insideKENT Magazine Issue 48 - March 2016 | Page 20

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

HOBBIES AT HOME

online photography courses
Photography has been around for longer than you might think – it was in 1839 that the word
‘photography’ was first used (by Sir John F. W. Herschel, who used it to describe a way of recording
images using light and radiation. It comes from the Greek and means to draw with light), but the
process had been around for a while before that. In fact, it had – in a very primitive and nonchemical way – existed since 1000AD. And the ideas around optics and how it all worked was
down to Aristotle, who wrote about it in 330BC when he explained how the sun could make a
circular image even when it shone through a square hole. BY LISAMARIE LAMB

Back to 1000AD, and Alhazen (a
man who was fascinated with
Aristotle’s work on optics) managed
to invent the first camera obscura,
or pinhole camera. There was no
way of recording the images, but
he was able to project them, enlarge
them, and generally play about with
them.
It wasn’t until 1827, however, when
Alhaze n’s work really came into its
own. This is when Joseph
Nicephore Niepce took the very first
photographic image using the
camera obscura technique. Before
Niepce, the camera obscura had
been used for simply looking at
things with more clarity, and was
often used by artists to get a better
view of their subject. After Niepce,
photography became an art in itself.
The problem with Niepce’s work
was that it only lasted for eight
hours, after which the image faded.

But he knew he had something
remarkable. In 1829 he teamed up
with Louis Daguerre in order to work
out the scientific process behind
‘fixing’ the image. It took 10 years,
and Niepce died before his vision
could be realised, but Daguerre
eventually managed to do it –
photographs could now be taken,
and kept for posterity.

courses that teach how
it is done, and the
science behind it. There
are courses that teach
digital photography too,
and others that focus
solely on wildlife, or
portraiture, or
landscapes. There are
as many courses out
there as there are
different types of
camera, technique, and
individuals who want to
learn.

Since 1839 when ‘photography’
became part of our language, and
our world, there have been
hundreds of different camera types.
Today, thanks to modern
technology, computers, WiFi, and
the World Wide Web, digital
cameras have – for the most part
– taken over from the old techniques
of developing a film, leaving a
negative behind, and producing an
image using chemicals. It is,
perhaps, a dying art, but there are
still those who prefer this method,
and use it happily – there are

We’ve put together a list
of some courses that
can be taken online, at a time that suits you – photography can be done
at any time, on any day; it’s just a matter of learning how to suit your camera
to the conditions. And that’s something that these courses will teach you.
www.iphotographycourse.com // £499
This multi-award-winning online photography course consists of 18 training
modules, each one designed to give you a little more insight into how to
use your camera to its best advantage.

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