamour photography is more general while boudoir photography is dedicated to a romantic bedroom theme.

It can be lots of fun because it’s so diverse. Meaning, attire can be altered to suit taste ie. a negligee, a man’s shirt, or perhaps something more elegant. The objective is to highlight the woman’s (models) elegant lines and female sensuality. Various types of lighting can be experimented to great lengths.

1. Nudity – This is a decision the client will make. However, in general, nude shoots in this category are subtle and implied rather than anything blatant. Remember, this is an extremely artful style of photography and can be difficult if not researched carefully. It is a form of fine art photography and your skill (or lack of) will be apparent. More information on successful nude shoots.

2. Don’t overlook the setting. Your set must be highly appropriate and so must the lighting. You will need to invest in bed covers and drapes in most instances if you want to take on this mode of photography.

3. Lighting – The lighting needs to highlight the finer, elegant points on the model and reduce attention to others. Soft lighting is more often used. Here is a link to the lighting category of this site for more tips.

Make up and boudoir photography

4. Make up preparation. Don’t muck around with this. A professional is needed to ensure success with photography makeup. I did try to apply my mode of make-up once and I failed so badly, my subject looked like Spock – I was embarrassed. Since then I’ve learned from other photographers to use a specialist make-up professional. Here are some tips on make up manipulation via digital editing.

5. Posing skills. Remember that your client is unlikely to have read or learned any posing techniques. This can be frustrating if you haven’t prepared your self and added extra time to help pose your subject. Here’s an article on photography posing to help you along.

It is poor professional behaviour to have an audience in the room during the shoot. In some cases the subject or client may want their husband or partner present. If so, sit them down comfortably somewhere with a glass of water and something to read.

Lastly, it’s important to make this fun for the client. They will in most cases be hesitant and a little nervous about themselves.

In general, use soft lighting with an open aperture. Muted colours are best with some mother earth type tones. You’re allowed to experiment too but not so much that your bore your client and extend the shoot into an exhausting episode. If you think some help might come from nude photography research, try this eBook on nude photography here. I was particularly impressed with the content it covers on the subject. You’ll see the list it covers when you scroll down the page.

When you’re a freelance photographer or in the industry because you work for someone else, you don’t really have to worry about recurring costs because they’re usually taken care of by your employer. But when you run your own photography business, you find your costs creeping up because you need to rent office space, buy equipment, and pay the salary of staff, even though it’s skeletal at best. If you’re looking to make your business profitable, you need to cut down on your expenses, because every penny not spent is one that earns interest for you. To that end, here are five money saving tips for your photography business:

• Use your home: Rather than renting space exclusively for your studio, use a portion of your home as your office where you can set up a computer and a phone and even meet clients when necessary. Renting increases your overheads in the form of rent money, electricity expenses and phone bills. So utilize your home effectively and save more than a few dollars every month.

• Rent equipment: Instead of buying all the equipment that a photography business demands at the outset, rent what you do as and when you need it for an assignment. This way, you save on your initial capital costs and don’t have to go into debt or take out an expensive loan to fund your business. Once you establish yourself, you can go ahead and add to your equipment one by one.

• Advertise through your blog: Instead of using traditional advertising channels, start a blog where you can put up your photos and let clients know of your expertise. Take advantage of social networking sites to develop a client base and market yourself. Once you get through your first few assignments, the quality of your work should do the rest and get you work on a regular basis.

• Use free software: Instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars on proprietary photo editing software, choose one of the many free alternatives that can be downloaded from the Internet. They’re just as good as the ones that cost money and definitely more cost effective.

Manage your business efficiently: And finally, if you don’t have a head for the administration side of your photography business, you’re going to end up losing not just your money, but also your clients. Be careful with the way you manage your money, clients and schedules. Get tech savvy and use software (the free versions, of course) to manage your projects, maintain your schedules, create your budget, and help you manage your money and track your expenses. When you’re skilled at both the management and creative sides of your business, you know you’ve chosen the right career.

