Why did you need to hide under a blanket like object when taking pictures using an old school camera?
In: Other
Nope to these “answers”.
View cameras (which still exist – I own one) have lightight plate holders to protect the plate (or “plan film” nowadays) from light. The problem is composing the shot on a ground glass: the objective gives only a dim image which would be swamped by ambient light.
So the photographer hides, with the ground glass, under a kind of dark “tent” to be able to see the image on the glass, orienting the camera, setting the focus, &c.
Once this is done he removes the veil, removes the ground glass and replaces the latter with a plate holder. The objective gets closed with a cap (or just a hat in ancient times, or an inbuilt shutter) and the plate holder opened – it’s either a sliding piece of metal or a kind of blind you have to move.
Now the plate can be exposed just by removing the objective cap (or hat, or triggering the shutter). Once this is done the shutter is closed, the plate holder is closed too, removed from the camera and stored in the bag you have to drag along with all that gear. Most holders have a place where you can write a pencil mark so you don’t mix up exposed and fresh plates.
It’s all a bit technical, but here’s a picture of a plate/film holder: https://www.chamonixviewcamera.com/accessories/filmholders
And here’s a view camera from the back where you see the ground glass and the projected image on it: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_Camera_001.jpg
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