Photography > Introduction & Overview
Photography
Merit Badge
Digital Resource Guide
Character Development
The Photography merit badge supports character development in Scouts by teaching technical, hands-on photography skills, which allow Scouts to express their ideas and emotions visually. By learning to make intentional choices about lighting, composition, and depth of field, Scouts connect technical knowledge with creative decision-making. In addition, Scouts will learn about being trustworthy and respectful through understanding copyright rules, photo manipulation, and permissions required to share photos. The Photography merit badge thus develops more than camera skills—it helps Scouts become observant, ethical, creative, and thoughtful individuals.
Overview
Photography is a part of everybody’s life. You look at photographs all the time. Your school textbooks, the local newspaper, the internet, and your Scouts BSA handbook all have photos.
You might see photos hanging on the walls around you at home, at school, and in a museum or gallery, and on your troop website. Beyond capturing family memories, photography offers a chance to be creative. Many photographers use photography to express their creativity, using lighting, composition, depth, color, and content to make their photographs into more than snapshots. Good photographs tell us about a person, a news event, a product, a place, a scientific breakthrough, an endangered animal, or a time in history.
History of Photography
Daguerreotype
Photographic technology, compared to the whole of human history, has developed in only the blink of an eye. Less than two centuries ago, in 1839, French artist Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre created a process called the daguerreotype, which produced a sharp and detailed image but could not be printed.
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel F. B. Morse, who was an American painter and inventor, met Daguerre in Paris. Upon returning to New York, Morse set up a studio and began to make daguerreotypes. He also taught the new process.
One of his students was Mathew Brady, whose crew of photographers made documentary photographs of the Civil War. Brady wrote to Morse in 1855, acknowledging his teacher as “the first successful introducer of this rare art in America.”
The Calotype
In 1841, Henry Fox Talbot introduced the calotype, the first negative/positive system of photography. The negative was paper and less detailed than the daguerreotype, but copies could be made.
Collodion Wet Plate
The next advancement, in 1851, was the collodion wet plate, a light-sensitive emulsion coated on glass. The plate was made in the field, exposed, and developed before it was dry. This produced a high-definition glass plate negative from which many prints could be made.
Check out how its done!
Imagine what the world would be like without photography!
Choosing subjects and taking photos can be exciting. What’s even more fun is sharing images with your friends. This guide will help lead you into the fun of photography. Using this information and fulfilling the requirements for the Photography merit badge will put you on your way to capturing the visual world. You will find that creating thoughtful photographs can be much more rewarding than just shooting snapshots. You can tell stories, preserve memories, even change the world—really!
Types of Cameras
You can complete this entire merit badge with any of the following:
Point-and-Shoot Camera
DSLR Camera
Smartphone or Tablet Camera
Wearable Camera
(also known as POV Cameras)
What You Will Learn
By completing this merit badge, you will learn to:
- Identify the parts of a camera (including smartphones, wearables, and drones!)
- Understand the basic functions of a camera and how they work to create an image
- Use light—natural and artificial—to create better images
- Understand the “exposure triangle”: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
- Create depth and mood using composition techniques
- Capture subjects in multiple ways—creating multiple perspectives
- Enhance and edit photos using software—in the camera, and on the computer
- Tell a visual story using a sequence of images
- Learn about some very exciting—and lucrative—careers in photography
Did You Know:
Careers in photography and videography often include specialized work in drone photos and videos!
Photography is also a pathway into:
- Journalism
- Science & engineering
- Creative arts
- Digital marketing
- Outdoor adventure documentation
- Content creation
…and dozens of other careers.
As the famous photographer Chase Jarvis says,
“the best camera is the one you have with you”
and that is a lot easier today, as smartphones now offer excellent image quality and are very easy to use!
Now Let’s Explore the Requirements for the Photography Merit Badge!
