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FROM the FIRST PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN in 1827 - to COMMERCIAL COLOUR FILMS in The1940s

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FROM the FIRST PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN in 1827 - to COMMERCIAL COLOUR FILMS in The1940s FROM THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1827 - TO COMMERCIAL COLOUR FILMS IN THE1940s The first photograph - 1827 The first photographic image taken with a camera obscura, 1839 - Daguerreotype was a summer day in 1827 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce. Before he took the first photograph, artist only used the Louis Daguerre, a man who over a decade had managed camera obscura to help them draw pictures, never to take to reduce the exposure time from eight hours to less than photographs. Niepce’s creations were aptly named «sun half an hour, and prevent the image from disappearing prints», since light was used to draw the picture. These prints afterwards, is considered as the father of the practical formed the blueprint for modern photography. Niepce’s process of photography. Daguerre and Joseph Niepce photographs needed full eight hours of light exposure, and joined forces to improve the process of photography in after the picture appeared, it would quickly fade away again. 1829, and after about ten years with experimentation, in The sun prints were created by engraving a picture onto a 1839, Daguerre had created an easier and more effective metal plate, coating it in bitumen and then exposing it to light. way of taking photographs, which he called the daguerre- The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, while the otype. Niepce passed away in the meantime. To create a lighter areas allowed for light to react with the chemicals on daguerreotype, one would «fix» an image onto a sheet of the plate. When this metal plate was soaked in a solvent, an silver-plated copper, and then polish the sliver and coat image would start to appear, before quickly fading away the sheet with iodine. This creates a surface that is again. sensitive to light. One would then place this plate inside a camera and expose it for light for a few minutes. After the image was created, the plate was bathed in a solution of sliver chloride which ensured that it would last and wouldn’t change when it came into contact with light. Daguerre and Niepce’s son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government in 1839. They also wrote and published a booklet that described the process. There were over seventy daguerreotype studios in New York City alone by 1850, as it quickly became popular. THE EARLIEST KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH. By: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce Colour photographs - 1840s Colour photography was first attempted in the beginning of the 1840s. The early experiments were directed at finding a «chameleon substance», which would assume the colour of the light falling on it. Some encouraging early results, A DAGUERREOTYPE, GENERALLY ACCEPTED typically obtained by projecting a solar spectrum directly AS THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPH TO INCLUDE onto the sensitive surface, seemed to promise eventual PEOPLE. success, but the comparatively dim image formed in a By: Louis Daguerre camera required exposures lasting for hours or even days. The quality and range of colour was sometimes severely 1841 - Calotype limited, as in the chemically complicated «Hillotype» process invented by American daguerreotypist Levi Hill The calotype is a perfected process invented by Henry around 1850. Other experimenters, such as Edmond Fox Talbot in 1841, an English botanist and mathemati- Becquerel, achieved better results but could find no way to cian. He invented the first negative from which one could prevent the colours from quickly fading when the images make multiple positive prints. Using this process, a sheet were exposed to light for viewing. Over the following of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light several decades, renewed experiments along these lines in a camera obscura, and the areas hit by light became periodically raised hopes and then dashed them, yielding dark in one, resulting in a negative image. The primary nothing practical value. difference between the calotype and the earlier develop- ing-out (a concept pioneered by the daguerreotype process) processes, was the greater sensitivity of the Wet plate negatives - 1851 paper and the development of the latent image, which The wet plate negatives, or the collodion process, was could be done within a minute or two if the subject was in invented in 1851, almost simultaneously by Frederick bright sunlight. This was achieved by using gallic acid Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray. In the following before and after exposure. This improved process was decades, many photographers and experimenters introduced to the public as the calotype process in 1841. refined or varied the process. By the end of the 1850s the collodion process had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype. The collodion process produces a negative image on a transparent support (glass), which was an improvement over the