History of Photography

History of Photography Camera Obscura • Earliest technological development in cameras • Works on the principle that light travels in a straight line • The earliest mention of this type of device was by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5th century B.C. ) http://brightbytes.com/cosite/what.html The result in a completely dark room with no source of light we can puncture a small hole in the wall and observe the product of the light on the opposite wall Camera Lucida • The original design of the camera lucida was published by William • Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) in 1807. Wollaston's design, used a four-sided glass prism • The prism was cut precisely to allow the light from an object and the light from the paper to travel to the eye • Essentially a tracing tool that enables the user to trace 3D objects Joseph Nicéphore Niépce Creator of the first known photograph Nicéphore Niépce positioned at the back of a camera obscura sheets of silver salts coated paper, known to blacken with daylight . (1817) http://www.niepce.com/pagus /pagus-inv.html William Henry Fox Talbot Wooden camera Talbot 1836 Talbot 1836 • The first negatives - this allowed multiple copies to be printed • Printed to writing paper prepared with washes of silver nitrate and common salt http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention /technology/1820-1880/IC.111/ Talbot - University College, Oxford 1843 An 1837 daguerreotype by Daguerre 1837 daguerreotype Daguerre • Using a process with copper plates silver nitrate and mercury daguerreotype was a successful photographic process • The exposure time was between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the light • “His first plates were 8 1/2" by 6 1/2"; it is interesting to note that this still remains the standard "wholeplate" today.” http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/daguerro.htm Note the one person in the photo with 10 min exposure we must be still to be seen The Zoopraxiscope invented by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge first shown in 1879 Study the motion of animals with Photography 1890 35mm Film came into use Digital Is Another Course