Copypasta but still

In early photographs, subjects had to sit still because of long exposure times, and babies had to be held. If you wanted a photo which only showed the baby, one technique was for the mother to disguise herself as a chair or other part of the scenery. Collectors call these ‘Hidden Mother’ photos. The results appear ridiculous to our eye, but the photos were meant to be displayed in a frame which highlighted the baby, so the trick wasn’t quite so obvious.

Early photographic studios were equipped with support stands which helped adult subjects to hold poses in place. Another technique for keeping your subject still was to photograph a corpse dressed as in life, and pretend he was asleep; this was done quite often, when someone died and the family realised they didn’t have a photo.

Although we tend to assume that the solemn demeanour normally assumed by adults in 19th century photos was also because of long exposure times, this is actually a bit of a myth. Exposure times dropped very quickly in the early days of photography: in 1839 the first daguerrotypes needed 15-30 minutes, but within two years exposures were down to 20-90 seconds, and by 1842 a 10-second exposure was achievable. People were solemn not because they’d been waiting a long time but because having your photo taken was a solemn business.

A Victorian photographer would ask you to say ‘prunes’ to make you look more serious. If a photographer tells you to say ‘prunes’ today, he wants you to pout.