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History of Photography

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History of Photography History of Photography How it all began As of this writing in 2015,the history of photography is over 200 years every exposure. Nevertheless,Daguerre traded the right to old and the humble beginnings of pinhole imaging can even look back on the process with the french government in exchange for 3,000 years of optical evolution(see fig0).Nevertheless, it took until 1839 a patent and a life-long pension for himself and Niepce’s when optical and chemical evolution were first joined by a french partner- son. In turn the french government offered the process to ship into, what we call today traditional photography to be awarded the first anybody for free with the exception of British citizens, who patent.’From this day forward,the art of painting is dead’ a french newspaper had to pay a royalty fee. prematurely announced, but of course, that never happened,just as television never replaced the radio and digital photography never entirely replaced The Daguerreotype the darkroom,older technologies still have enthusiastic followers, keeping The process quickly caught on and soon portrait studios established technologies alive for whatever reasons. were established all over Europe and North America to offer a likeness to whoever could afford it. Many of these images The first Photograph have survived to this day and are still in excellent shape and The credit of having made the first photograph goes to Niepce,who after two look as good now as when they were made. decades of experimenting was the first to make a stable photograph. Fig2 shows a Daguerreotype taken by Daguerre himself At this time,the pinhole camera was already common place and many had of a busy city square in Paris at the beginning of the 19th been fitted with a simple lens to create a brighter image. These so-called century. It is acclaimed to be the first photograph of a hu- camera Lucidas were mainly used for copying purposes, tracing the faint man being. Most people in the square moved around too fast image on the ground glass but none were able to capture the image and to be registered on the plate but ,one individual(see arrow). present them to others. Niepce hanged that by exposing a outer plate, which took the time to get a shoe-shine and stood long enough was covered with a thin layer of bitumen. If exposed for a long time (hours) in one place to be recorded by the camera. the brighter areas dried before the darker shadow ares. When washed in oil of lavender,the darker, still soft areas washed away and the already dried The traditional’Negative-Positive’ Process ,brighter areas remained, leaving a faint image if viewed under an angle. While Daguerre and Niepce were working on perfect- Fig.1shows, what is believed to be the first photograph ever made. Niepce ing photography,another enthusiast. Henry Fox Talbot took this photograph of hie back yard of his house in Le Gras, Southern was working in England to be the first in making stable France in 1826 with an eight-hour exposure. Niepce found a sponsor and later photograph. His approach was slightly different but ground- partner in Louis Daguerre,who continued Niepce’s research after his death breaking nonetheless His approach included coating a piece and improved image quality significantly by starting with a highly-polished of paper with light-sensitive silver nitrate and developing sheet of silver. He coated the sheet with silver iodine to make it sensitive to it in a strong alkali solution to reveal a negative image light thereby reducing exposure times from several hours to a few minutes. Then this ‘Negative was contact printed on another sheet After exposure, the silver plate with its latent image was developed in mercury of paper to create the final positive image. Following a vapors to reveal a stable image of much detail and high stability. The process, suggestion from Sir John Herschel(see fig.3),both, positive however, had the disadvantage that only one picture could be made from and negative freed from the remaining silver nitrate by a 2 Digital Monochrome bath in sodium thiosulfate,which dissolved the silver salt and ~1,000AD Arabian and Greek The History of Imaging made it easy to be washed out during a final wash. It also scholars describe and Painting on cave walls 1725 J.H.Schulze discovers the light experiment with the made negative and positive insensitive to further exposure to optical evolution and stone tablets sensitivity of silver salts,also makes image-forming abilities of the contact images but has no method of pinhole(f/256). light and, therefore,stable. The Negative-Positive Process did fixing them. 12,00AD simple glass lenses not create images as clean or as detailed as the Daguerreotype are developed for telescopes chemical evolution 1819 Sir JohnF.W.Herschel discovers and eye-wear and later added but it had the advantage of offering the possibility to make as sodium thiosulfate’hypo’ and it’s ability to to pinhole cameras to increase dissolve unexposed and undeveloped silver many duplicates as were desired. Its low cost and simplicity the image-forming light salts, and thereby,making permanent intensity(f/4). made it the primary photographic process for the next 100 images possible. years. However,Talbot insisted in a license to be paid to him 14,00-16,00AD Italian and other European renaissance painters from anybody who wanted to use the process. Hew as awarded utilize the camera obscura as a 1825/6 Niepce creates the a British patent for photography in 1839 but missed to beat reliable tool to create realistic first permanent image in perspectives in their work,even Le Gras,France. Daguerre for being first by only 14 days. While Daguerre illustrating the concept of 1839 Louis Daguerrere improves upon enjoyed his government pension and fame,Talbot died largely depth-of-field for the first time. Niepce’s process and ceives the French patent for photography and exchanges it for unrecognized and in poverty. a life-long pension for himself and Niepce’son.The French government-makes the process available without a licenseexcept Modern Photography 1839 Louis Henry ‘Fox’ Talbot receives After Daguerre and abbot,traditional photography enjoyed100+ the British patent for photography and years of R&D by Agfa Ilford, Kodok and others who turned licenses his unique negative/positive what started with humble enthusiasts,into a mature, main- process’Calotype’ unsuccessfully. stream technology to be enjoyed by professionals and hobbyists alike. Moreover, the quality of modern film an paper also 1901 Kodak introduces safety reserved photography a place in galleries and museums as an films on-cellulose acetate for the mass market. Agfa introduces accepted form of visual art with many iconic images changing panchromatic film. society’s view on child labor laws or the need to protect ourfig.0 The history of photography is the story fragile environment. Photography is now an omnipresent part of an optical and a chemical evolution of modern society. being joined in 1839 with the french But one major invention was yet to come. In 1957 Steve patent for traditional photography. Sasson of Kodok constructed the first functional digital camera and took a 10,00 pixel image of his department’s secretary,good enough to identify her as a person and now, in 2015, 40-120Mpixel full-frame DSLRs are available produc- ing image quality,which rivals medium and large-format film cameras,providing contemporary photographers with the ad- 1975AD Steve Sasson of ditional benefit and flexibility of image optimization through Kodak constructed the first post-processing.Our outdated image of an experienced photog- functional digital camera ,featuring 10,000 pixels. rapher laboring outside with his head under a dark cloth and handling smelly chemicals in a darkroom is rapidly changing towards a highly-educated photo illustrator,manipulating today-2015AD 40-100Mpixel full-frameDSLRs and electronic data files with sophisticated computers and image digital post-processing. ©2015-Jan-23by IPCphoto.com software in air-conditioned office environments. RalphW.Lambrecht History of Photography 3 fig.3 (left)Sir William Herschel is credited with making the suggestion using sodium thiosulfate in order to stabilize photographic images by dissolving light-sensitive silver fig.1 (right)This is thought to be the first photograph ever made.This 10-hour exposure was taken in 1826 in Las Gras,Franceby Nicephore Niepce, who received the french patent for traditionalphotography in 1839. fig.2 (above)Everyone else in this picture of a busy city square moved too fast to be captured by the camera, but this person, getting a shoe shine stood still 4 Digital Monochrome long enough to be recorded and is the first person ever to be photographed...
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