Page 114 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

DIGITAL STILL PHOTOGRAPHY

You might say that he was one of the first to use the techniques of
converged media as they are used today.

The Birth of Modern Photojournalism

The 1930s brought what is termed by some as “the birth of modern
photojournalism.” Technological advances included flexible gelatin
film for press cameras; the advent of the smaller “Speed Graphic”
camera, which replaced its larger predecessors; flash bulbs that could
be synchronized with the shutter of the camera allowing sports action
photography; the adoption of the 35-mm camera for some types of can-
did photography; the first practical color films; the wire-transmission
of pictures over the networks of the Associated Press and United Press;
the advent of the picture magazine in Europe; and the beginnings of
documentary photography through the Depression Era’s Farm Security
Administration.
Significant technological advancements of the 1950s included the
104 beginnings of the widespread adoption of 35-mm cameras, the intro-
duction of medium-grained high-speed film, and the introduction of
the electronic flash. By the 1960s and into the 1970s, television was
well on its way to becoming a dominant force in mass media. Its impact
was being felt in the newspaper and magazine newsrooms of America.
The major, general-interest picture magazines were on their way out.
Newspapers were beginning to use color regularly and were adopt-
ing the candid, documentary approach of those magazines for news
and feature coverage with coordinated picture stories. Technologi-
cal advancement in still photography was mainly in improvements to
lenses and films as well as the introduction of computerization and
miniaturization.

The Digital Age

During the 1980s, Sony, Canon, and Nikon worked to perfect still-
video cameras. USA Today published pictures from the presidential
nominating conventions in 1988 using still-video technology and digital
systems soon followed.
The first digital cameras cost tens of thousands of dollars and had
poor resolution. Adoption of digital camera technology didn’t really
begin until the late 1990s. However, the adoption of digital cameras