This article was written by Kathy Wilson, who also writes on the subject of Photography Colleges.

Photography courses provide many creative options

Online Photography Courses

There are many online photography courses and schools available, and students should choose one which will provide the proper training depending on what he wants to learn.  Programs are often tailored to certain types of photography, and some created just for people who want to make photography their careers, which will cover business aspects as well as the photographic arts. Programs vary in material, certification, and range of instruction.  Some focus just on imaging and digital photography and others instruct in film photography as well.

Most people nowadays use digital cameras because of their ease of use and affordability. There are high-end, professional-quality SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras available for even fledgling professional photographers.  Digital imaging software can modify and enhance digital photos, and it is also quite affordable and readily available.  People who want to learn to use these photographic tools, for either personal or professional reasons, would do well to enroll in some online courses.

Digital photography courses generally focus on basic instruction on how to use digital cameras, scanners, printers, and photo editing software. They probably won’t teach artistic aspects, but instead choose to teach digital editing techniques. Some things a student might learn in one of these courses are the use of layers and filters, how to manipulate images, and how to alter or repair film photographs that have been scanned.

Once you’ve researched and bought the best digital camera you can afford, what do you do next?  Read the manuals that came with it? Many people use trial and error with digital photography, because it’s so easy to erase your mistakes and start over again. That is one way to learn, but you could be taking professional quality pictures in just a few weeks if you took a photography course first.  You’ve already invested in the equipment; don’t you think it’s wise to invest in yourself as a photographer at this point?

Taking a photography course online can help you make the most of the awesome piece of equipment in your hands. By using a few simple insider tips, your photos can go from ho-hum to photos that will impress and amaze your family and friends. Online photography courses are relatively inexpensive as well.

Here are some things you will likely learn from your online photography course:

• How to use any digital camera to take pro quality shots.
• How to take awesome landscapes that wow viewers.
• How to take clear, sharp night shots.
• How to take photos that are works of art- good enough that people will pay you for them.
• How to take pictures of friends, family, and pets that flatter the models, with no expensive studio and special lighting.
• How to be creative and take shots that most photographers wouldn’t consider.
• How to take stunning visions in monochrome.
• How to use the seasons and the weather to best advantage.
• How to have full control over the camera.  You decide the results, not your camera.

Well worth the cost of the online photography course, you will learn an immeasurable number of tips and tactics to help you take the very best photographs, no matter what the subject. See this article on photography school reviews

Online photography schools are another step up from basic courses, both in cost and amount of education.  They will give more technical instructions regarding lighting, lenses, and professional digital imaging. They often offer training in business management as well, because many professional photographers are freelancers who will run their own studio.  Online schools tied to a university often give more traditional education, focusing on artistic areas, such as in-depth coverage of composition, color theory, lighting, and technical instruction on digital and film media.

Photographic cropping

There are many rules in the world, and it is just plain frustrating to know that even our most creative endeavors, such as photography, will also have some standard rules as well.

Consider the “rule of thirds” which is a compositional tool that asks the photographer to divide their scene into a grid of three squares by three squares and to place a subject at one of the four points where the lines intersect or simply along one full line instead. This is considered to be the natural way that most eyes and minds will function and can actually become an intuitive approach to creating balanced images.

Okay, that is pretty easy to follow, but problems might appear in a completed photograph if the photographer failed to follow such a rule, or if they didn’t notice an area of weakness in the image as they were composing and taking it. Is such a photo beyond rescue? No, because a photographer can very easily apply a range of cropping actions to make a much stronger or appealing final image.

How do you begin the photographic cropping process?

Basically you must assess the image to understand what must be removed in order to improve the picture. Additionally, you may want to consider such things as tilting an image back into the upright or even into the vertical if that can give it a necessary element, such as motion or action.

