what is pHotography?
Photography is a word evolved from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"). It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material. The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839.
before Photography
From the Earliest Times - Since the fifth century BC that an image of the outside scene was
formed by sunlight shining through a small hole into a darkened room. The phrase Camera Obscura means 'Darkened Room'. 1568 - Daniello Barbaro from Italy, developed the camera obscura by fitting it with a lens and a changeable opening to sharpen the image. 1666 - Issac Newton made the discovery that light is the source of colour. He used a prism to split sunlight into its constituent colours and another to recombine them to make white light. 1725 - Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that the change in colour of a mixture of silver nitrate and chalk, in sunlight, was caused by light and not heat. 1758 - John Dolland developed the Achromatic telescope lens, this improved the camera obscura image. 1801 - Thomas Young suggested that the retina at the back of the eye contains 3 types of colour sensitive receptors: 1 sensitive to blue light, 1 sensitive to green light and 1 sensitive to red light. The brain interprets various combinations of these colours to form and other colours in the visible spectrum. 1802 - Thomas Wedgewoood was the first person to attempt to record the camera image by means of the action of light. He was successful in recording the image in organic substances, like the darkening silver nitrate on whites leather or paper when exposed however he was unable to make these images permanent. |
Early photography
1816 - 1840: The first Camera
- The first camera was made in 1816 by a French inventor, Nicéphore Niépce using a very small camera of his own making and a piece of paper coated with silver chloride, which darkened where it was exposed to light so this camera was only partly successful.
- In 1826, to improve the mechanism, he used wooden box camera created by Charles and Vincent Chevalier.
- Ten years later in 1836 along with Louis Daguerre, he created a practical photographic mechanism known as daguerreotype. Louis coated silver on a cooper plate which was further treated with iodine vapour so that it could be sensitive to the light, this helped with the exposure. The image could now be developed using solution of salt used with mercury vapour.
- Henry Fox Talbot made an attempt to improve the process called calotype, it was invented in September 1840 and patented on the 8th of February 1841.
- Alexander Wolcott invented a camera and it was patented on 8 May, 1840. With the invention of Alexander Wolcott it was possible to take candid pictures that did not fade away with time.
However, the earliest photographs were not taken with Alexander Wolcott's invention but Nicéphore Niépce wooden box.
Over time photography has developed massively and to this day it continues to improve. This is due to technology developing and being able to support the desires to improve cameras. It's become so good that now every smartphone has one in which can capture moments in colour.
Facts Of Photography!
- James Clerk Maxwell began working with colour in photography in 1860, by taking three exposures, each one with a different colour filter (red, green, blue), and then projecting the three images using three lanterns with the corresponding filters.
- On March 7, 1947 the first picture of the Earth from 100 miles away in space was captured.
- The first selfie was taken in 1839 by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius. Cornelius had set his camera up at the back of the family store in Philadelphia. He took the image by removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back he wrote “The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.” (however this is still in question).
Photography has made it possible for people to see the world in a new ways. Without it we wouldn't have answered a lot of questions in which many have thought of. Nor could we capture historical moments or memories. What would we do without it?