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Home , Calotype, Enlarger

Photography History: Q & A

By Mr. Martin • Q: What do we call a dark room with a or small hole on one wall? • What is so special about such a room? Ans: Obscura

• In Italian “camera” means room; “obscura” means dark • An image, which is upside down and reversed, is projected onto the wall opposite the lens or hole • You can trace that image to produce a permanent image • This was known for centuries

• http://www.kellycountry2000.com/ozc am/oz.htm • Q: When was the first ? • Who made it? • How was it made? • A: Circa 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made an 8 hour of the view from his window • Used a metal plate coated with a type of light sensitive asphalt

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/ • Q: Who did Joseph Niepce later work with and what did that person discover? • A: Niepce collaborated with Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre • Niepce died in 1833 • In 1835 Daguerre made an image using a metal plate covered with light sensitive silver iodine which he then exposed to Mercury vapor • The result: A very high resolution positive image with a nice silvery surface • This is the – Discovery announced early 1839 An Example of a Daguerreotype

http://www.eastmanho use.org/inc/collections/ .php Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre Jean Baptiste Sabatier-Blot French (1801-1881) 1844, daguerreotype, 9.1 x 6.9 cm, one quarter plate • Q: What was the subject of most Daguerreotypes? • Why?

http://www.daguerre.org/resource/texts/fam_xian.html • The favorite subject for Daguerreotypes was portraits of people. – Daguerreotypes required long speeds and hence you could not take moving subjects – Daguerreotypes used large mounted and were best suited for indoors – Daguerreotypes, while not cheap, were inexpensive compared to having your portrait painted Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe

• http://www.poestories.com/images/gallery/poe_1848dtype.jpg • Q: What process competed with the Daguerreotype? • Who invented it? • How did it work? • A: The was introduced around 1841 by Englishman William • A silver solution was put on paper in the dark • The paper was inserted into a camera and exposed to light • A was formed which was developed to form a image – Where light hit the paper it is dark, where light did not hit it is light • The negative would be sandwiched together with another sheet of coated light sensitive paper and exposed to light • A positive print would be formed The Calotype Process http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/hillandadamson/calo.htm

Calotype Negative

“Mrs Logan; Mrs Seton; two unidentified men; Fishwives and Fishes. HA0767 calotype negative (waxed) and HA440 salt print.” • Q: Which was more successful in the mid 1800s, the Daguerreotype or the Calotype? Why? Daguerreotype Calotype

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a40000/3a49000/3a49000/3a49096v.jpg (Library of Congress) • A: The Daguerreotype was much more successful • The Daguerreotype had much higher image quality • The French Government also bought the patent from Daguerre – The process was hence available to others free of any royalty • The Calotype had lower image quality and was subject to Talbot’s patent • Q: If the Daguerreotype was so much better, why do we still talk about the Calotype? • A: The Calotype had some advantages – It was cheaper – You could make copies from the negative Calotype • Most important, it served as the basis for all photography to follow for the next 150 years • Q: What do eggs have to do with early photography?

http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/phrase/452/egg.html

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/blogs/collections/2009/04/gravesend_on_albumen_and_glass_1.html • A: In 1847, Abel Niepce de St. Victor, cousin of Joseph Niepce, invented a process called albumen-on-glass • Albumen from egg whites was used to binder to suspend potassium iodine • Once dried on the glass plate, it was made sensitive to light by placing it in solution • Printing paper with sodium chloride (table salt) soaked in an albumen solution created a glossy top layer making for nice prints • Problems: – Any ripples in glass would show – Very long exposures of 5 to 15 minutes - therefore portraits not practicable – Had to be processed in hot gallic acid for up to an hour • Q: How did Frederick Scott Archer improve the photographic process?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/DSphotoglass3C1.htm • A: Around 1852, Frederick Scott Archer invented the Wet Plate . • Collodion was a sticky transparent substance also known as gun cotton • It was a replacement for Albumen and allowed for much shorter exposures • Relatively inexpensive, reliable and produced sharp images • Went on for decades • Problems: – Toxic and complicated processing – It smelled really bad Wet Plate Collodion Example

• http://photojargon.com/images/historical/civilwar-wetplate01.jpg, originally from Library of Congress • Q: Who was the most famous Civil War photographer? • Why are the photos of dead people? • A: Matthew Brady (1823-1896) – First studio in New York City 1844 – Second studio in Washington, D.C. 1856 – Photographed Abraham Lincoln - first president to be photographed

http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/art/artlinc.htm The subjects had to be still since shutter speeds were still quite slow.

