News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 1890s (2018). Parent comment

Re:Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 189... by frederikvs on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @03:42AM (#29889059)
I suspect a large part of it is caused by facial expressions and how the people pose. Having your picture taken was very serious business, so no smiles were allowed. Show your most serious, regal pose.

If you look at the "Happiest man in China" photo, it doesn't look like an old photo - it looks like a modern photo of somebody dressed up in old time clothes. There is no hard evidence, but many people believe that the man just wasn't aware of how people were expected to pose for a picture.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/09/story-behind...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 189... by kristofferR on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @08:46AM (#29891369)
Originally shutter speeds were very, very long (and that lasted decades for more budget equipment), so smiling was generally a bad idea as people couldn't hold their smiles for so long and would just be blurred weirdly.

That probably influenced how people thought photos should be posed for, even when shorter and more reasonable shutter speeds were the norm.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Student photographs people with hidden spy cam in the 189... by JSTucker on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @04:45AM (#29889451)
Another older example of this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_LAUGHING_VIOLINIST...
[ Parent | on HN ]