How do instant photographs work?

In order to answer the question of how exactly Polaroid cameras are able to take pictures and have them fully developed only moments later, some information on the structure of the film used in instant cameras is needed.

The Polaroid film itself consists of the same three light-sensitive layers used in conventional cameras, which are separated from each other by dye coupler layers. An image layer, along with a timing layer and an acid layer are placed on top of them. A black base layer forms the undermost layer of all of the other layers mentioned above. Probably the most important layer is the layer situated between the light-sensitive layer and the image layer, which contains a chemical called the re-agent. 
The re-agent is a mixture of opacifiers, which block light; alkali, necessary for neutralizing acids; and white pigments. The entire frame of the film is covered in a combination of these elements. The re-agent itself starts the chemical reaction taking place in Polaroid film.

The chemical processes start once the Polaroid camera pushes the film out, using rollers inside the camera. The re-agent is spread across the whole film, which starts a series of chemical reactions. The colors from the dye layers move up from the lower layers, the acid layer moves towards the top and the re-agent moves towards the lower layers. Another chemical reaction occurs once the re-agent and the acids meet. The alkali and the opacifier in the re-agent react with the acids to make the re-agent turn clear. Following this reaction the image starts to appear until the film is, at last, fully developed.

Group/Instructional: How to build a camera lucida

Rating the instructions of ‘How to make a camera lucida'

Though the instructions on “how to make a camera lucida” are not completely useless, there are several aspects of the instruction that could be improved. One of the aspects that proves that the instructions are insufficient is the fact that they rely heavily on the use of images. In fact, they rely on pictures to the point that the instructions become incomprehensible once they are removed from the text.

The text that accompanies the images does not give any precise instructions and is, for several reasons, confusing. One of those reasons is that it lacks a clear chronological order. This can confuse those people who have never seen or constructed a camera lucida before and therefore do not know about the logical order of the steps taken to build one.

Another problem is that no hints or warnings are mentioned, which could prevent accidents and ensure a successful construction of the camera lucida. Just as serious as the lack of hints and warnings, is the fact that it does not include a list of what materials should be used. Many readers might, for example, choose a piece of clear plastic unfit for the use in a camera lucida and therefore not achieve the expected outcome.

The fact that the title does not even hint at the fact that the text includes both, the instructions on how to build a camera lucida, but also how to use it, could lead to more misunderstandings. Equally, the text should be divided into separate parts for the construction of a camera lucida and its use for drawing.

If the text were to be adjusted in the points mentioned above, the instructions could easily be rendered comprehensible and useful to its readers.

Napalm Girl Descriptive Paragraph

In this black-and-white photograph, five children can be seen running on a street towards the viewer of the photograph. All of them look quite malnourished and seem to be fleeing from something. The boy in the foreground on the left side of the picture has his eyes closed and his mouth wide open in a look of despair and immense fear. The girl in the middle of the picture is naked, running away with an expression of fear and distress on her face. A young boy and girl, following her on the right side of the picture, are holding hands as they run. The smallest of the children is following behind on the left side, slightly turning back towards the four soldiers following them. Unlike the children, the soldiers, who are loosely holding their guns, look fairly relaxed. Empty fields spread to each side of the slightly wet road and the thick smoke in the background covers the sky.

Kristina, Sandra, Markus

History of Photography - Narrative

Version 1:The story of my life, the story of photography

There are dozens of people, dressed completely in black, who are watching me carefully. As soon as the coffin leaves the house, the descendants and acquaintances of my former owner start to discuss which of her many artistic possessions, meaning us, should now belong to whom. Had I been able to, I would probably have laughed in this situation for this is not the first or second time I am going to change owners and each and every time the same situation repeats itself. My constant change in owners, however, is only normal, as I was created in 1844. I can proudly say that I am the 170-year-old Daguerrotype of Louis Daguerre himself.

There are very few people in this world who know that the process needed for creating a Daguerrotype such as me is long and difficult. Photographs like me are taken through exposure of iodized silver plates to light. Those plates are insensitive to light, which leads to a long exposure time, and extremely expensive.  The worth of one plate is as much as that of fine jewellery. So back when I was created I was one of the most expensive possessions of my owner.

While people used to admire photographs such as me, they were also quite fearful of us, suspecting that the faces that resembled them so much could be watching them. Sadly, however, my whole life went through a change the day people realized that they could retouch negatives. Suddenly the mirrored image of their faces was not enough for them anymore, they wanted perfection. If their hair was not completely straight in a photograph they could just edit it later on. This, however, was not the worst of the inventions of photography that was yet to come. Clients even started to request reproductions of their photographs, created by a process that they called “mezzotint”. This process robbed images of their uniqueness and their famous “halo”, which gave our photographs that certain aura of prestige.

