Quote:
Originally Posted by sphere and ash
Fast shutter speeds capable of capturing on-field action became possible for press photographers when Graflex introduced its single-lens reflex camera in 1905. Below I’ve attached a Graflex ad from 1909 featuring Fred Clarke that stops the motion of a pitched ball as it crosses the plate; it’s pretty staggering that such images were then possible for so many photographers. And it makes clear that the absence of significant moments from 1905-October 1920 had little to do with technology.
Some photographers did succeed in capturing action prior to 1905, principally Edweard Muybridge, who captured successive stages of a batter’s swing as part of his Animal Locomotion series in 1887. There was also a horse racing photographer named John C. Hemment, who worked on taking photo finishes, and who took photographs of the Giants warming up around 1890 (by the way, I would like to buy any Hemments you have; I know they’re out there).
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There's a big difference between shots taken for camera publicity and normal game action photos. Looking at the graflex image, see how shallow the depth of focus is, and that he's not actually batting. (Unless he's way way out of the box. ) Fast camera, optimal conditions, fast film, and maybe extra lighting or special processing. And there it is. A nice, but not usual photograph.
It's not shutter speed, but film speed, and the speed of loading, and how much film the photographer could carry that allows more to be captured.
The portability/usability of the camera also helps.
Muybridge used an array of 24 cameras, all set up and fixed in a small building.
Hement would have also used a stationary camera for photo finishes.
The difference with both is that the area to focus on is at a fixed distance, allowing the photographer to use a very wide aperture, (If the camera had an adjustable one) and fixed focus in a pretty narrow range.
When faster films came along, that allowed tighter apertures and deeper fields of focus, making it possible to quickly change from a nearby subject to one farther away.
The extended camera is pretty cool, it's also technology, and with that long bellows would have had a deep field of focus.