History of Photography

History

"Photography" comes from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("draw") The word was first used by scientist Sir John Herschel, FW in 1839(Wells 89). This is the method of recording images by the action of light or related radiation sensitive material.Camera obscura

Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the middle Ages lived around 1000AD, invented the first camera obscura, (also called a camera obscura} and was able to explain why the images have been turned on its head (Weaver 167). The first casual reference to the optical laws who made a pinhole camera may have been discovered and pointed out, Aristotle around 330 BC, who wondered why the sun can make a circular image when it is shined through a square hole.

First Photo

On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with camera obscura. Until Niepce people just used the camera obscura to view or drawing purposes, not for creating images. heliographs Joseph Nicephore Niepce or VS prints as they were called were the prototype of modern photography, the light, allowing you to draw pictures (Coe 38).Niepce placed an engraving on a metal plate coated with bitumen, and then exposed it to light. Dark areas of engraving block light, but the whiter the area allowed the light to react with chemicals on the plate(Coe 39). When Niepce placed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually the image still invisible appeared. However, photography Niepce demanded eight o'clock light to create and post-emergence will soon disappear.Louis Daguerre

Frenchman Louis Daguerre member has also been experimenting to find a way to capture the image, but it will take another dozen years before Daguerre was able to reduce the exposure time to less than 30 minutes and save the image from disappearing afterwards.

The Birth of Modern Photography

Permanent Images

Photography as we know it today began in the late 1830's in France, when Joseph Nicephore Niepce use portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light(Maxwell 449). This is the first recorded images that do not fade quickly.

Daguerreotype

This experiment led to collaboration between Niépce and Louis Daguerre, which led to the creation of the daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes were precursors of our modern cinema. Copper plate was coated with silver, and subjected to iodine vapor, before he was exposed to light (Maxwell 444). To create an image on a plate previously Daguerreotypes were supposed to be the light for 15 minutes. The daguerreotype was very popular until it was replaced in late 1850 on the emulsion plate.

Emulsion Plates

Emulsion plates, or wet plates, were cheaper than daguerreotypes, and took only two or three seconds of exposure time. This makes them much more suited for portrait photography, which were the most popular photos at the time(Wade Finger Stanley 1157). These wet plates used emulsion process, a process called collodion, and not just to cover the image plate. Two of the emulsion plate Ambrotype and Tintype. Ambrotypes use a glass plate instead of a copper plate ...