Since ancient times, people have been looking for ways to capture space, events, leaving them as a keepsake for posterity. No matter how skillful the artist is, you cannot get an impartial print. With the advent of photography, such an opportunity arose.
At the dawn of photography
Photo translated from ancient Greek means "light painting".
Once upon a time, there were no standard photo sizes. The masters of daguerreotypes (the process of making a photograph on a silvered copper plate), for example, determined the format of the daguerreotypes produced by themselves. However, even then there were two most common formats. It is 1.5x2 inches and 6.5x8.5 inches. Subsequently, with the invention of the colloidal process of photographing and its widespread distribution, it became possible to standardize the formats of finished photographs on a more global scale.
As a rule, the size of finished photographs began to be determined by the size of the commercially available photographic paper. In the USSR, these dimensions were: 6 × 9, 9 × 12, 9 × 14, 10 × 15, 13 × 18, 18 × 24, 24 × 30, 30 × 40 centimeters. However, analog black and white photography has not yet completely died out and these photo formats have not lost their relevance.
Photography in the modern world
In the modern world, digital photography has become widespread. Almost everyone takes pictures. To do this, it is enough to pick up a phone or a camera, which have long since become digital. The transition to pixel measurement has somewhat changed the generally accepted photo formats. And they are now measured not only in centimeters, but also in pixels.
Now the most common are photos of the following sizes: 9x13, 10x15, 13x18, 15x21, 20x30, 30x40, 30x45 centimeters.
However, there is another line of paper sizes for drawing: A8 - 5x7, A7 - 7x10, A6 - 10x15, A5 - 15x21, A4 - 21x30, A5 - 30x42 centimeters.
Perhaps, only the formats of photographs for documents (sizes in centimeters) remained unchanged:
- 3x4 - for various certificates;
- 3, 5x4, 5 - for various types of visas;
- 4x5 - for a residence permit;
- 3, 7x4, 7 - for a civil passport;
- 6x9 - for passes;
- 9x12 - in a personal matter.
It would seem that in the age of rapid development of modern technologies, when a computer is used more to view photographic images than a photo album, the printed photograph has lost all value and meaning. But as knowledgeable people say, photography only begins to live when, printed on paper and “dressed” in a proper frame, it finds its place in the interior of the room and in the brightest corner of the human soul!
