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When did people start smiling in portraits? (photography history question)


9 years 4 months ago #419121 by Cathy Kadolph
I'm just looking at photos online from people in the 1800's and noticing that most are not smiling.  When you look further pre-photography at paintings of people, most are not smiling either.  Now why is that? 

When did showing off the pearly whites become more common with portraits? 
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up." Pablo Picasso
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9 years 4 months ago #419127 by garyrhook
Those photographs have a ridiculously long shutter open time; folks couldn't smile and hold still long enough.

I think smiling became required when cameras became commoditized, and any amateur could take a picture. They could then dictate the pose and expression of the subject. And mom always wants to see her babies smile.

Despite the fact that we spend very little time during each day smiling.
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9 years 4 months ago #419128 by Zorka
Good question, and good answer.  Here is article about it:  www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2...ld-portraits/279880/
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9 years 4 months ago #419147 by icepics
For daguerreotypes there were stands with an arm/bracket of sorts that was placed behind a subject to help position the head and keep it still. With many of the large format wooden view cameras that had large brass lenses the exposure was made by removing the lens cap and replacing it at the end of the exposure time. Later they had Waterhouse stops, which are somewhat thin strips of metal with round openings of various sizes that could be put into the lens and enabled photographers to better control the amount of light.

I think by the early 20th century cameras were starting to be made that had aperture and shutter speeds similar to what we have today, although at first they didn't have some of the faster options that came later. Cameras were becoming more portable and were increasingly able to be used to take a picture in a fraction of a second so that seemed to have been when snapshots and portraits were done with people smiling since they no longer had to wait for seconds to minutes of exposure time.
Sharon
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9 years 4 months ago #419212 by Moe
Good post, never thought about this
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9 years 4 months ago #419306 by Alex
Interesting topic.  You'll see an article going up today on this topic.  I liked it so much I had our writers draft up an article on it.  Thanks for the idea! 
Thank you for making PhotographyTalk.com your photography community of choice.
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9 years 4 months ago #419327 by Alex
Matter of fact:  www.photographytalk.com/photography-arti...e-in-old-photographs  
Thank you for making PhotographyTalk.com your photography community of choice.
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9 years 4 months ago #419476 by Roblane

Alex wrote: Matter of fact:  www.photographytalk.com/photography-arti...e-in-old-photographs  


Good article, thank you
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9 years 4 months ago #419497 by Tanner Bello
:thumbsup:
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9 years 4 months ago #419615 by The Gardener
+1 long exposures and good article.  I had asked this question a couple years ago and found the answer very interesting.  
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9 years 4 months ago #419630 by Joves

icepics wrote: For daguerreotypes there were stands with an arm/bracket of sorts that was placed behind a subject to help position the head and keep it still.

Yeah with those armatures poking you, you were not in the mood to smile anyways. Even with flash powder the times could still be long.
Smiling came around when the media in this case film had a good sensitivity to light. Prior to that getting the family portrait was a very planned out, and high brow affair. Also even after the exposure times dropped many still would not smile, because it was considered undignified. It was one of those hold over ideas from the Victorian Era.
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9 years 4 months ago #419674 by Sean Lamber
Maybe they started to understand that a smile encourages a more positive response than a frown.  lol 
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