First ever human photo captured was by mistake

here are five incredible facts about portrait photography that you probably didn't know before number five the first ever picture taken of a human being was a mistake in the year 1838 louis degare one of the fathers of photography was about to take a photo of boulevard to temple a street in paris france the thing is because the camera had an exposure time of seven minutes it also managed to capture a young man who just happened to be shining his shoes on the street louis de guerre took many other photos in that same area in one of them he managed to capture a metal boot buckle and in another photo taken from the front door of his home at 77 boulevard to temple you can clearly see a puddle created by rain such amazing photos when you consider how far back in time they were shot number four portraits used to be of dead people now this one was kind of creepy you see many of the portraits you see today that were shot in the victorian era are pictures of dead bodies in the victorian era people took portraits of dead people because it was a way to remember them it was also done for religious reasons some people believe that by taking a portrait of a dead person they would have a better afterlife this is because the photograph was thought to capture and preserve the essence of that person and so they could preserve their soul in that perfect state forever the same way photographs freeze them in one state and kept them that way forever to help their journey into heaven go a lot smoother a lot of people placed objects of spiritual significance on or near the dead person this is why you would often see these subjects with things like crowns scepters globes armor and musical instruments now this becomes even more creepy when you consider the fact that taking a single photo would last for hours these family members had to hold their dead relative in place for hours on end just to take a photo i mean talk about doing it for the gram number three why nobody smiles in old portraits there are actually a few reasons why you never see anyone smile in old portraits the first is that the exposures were too long and nobody could hold a smile for that long the second reason still has to do with the long exposure but for something slightly different you see to keep themselves perfectly still for the many hours it took the camera to get the shot people had to hold themselves upright with back braces have you ever been held upright with a back brace there's definitely nothing to smile about in that situation and finally a lot of subjects just don't smile because well they're dead number two the first selfie was taken in 1839 people often say that our generation is so obsessed with ourselves that we created the selfie but nothing could be further from the truth in fact since as far back as humans could photograph other things we started to take selfies photographs shot by us for us about us the first selfie was actually taken in 1839 barely a year after the first human was ever photographed this historic selfie was taken by robert cornelius an american chemist and photographer nearly 150 years later the selfie stick was invented in the 1980s not in the 2000s like you would think however it wasn't popular at the time because digital cameras didn't exist yet the cameras that did exist were very expensive to own and they weighed a ton certainly not comfortable to hold on a stick fast forward to today and you could get a really good selfie stick for like less than ten dollars use it to prop up your iphone and get really crispy and amazing shots that people of the past could have only dreamed of now that's futuristic technology before we take a look at our craziest portrait photography fact of the day here are some honorable mentions the term selfie was coined in 2002 by a drunk australian the first use of the word can be traced to a post on abc online in september 2002 that read um drunk out of mates 21st i tripped over and landed lip first with front teeth coming a very close second on a set of steps i had a hole about one centimeter long right through my bottom lip and sorry about the focus it was a selfie the headless photo trend long before the arrival of photoshop we have always looked for ways to manipulate our photos this craving sparked the headless portrait craze in the victorian era the victorian era was certainly a very creepy time to be living in hey if you've been enjoying this video please let us know by hitting the like button subscribe to the channel already and turn on the bell notifications so you never miss an upload and without further ado our number one fact of the day is you have a good side it's your left side if you've been trying to find your angles for a long time without any success then you're in luck today i'm here to tell you that scientifically your good side is your left side according to a study conducted by kelsey blackburn and james shrillow from wake forest university the left side of our face expresses more intense emotions compared to the right side of our face which is why the left side of our face is often perceived to be more attractive so next time you're having trouble picking out a pose that works for your portraits turn your left cheek and smile the camera will love you for that and there we have it five portrait photography facts that you probably didn't know five minutes ago thank you very much for reading.