The History of Photography

Photography has a rich history that combines several types of developments in the technology field. Many photographers fail to realize the history behind their cameras, development processes and techniques uses when they take pictures. This is just a brief history of the very beginning of photography and now the boom in digital photography. There are many more developments that occurred in between these events, this is just a brief overview of the most important aspects in the history of photography.

The name "photography" was coined by John Herschel in 1839. This was introduced when the idea of photography became public knowledge and the process was being taught to ordinary folks. Photography was developed in two phases: The optical and the chemical. The optical process, the darkroom so to speak, had been around for more than 400 years. The chemical developed more slowly, even though hundreds of years ago scientists were aware of the properties that would change the colors of paper and parchment. It took several different developers hundreds of years to realize that light and exposure were connected to one another.

Some of the significant chemical developments over the years included Robert Boyle discovering that silver chloride turned dark when exposed. However, he did believe this was due to the air and not the lack of light. Angelo Sala noted that powdered silver nitrate would turn black under sunlight. Johanna Schulze discovered several different liquids changed color when exposed to sunlight for specific periods of time. Thomas Wedgewood conducted experiments with chemicals and light exposure but could not get the changes to last. In 1827, after eight hours of exposure, Niepce was able to capture a picture exposed to light successfully time and time again.

After Niepce died in 1829, Louis Gaguerre carried on his work and discovered a way to cut down the exposure time from eight hours to half an hour. During his work, he used salts to make the images permanent during the process. This is called the Daguerreotype. Many people began to develop their own prints and images with this process despite others who protested that capturing photographs was the work of the devil. Since the process was expensive, you could only develop a photo once in most cases, and required the use of two cameras to take the same picture if you wanted more than one copy.

When the Calotype process was invented, it utilized paper copies. Developed by William Talbot in 1839, he sought to bring development to everyone as opposed to just those who could afford it. He used Lacock Abbey as the the very first paper negative in existence, taken around 1835. While the quality was less than the Daguerreotype process, the Calotype process allowed for photographers to make multiple copies of their prints. Modern photography is based on the Calotype process. Over the next ten years, development studios popped up all over Europe fueled by Paris' own studios.

The Collodion process was introduced in the 1850s by Frederick Archer. This process reduced the exposure time to two to four seconds, generally speeding up the entire process. This process was much cheaper than the Daguerreotypes. During the Collodion process, the plate was still wet while it went through its coating, exposure and overall development. However, this process required a good deal of equipment, space and financial backing to run smoothly. This still limited who could have access to developing prints.

Richard Maddox, in 1871, began using gelatin for photographic plates. Previously, glass was used. Without the use of glass, the dry plate process was developed. They could be used much more quickly for the development process. This eventually would make the entire development process much easier and attainable for any level photographer. In 1884, George Eastman introduced flexible film and would go on to create the box camera. This was the prototype for every camera developed since that point.

Developments from the idea of the box camera turned into the point-and-shoot film cameras most people were using in the 1980s and 1990s. These simple cameras also became the initial development point of disposable cameras and eventually digital camera technology. Most digital camera technology was developed well before its time.

Later developments, especially in digital photography, began in 1969 with the charge-coupled device (CCD) being invented by Willard Boyle and George Smith. In 1973, Fairchild Semiconductor released the first CCD chip. In 1975, Bryce Bayer - from Eastman-Kodak - developed color sensors for the CCD chip. In 1986, the first mega pixel sensor was introduced by Kodak. Kodak introduced several new developments over the next 20 years that led to the digital camera revolution. Many other point-and-shoot camera makers, such as Nikon and Canon, also developed technology used today.

Digital cameras have become all the rage. Developments from all over the technology field have created what we now know of as the modern digital camera. The basics of photography and the history have brought the field to where it is now, and it is only a matter of time before new developments overshadows the very beginning of photography's roots.