Though I am now worth several thousands of euros, the decline in taste when it comes to photography has deeply wounded me. People now make weird V-poses in front of these cameras that are apparently digital and can send them to everybody online. The fact that photographs like me remain though, has led to the revival of old photographs with hundreds of photographers trying to revive style of photography through which we were taken.

Feedback:My peers generally liked my text but mentioned that they could not find a conflict or goal in my story. They also mentioned that I used too much information and therefore did not concentrate enough on the narrative style of my story. So the advised me to use a bit less information and concentrate ind telling the photograph's story instead.

Final Version: The struggles in life of a 170-year-old Daguerrotype

As the first rays of light fall through the dusty windows, dozens of people, dressed completely in black, enter the tiny room and flock around the numerous pictures on the walls. Dust has settled on most photographs’ ebony frames. As soon as everybody has settled around the coffin, located in the middle of this stuffy room, the minute’s silence begins. Soon the silence is broken by quarrelling about who should inherit the many artistic possessions of my former owner. I watch the dispute with the inherent pride of a 170-year old Daguerrotype photograph. That is what I am: An original photograph of Daguerre himself, taken in 1844. Throughout the centuries I have changed owners many times and there is, as always, a single question on my mind: how will my new owner treat me?

My first owner, Daguerre, was the proud inventor of the camera obscura, the precursor of these tiny digital cameras the youth uses nowadays. Of course, when the first camera was invented, having your photo taken was an extremely long and expensive process. Back then iodized silver plates were used to create photographs, a single one of them worth as much as a fine piece of jewellery. Only the elite of society could therefore afford to have their photos taken. Those plates were also insensitive to light, leading to long exposure times. Daguerre therefore treated me with the utmost respect; handling me as though I was the most precious possession in his household, which I probably was.

I was later handed down to his ancestors and had to experience the decrease of prestige in photography. People started to leave their house when they had their pictures taken, returning with images that showed them with weird props in the background, which marked the beginning of studio photography. Worse, people had learned to reproduce photographs with a process called mezzotint, which led to the loss of the halo in photographs, an effect created by long exposure times. People had soon learned, however, to recreate this effect by using the gum print. Consequently, my worth decreased and each following owner handled me with less care.

My train of thought is interrupted by a hand grabbing me. “Mum, I want this one. This one is prettier than all the rest”. I want to smile. My life suddenly seems to go through a change once again.

A day in the life of a humble….me

At 7 o’clock in the morning the penetrating ring of the alarm throws me out of my bed in a state of shock. 7 o’clock, that’s the usual time for me to throw back my covers and crawl out of bed in order to prepare for morning classes at the Department for Translation Studies. I skip breakfast, on most days at least, and get on my bike so as not to be late for my 8:15 class. I sit through several courses and fight to stay awake through most of them. During my break I try to catch up on some homework or go to Billa to fetch a quick snack before my next class starts. I come home in the evening, exhausted from a day spent studying. 

As soon as I open the door, however, I feel the exhaustion fade away, simply by looking at my flatmates, who are luckily also my best friends. We often cook together in order to save money and time. While eating, we catch up on the latest news in our lives, most of them directly related to our university lives. At midnight I go to sleep, waiting for what is going to happen the next day at ITAT.

Comment on "summary55555"

Ambrose Evans-Pitchard’s article in The Telegraph of the 23rd October 2013 analyses the
approaching European deflation in connection with debt.

At the beginning of the text, the author mentions that deflation had already occurred before.  (lack of cohesion between this sentence and the following) Deflation can influence the economy of countries positively (did they author state this?) if they are not too heavily in debt. This, however, is not the case in Europe: As many countries are overburdened with debts, repaying it becomes more and more difficult if the inflation is too low. This problem does not only affect national but also private debt.

It is argued (by whom?) that the ECB should try everything to maintain an inflation of at least 2% in order to prevent from an economic disaster, but according to the author, Europe seems to be
paralyzed. Italy, France and Spain should gang up on Germany and dictate a new policy,
which combats deflation and could therefore help restoring the damaged economies. Yet, they
fear that Germany might leave the EMU and leave it up to the rest (whom?) to solve the debt problem.
Summing up, Europe is far away from a proper solution. It still seems to be in recession but
prefers to wait for an economic miracle instead of taking the initiative.

[201 words]

Feedback
The introduction of the student is quite clear and gives a general overview of the article. There are, however, some small mistakes (grammar etc.) in the text and once the cohesion between two sentences was not quite clear. The student should probably mention more often that the things mentioned in his summary are solely the opinion of the author. All in all, the summary still explained the maint points mentioned in the article, though I feel that some facts were not mentioned (for example that the last part were the solutions proposed by the author, what lead to debt crisis etc.)