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federal employees for official identification badges are now required to NOT smile on ID photos. All federal employee photo IDs are PROHIBITED from having smiling photos
Smiling photos are so rare in the earliest photography because you had to hold absolutely. still. for. a. very. long. time. or the picture would come out super blurry. It's much harder to hold a smile for 10 minutes without twitching than it is a solemn face. They even used to prop themselves up with special stands so their heads wouldn't move, and so they wouldn't start to list to port or starboard without noticing.
Please go back and read my responses - I already explained in detail why this is a big myth and not true for the most part.
George Eastman marketed his first silver emulsion film in 1885, though a short exposure photo that early would have taken a LOT of light and a wide aperture lens.
I detailed the introduction of this in my blog, but film wasn't the only method of photography in 1885. There were still other methods in use at the time which allowed for the shorter exposures. As one of my examples showed, it was a photo of an infant from around 1889 - babies don't hold still for more than a second, they're always moving their head, their arms, legs, etc, so the exposure time must have been very short in order to capture her without any motion blurs. Certainly, anything fast enough to capture an infant without moving is fast enough to capture a smile from an adult.
If you look at photos from the 19th century and even early 20th it seems a great deal of the time the people in them are not smiling or even look downright depressed!
Just look at contemporary portrait (not paparazzi) photos of rock bands, or musicians generally---they're serious as morticians.
Here's some examples from my own collection - these were probably taken around 1906-1910. Some are blurry because the exposure times could still allow for camera shake sometimes:
This one dates to about 1888-1889 - while the baby isn't really smiling, in order to capture a baby this young without any blurring from movements, the exposure time must have been measured in fractions of a second:
The baby may not be alive. It sounds morbid now, but many children who died were photographed after death. I'm not saying this is the case in that photograph.
The baby may not be alive. It sounds morbid now, but many children who died were photographed after death. I'm not saying this is the case in that photograph.
The baby is most certainly alive since she is my great grandmother. Also, her eyes are too bright and alive, if you ask me. I've seen post-mortem photos and this is not one. In my experience, there is almost always something "off" about post-mortem photos - ie, eyes are closed, or unfocused, or the head is lolling to one side a little bit. Yes, they sometimes had devices to help prop them up but they weren't very successful it making someone actually look alive. This child is clearly alive.
I have other examples of young children, too young to hold still for more than a few seconds.
This is the same child, my great grandmother, so probably ca. 1892:
And this one is of her mother, my 2nd great grandmother, so this is from about 1867 - she can't be more than about 5 years old maybe? Have you ever asked a 5 year old to stand perfectly still for more than a few seconds?
This is a big myth - by the late 19th century, exposure times were already measured in fractions of a second in optimal lighting conditions - in lower light, only a matter of a few seconds.
Trying to shoot portraits as shutter speeds less that 1/60 are going to be problematic because even that speed isn't sufficient to fix even a slightly moving subject.
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