The word photography was extracted from the greek words photos (light) and graphein (to draw). The scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in the year 1839 was the fist person to use the word photography. He claimed it is a method of recording images through the action of light.
Photography goes back as far as cave paintings. Even the cavemen found a way to express themselves and capture a moment in time that we will never get back. While a camera was not invented until the 19th century, painters have have left many remarkable pictorial images throughout history. The basic elements of a camera have been known for hundreds and hundreds of years, and they are very well known. The first working camera was one that was very basic and simple. It showed the effect of a lighted area, and how it had been separated from a darker area with only a pin hole opening between them. An upside down image of a slighted area is then produced on a flat surface in a dark room or area. In the 1400s people learnt that by inserting a lens in the hole the image would come out clearer and crisper. "Camera obscura" is what this technology is called. This technology was used by artists to sketch more quickly and to show more depth in their drawings. The second known element of a working camera was the existence of materials that were able to permanently change when exposed to light or a lighter area. For many these light sensitive chemicals were experimented with but it was only recently they were able coat a flat surface. In the early 1800's, many people tried numerous experiments to make pictures and images on a paper surface that had been coated with light sensitive material. A lot of logistical problems needed to be solved in this process but in the end all the attempts were successful. Making the captured image on the chemical coated surface permanent was the first major problem that had to be overcome. In the early 19th century Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce of France began to experiment with a then novel graphic arts printing method called lithography. At the same time, Daguerre was experimenting with silver-iodide images. Hearing of Niépce’s work, he contacted him, and in 1829 they became partners. During the next few years Daguerre, with Niépce’s help, worked out the process that came to be known as daguerreotypy. Daguerreotypy rapidly developed into a thriving business in England and the United States. Superb portraits were made by such daguerreotypists as Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes in Boston. The French excelled in landscapes and cityscapes. In 1840 a much faster lens was designed by the Hungarian József Petzval and manufactured by Peter Voigtlander in Austria. At about the same time a method was discovered that increased considerably the light sensitivity of the daguerreotype plate. This method involved a second fuming with chlorine or bromine before exposure. In England William Henry Fox Talbot had developed his own method of photography at about the same time that Daguerre was inventing the daguerreotype. Talbot soaked paper with silver nitrate or silver chloride. When exposed in a camera, the sensitized paper turned black where light struck it, creating a negative image of the subject. In 1851 F. Scott Archer of England made public his wet-collodion process, in which he used a glass plate coated with collodion as a base for light-sensitive silver halides. His procedure, requiring seven steps, was only slightly less complicated than the daguerreotype process, but it was considerably less expensive. It also produced a negative that was much sharper than that of the calotype method. Soon the wet-collodion process was more widely used than both the older techniques or photography. In 1871 a new era in photography began when an amateur English photographer, R.L. Maddox, produced a successful dry plate that retained its light-sensitivity after drying. Other inventors followed his lead, and soon fast, reliable dry plates, much more convenient to use than the earlier wet plates, became available at a reasonable cost. The dry plate represented a turning point in photography. With the availability of faster emulsions, photographers could make exposures on the order of a fraction of a second, and for the first time the camera was freed from a stand. A new breed of smaller, more portable cameras were produced, more commonly known as hand cameras or detective cameras. With fast-dry plates, and later with film, photography could be practiced by amateurs without the need for professional training or equipment. |
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