Encyclopedia of Twentieth-century Photography, Volume 2Editor’s note : These definitions err on the side of succinctness and are intended to be beginning points for the serious student. An attempt to standardize terminology commonly found in the medium of fine arts photographs that avoids copyrighted term or trade names (‘‘dye-destruction print’’ in lieu of ‘‘Cibachrome’’ and so on) has been made using guidelines set forth by the J. Paul Getty Institute. In acknowledgment of the increase in collecting vintage prints and the perennial interest in historical processes, many nineteenth century processes and obsolete terms are included. Cross referencing within the glossary is indicated by italics; encyclopedia entries are indicated by small capitals. Additive colors The primary colors of red, green and blue which are mixed to form all other colors in photo- graphic reproduction. See entry COLOR THEORY: NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC . Agfacolor Trade name for a subtractive color film manufactured by the European company Agfa-Gevaert; analogous to Kodachrome and Ansocolor. Albumen print Prints obtained from a process in wide use during the nineteenth century in which paper is prepared with an albumen emulsion obtained from egg whites and made light sensitive with a silver nitrate solution. See also Collodion process ; Dry plate processes . Amberlith An orange acetate historically used for masking mechanicals during the process of preparing plates for commercial printing. The area so masked photographs as black to the camera, printing clear on the resulting positive film. See also Rubylith . Ambrotype An image created by the collodion process, historically on glass, which gives the illusion of being positive when placed against a dark backing, often a layer of black lacquer, paper, or velvet. Also see Ferrotype . Anamorphic image An image featuring differing scales of magnification across the picture plane, especially varying along the vertical and horizontal axes, with the result being extreme distortion. Aniline A rapid-drying oil-based solvent used in the preparation of dyes and inks for photographic applications. Aniline process A method of making prints directly from line art (drawings) on translucent materials bypassing the need for a negative. Also see Diazo process . Aniline printing See Flexography . Angle of incidence The measurement in degrees in terms of the deviation from the perpendicular of the angle at which light hits a surface. Angle of view The measurement in degrees of the angle formed by lines projected from the optical center of a lens to the edges of the field of view. This measurement is used to identify lenses and their appropriateness to capture various widths or degrees of actual space in a photographic representation, thus an extreme telephoto lens captures between 6 and 15 |
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Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictThis three-volume encyclopedia, edited by Warren (curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), surveys photographic history and practice for the last 100 years. The thematic list of more than 500 A ... Read full review
The most comprehensive photographer / photography 20th century refence book to date. This and the Oxford Companion are a must for every library.