calotype (which relied on paper negatives) and the daguerreotype (which only produced one-of-a-kind positive image and could not be replicated). The collodi- on printing was typically done on albumen paper, and in comparison to the daguerreotype it was a relatively inexpensive process. It also required only one second of exposure. Although, the collodion process had a major disadvantage. The entire process, from coating to developing, had to be done before the plate dried, which gave the photographer no more than 10 minutes to complete everything. This made it inconvenient for field use, as it required a portable darkroom. The plate also dripped silver nitrate solution, causing stains and trouble- A CALOTYPE SHOWING THE AMERICAN some build-ups in the camera and plate holders. The PHOTOGRAPHER FREDERICK LANGENHEIM. silver nitrate bath was also a source of problem, as it By: Frederick Langenheim gradually became saturated with alcohol, ether, iodide and bromide salts, dust, and various organic matter. This would result in it losing its effectiveness, causing plates 1856 - Tintypes to mysteriously fail to produce an image. In 1856, tintypes was invented by a man called Hamilton Smith, and this medium contributed to the birth of modern photography. The tintype was a thin sheet of metal/iron, which formed a base for light-sensitive material and formed a positive image. The photograph was made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal, coated with a dark lacquer or enamel, and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintype portraits were at first usually made in a formal photographic studio, like daguerreotypes, collodion process and other early types of photographs, but later they were most commonly made by photographers working in booths or the open air at fairs and carnivals, as well as by travelling sidewalk- photographers. Because the lacquered iron support was A PORTABLE PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO IN resilient and did not need drying, a tintype could be 19th CENTURY. THE WET PLATE PROCESS developed and fixed and shared to the customer only a SOMETIMES GAVE RISE TO PORTABLE few minutes after the picture had been taken. The tintype DARKROOMS. began losing artistic and commercial ground to higher quality albumen prints on paper in the mid-1860, but it survived for well over another 40 years, living mostly as Dry plate negatives - 1871 carnival novelty. The dry plate process, also known as the gelatin process, is an improved type of the photographic plate, and it was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871. By 1879 it was so well introduced that the first dry plate factory had been established. Because much of the complex chemistry work centralized into a factory, this new process simplified the work of photographers, allowing them to expand their business. The gelatin emulsions, as proposed by Maddox, were very sensitive to touch and mechanical friction, and were not much more sensitive to light than collodion emulsions. In 1873, Charles Harper Bennett discovered a method of harden- ing the emulsion, by making it more resistant to friction. TINTYPE OF TWO GIRLS IN FRONT OF A In 1878, Bennett discovered that by prolonged heating, PAINTED BACKGROUND OF THE CLIFF HOUSE the sensitivity of the emulsion could be greatly increased, AND SEAL ROCKS IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA 1900. and it was George Eastman who in 1879 developed a machine to coat plates. He opened the Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company (today known as Kodak), reducing the cost of photography. 1878 - Hand-held cameras The dry plate gelatin emulsion discovery in 1878, where it was discovered that heat-ripening a gelatine emulsion greatly increased its sensitivity, finally made so-called «instantaneous» snapshots exposures practical. For the first time, a tripod or other support was no longer an absolute necessity. With daylight and a fast plate or film, a small camera could be hand-held while taking the picture. 1889 - Flexible roll film EXAMPLE OF A DRY PLATE PHOTOGRAPH,1887. In 1881, a farmer in Cambria, Wisconsin, Peter Houston, By: Leonard Dakin invented the first roll film camera. This was a flexible and unbreakable film, and it could also be rolled up. His younger brother David, filed the patents for various Colour photography - 1907 components of Peter’s camera, included holders for flexible roll film. He moved to Hunter in Dakota Territory The first widely used method of colour photography was in 1880, and he was issued an 1881 patent for a roll film the Autochrome plate, which was a process invented by holder, which he licensed to George Eastman. George the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière. They began Eastman, the man who opened Eastman Film and Dry working on their process in the 1890s, and it was com- Plate Company (Kodak), bought the patent (and an 1886 mercially introduced in 1907. It was based on the idea that revision) from Houston for $5000 in 1889. This new, instead of taking three separate photographs through unbreakable, flexible and windable film was the first step colour filters, take one through a mosaic of tiny colour in making the mass-produced box camera a reality.
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