• http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/images/wounded-spotsylvania.gif • Q: What does photography have to do with Westward Expansion?

William Henry Jackson, http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/grte2/images/fig18-4.jpg • A: After the Civil War, photographers headed West to photograph the natural wonders in the Western United States.

Carleton E. Watkins, Yosemite Falls (1865-1866), http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_yosemite_book/images/plate_10.jpg • Timothy O’Sullivan, also a noted Civil War photographer

Canyon de Chelle in present day New Mexico

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Timothy_H._O%27Sullivan • Q: Why are there two photos by William Henry Jackson below? • A: It’s allows for a stereo or three dimension view when viewed through a hand viewer like the one below. These were popular in the later half of the 19th century. • Q: Who is famous for his motion study (circa 1870s)?

http://www.gregeans.com/greenvillesky/2008/04/is-there-a-true.htm l A: Eadweard Muybride • Q: What process replaced the Wet Plate Collodion process? A: The Dry-Plate Process – 1871 Richard L. Maddox, a British physician, coated plates with an emulsion of gelatin instead of collodion – The gelatin dried without harming the light sensitive silver salts – By the 1800s improvements in the gelatin emulsion allowed faster shutter speeds (e.g. 1/25 second) than with wet plates – The dry plates also allowed the first use of photographic to make prints larger than the negative – Plates could be prepared in advance and did not have to be developed immediately Dry Plate Negative Print from Dry Plate

Modern Electrical

Early Daylight Enlarger • Q: When was invented and by whom? • A: In 1885, George Eastman, a manufacturer of dry plates, and Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopal priest, invented a sensitized celluloid base photo film. • In 1914, a federal Court of Appeals determined that Goodwin filed a patent first in 1887 prior to Eastman’s 1888 patent. Eastman Kodak Company paid Ansco, the successor to Goodwin, an estimated five million dollars. • See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century_in_film • Q: What was the first roll film camera? • A: In 1888 Eastman Kodak Company introduced the Kodak which sold for $25. Originally it used paper film. • An improved model designated the Kodak No. 1 was introduced in 1889 using Eastman Kodak’s new transparent film • Slogan: “You press the button. We do the rest.” • Q: How did these little men revolutionize photography in 1900? • A: The little men are Brownies made popular in children’s books by Palmer Cox at the time. George Eastman decided to name his $1 camera the “Brownie” to appeal to children and to emphasize how easy the camera was to operate. It was designed by Frank Brownell. • With a fixed focus, fixed , fixed , and no viewfinder, you simply pointed it at the subject and pressed the shutter release. Turn the winding knob and you are ready to take the next photo. • The whole camera was returned to Eastman Kodak. They would process the photos and add new film. • Q: Who is Oskar Barnack and why is he so important?

http://us.leica-camera.com/culture/history/ • A: Barnack developed the first still camera to use 35mm film which was originally developed for the motion picture industry. • The German Leica was first sold in 1925 • 35mm was considered a miniature format. Film quality had advanced enough, however, so that it yielded quality enlarged prints • 35mm remained the most popular until began to predominate in the early 21st century • The First Leica Prototype 1914

http://us.leica-camera.com/culture/history/leica_products/ • Q: Name the camera that first introduced standard 35mm film cassettes? • A: The Kodak Retina produced by Kodak A.G. (Germany) in 1934 • Q: What was the first really practical film and when was it introduced? • A: Kodachrome originally introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935 in motion picture film and then in 1936 for 35mm still cameras • Kodachrome was discontinued in 2009

http://onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/brand-new-branding-and-naming-news-roundup/