Photoflash (pronounced foh-tuh-flash)
(1) An alternative name for a flashbulb (mostly archaic),
a lamp which emits a brief flash of bright light; used to take photographs in a
dark environment.
(2) Of or relating to flash photography (industry use
only).
(3) The precise point at which a flashbulb illuminates.
1925–1930: The construct was photo- + flash. Photo (phot-
the prevocalic) was a clipping of photograph.
Photo was from the combining form φωτω- (phōtō-) of Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) (light). The –graph suffix was from the Ancient Greek
suffix -γραφω (-graphō), from γράφω (gráphō) (to scratch, to scrape, to graze),
probably best known in the derived from -graphy. Flash was from the Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken or flaskien (to sprinkle, splash), which was probably of likely of
imitative origin. In the sense use in
photography, it was probably of North Germanic origin and akin to the Swedish
dialectal flasa (to burn brightly,
blaze) and related to flare. The Icelandic
variation from the Germanic was flasa
(to rush, hastily to go). The word
photoflash has a long history as a technical term in photography and the
manufacture of photographic equipment but three syllables was just too much for
general use and the public used “flash” for just about all purposes, the odd
necessity like “flashbulb” embraced to avoid confusion. Photoflash is a noun; the noun plural is
photoflashes.
The industry however needed to be more precise so
photoflash became a frequent modifier, required because of the modular nature
of the flash equipment, originally not part of the camera assembly proper and even
at the tail-end of mass-market analogue photography, not all cameras featured
built-in flash-lamps. A photoflash unit was the whole, packaged
flash assembly which included the flash-lamp, housing and mounting bracket
which attached the unit to the camera body.
Originally the units were designed to accommodate replacement lamps but
in 1960s, single-use units were developed, styled usually as rotating cubes which
permitted use for four shots.
The photoflash
capacitor is not used only in cameras.
It is an electrolytic capacitor designed specifically to provide a pulse
of high-voltage energy for a very short duration and as well as the use in
conventional photography, they’re installed also in devices using solid-state
laser power supplies including optical readers and some printers. Whatever the hardware to which they’re
attached, the purpose is always a brief illumination. Because of the requirements for feeding a very
high current for a precise length of time, the greatest challenge during the
development process was to ensure a reliable high discharge pulse without
excessive heat generation and thus the physical expansion of components.
Three-frame spread of Lindsay Lohan being photographed at the point of photoflash.
Photoflash composition has two meanings: (1) The pyrotechnic material which,
when loaded in a suitable casing and ignited, produces a flash of sufficient
intensity and duration for photographic purposes and (2) the collections of
techniques used by professional photographers when shooting in light conditions
where the use of a photoflash is required.
This involves considering things like the available ambient light, distance,
the angles of surrounding surfaces & their reflective properties and the
need for any filtering. For
professionals, photoflash devices (known variously as flashes, speed-lights, studio
strobes and a number of other terms) are adjustable to an extent those used on
consumer lever cameras typically are not, the relevant metric a product of the
relationship between the distance between the subject & light source and
what is called the focal length (dictated essentially the lens aperture).
RAF 4½ inch (114 mm) Photoflash Bomb (the only fundamental design change was the use of narrower fins on the Mk II version). The cardboard tubular body was closed at the tail by a dome while the nose was sealed by a diaphragm with a bush, into which was inserted the fuse. A defined measure of flash composition was loaded between the front and the rear diaphragm while a central tube extended between each, filled with gunpowder. As soon as a fused flashbomb was released from an aircraft, the fuse was operative, triggering the gunpowder at the desired height which burst the body of the photographic flash, simultaneously igniting the flash composition.
Photoflash composition was of critical importance in the photoflash cartridges used in photoflash bombs which were specialized
forms or ordnance perfected during the early years of World War II (1939-1945). Dropped from aircraft passing over enemy
territory, they were fitted with a photoflash cartridge timed to detonate at a
height chosen to optimize the spread of light over the area of interest. The development of the devices had been
encouraged by research which confirmed only a small fraction of the bombs
dropped by the Royal Air Force (RAF) were coming within miles of hitting the
target zone. For many reasons, the inaccuracy
was understandable given that night bombing over distance was a new aspect of
war, carried out by inexperienced aircrew in the cold and dark of night, while
under fire from night-fighters and ground-based guns, all while trying to locate blacked-out
targets. In the early days, for navigation the crew could
rely on little more than maps, mathematics and the visual recognition of physical ground-features.
RAF photograph taken from Vickers Wellington, Berlin 1941. The ground is illumined by the flash while the unusual light patterns are from ground-based searchlights, the shapes a product of the camera's exposure length.
There would later be electronic innovations such as
devices designed to let bombardiers “see through” cloud but the photoflash bomb (always in the RAF known as “flashbombs”) was a relatively simple approach
which scaled-up existing technology, the flashbombs essential huge versions of
the flashbulbs used on cameras. Given
their size, they were capable for short periods of producing intense light of sufficient
dispersal and luminosity to permit either a pilot accurately to position his
craft for a bombing run or for surveillance aircraft to take aerial reconnaissance
photos at a safe height. Of great
utility at the time, flashbombs are no longer part of the military inventory
because of improvements in night-vision optics, radar and satellite imagery.
RAF photograph taken from De Havilland Mosquito (pathfinder), Hamburg 1943. The shape at the bottom-left of the photograph is the flashbomb exploding.
The allies used a variety of flashbombs during WWII all with basic but effective engineering and a method of construction
which would have been familiar to fireworks makers. Typically, a flashbomb was a cardboard tube,
capped on both ends with metal stoppers and filled a flash powder charge and a
fuse set to trigger after a certain time, the length of the fuse
determining the detonation height. Being a camera’s flashbulb writ large, the flash lasted only
around 200 milliseconds but this was ideal for aerial photography and could be enough
for a pilot’s visual orientation although flashbombs were often dropped in staggered
clusters, providing an extended duration of visibility.
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