Let’s consider a single example of the proverbial “less is more” rule, and take a nicely done landscape of a green valley behind which a snow covered mountain peak stands. The day was one with a cloudless blue sky and the entire scene was nicely captured in the final photograph. The problem is that the four side edges of the image offer too much scenery – at the top is too much blue sky and the remaining three edges seem to diminish the enormity of the distant mountain with their abundance of verdant growth. This is the perfect time to apply an effective crop that will reduce the overall image and allow the mountain the respect it deserves.

For such a moment the old rule of thirds should still apply with the top of the mountain falling along the upper line and the dark edges of the tree line hitting the lower line. This is a very basic way to improve a photograph through a photographic cropping procedure, and most photo editing programs offer an enormous number of other options that can be put to good work during the process as well.

A contribution by Amy Renfrey

The digital video camera...

In October, three scientists who were the driving force behind the creation of the technology that gave us digital photography and the instantaneous links to people around the world through fiber optics were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.  The three scientists are: Charles Kuen Kao, Willard S. Boyle, and George E. Smith.   These three men were instrumental in developing the technologies for digital photography and fiber-optic networking, and will split the $1.4 million USD award, with Kao receiving 50% and Boyle and Smith 25% each. They will be awarded their certificate and prizes at the ceremony December 10th in Stockholm, Sweden.

Charles Kuen Kao was born in Shanghai in 1933, and educated in Hong Kong. He received an electrical engineering degree from the University of London in 1957, and a PhD from Imperial College London in 1965. The work he’s been praised for was done during the period of 1965 to 1969, while he was employed with the precursor to today’s Nortel Networks.   A pioneer in the field, he showed through careful testing that fiber optic cables lost their signal not because the technology was flawed, but because the glass was. Manufacturers have since developed fiber optic cables that are extremely pure, per his specifications.  This technology is a critical component of our modern communication systems, including high-speed internet and phone calls around the world.

Willard Boyle and George Smith were cited for their invention of a semiconductor circuit known as the CCD sensor.  These two scientists worked diligently together to invent the CCD, or charged-coupled device, that is the “eye” of every digital camera made.  From the simplest point and click to delicate arthroscopic surgical camera instruments, each uses the CCD technology.  Working at Bell Labs in New Jersey, the two “invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD” according to the Academy’s citation.

The technology they developed “revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film,” the Academy said. They had successfully designed an image sensor that could transform light into a large number of image points, or pixels.  Without the CCD, we still would not know what our neighboring planets look like. The photos of Mars that we’ve all seen were transmitted back to Earth using digital cameras, and they would have been impossible without this technology.  Likewise, less-invasive surgical procedures have been developed using the technology. Operations can now be performed through small incisions, and often without disturbing the surrounding areas, enabling speedier recovery time.

Willard Sterling Boyle is Canadian-American and was born in 1924. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II, and later obtained his B.S. degree in 1947, his M.S. degree in 1948, and his Ph.D. in 1950, and from McGill University in Montreal.  He worked with Don Nelson, and was named on the patent for the first semiconductor injection laser. During the same time period, he was director to Bellcomm’s Space Science and Exploratory Studies program and provided support to the Apollo program.  Returning to Bell Labs in 1964, he worked alongside George Smith to develop CCD’s.

George Elwood Smith, an American, was born in 1930 and received his B.S. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1959. During his thirty years at Bell Labs, from 1959 through 1989, he worked alongside Willard Boyle researching the development of CCD’s. Technically, CCD’s are a way to pass “charge bubbles” through a chain of semiconductors, so that visual images are recorded electronically with no need for film.

Both Dr. Smith and Dr. Boyle received numerous other awards through the years: 2006 Charles Stark Draper Prize, 1974 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award, and 1973 Franklin Institute’s Stuart Ballantine Medal.

“The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009.”
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Associated Press.  6 Oct. 2009.  Web. 2 Dec. 2009
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Zimmerman Jones, Andrew. “Famous Physicists.”

About.com.    2009.   Web.   2 Dec. 2009
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