Portraits of yesterday and today

Portraits of the olden days and portraits today varies in many ways. One of the most influencing factors of photography in the early days was technology itself. There were two types of methods that were used for different reasons. The first method was used primarily for studio typed portraits while the other was used for outdoor photography. People who were wealthy enough to have their pohotos taken were able to have a portrait of themselves taken. Though through the standardization process of photo-taking had decreased, many other common people were able to have their portraits taken.

Photos and portraits today are much more affordable and common among the public than they were in the past. Technology has also greatly influenced photography today as well. With the evolution of photography through digital cameras, people have the option to have their own portraits taken or to have it professionally done. Though the cost of having your portrait professionally done is still expensive. Just like portraits in the past, the prices will vary depending on the photographer's equipment, assistant, and expertise.

One major influencing difference between the photographers of the past and today is the technology available. In the past, technology only granted negatives, calotypes, and Le Gray methods. Because of this, the only way to physically alternate a photo was to have different photos taken and to mount onto one photograph to retouch the photo. Today, we have computerized software at our hands that gives us the ability to retouch photos digitally. This major influence gives us the ability to recreate a photo through the pictures we've taken and to enhance much more such as the tone, clarity, colour, etc. without having to take negatives.

Portraits of the past are very much different from the portraits of today. For example, photos taken in the past were not necessarily “beautifully” done. Portraits of the past were pretty much a picture taken of the subject without any special requirements or retouching of the subject. Here is a 1900 portrait of Winston Churchill. He was widely famous and regarded as one of the great wartime leaders.



In fact, portraits taken today must be eye appealing to the viewer. The subject must be retouched to be beautiful and must be surrounded by beauty in order to capture the audience's positive attention. Here is a picture of a GQ magazine cover. The photograph on the front is a portrait oh Brad Pitt. We can tell the difference of both portraits of Winston Churchill and Brad Pitt. Pitt is made to look stunning and even has a tattoo of a gun right below his eye in order to capture the audience's interest even more. If the same style of portrait of Winston Churchill was taken of Brad Pitt, we could be sure that it would not reach the cover of GQ magazine.