Although no one knows for sure when a camera-type device was first
discovered, the
camera obscura became popular among Renaissance artists
who used it to trace the image projected by light shining through a tiny hole.
The word photography was first used in the year 1839
- the year the invention of the photographic process was made public.
During the prior decades, a number of light-sensitive materials were tested to
capture the image from the camera obscura, but the first successful
permanent photograph is usually credited to Louis Daguerre.
That picture, captured on a silver-coated sheet of copper, using his 'positive image'
Daguerreotype process, is entitled The Artist's Studio and is dated 1837.
It was fragile & difficult to reproduce.
By the time the details of this process were
made public, in 1839, other artists and scientists had discovered additional photographic
imaging techniques. William Henry Fox Talbot's
Calotype process used light-sensitive paper and produced a 'negative image' that
could be used to create positive prints.
These methods required long exposure time,
animate objects could not be recorded. No one could hold still long enough!
The earliest photographic recordings were architechtural and landscape scenes.
By 1840, when techniques had improved and exposure times were shortened,
Portrait photography became fashionable. Since that
time, photography has become an important tool in many fields,
with sophisticated techniques and equipment continuing to evolve. | |
