Camera

History of Photography

By slazieh
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    Development Over the 16th Century

    Brightness and clarity of camera obscuras was improved by enlarging the hole used in the cameras.
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    Development Over the 17th Century

    Camera obscuras became frequently used by artists. They eventually became portable in the form of sedan chairs.
  • Creation of Photo-Sensitive Compound

    Professor J. Schulze mixes chalk, nitric acid, and silver together and notices that the side of the flask exposed to sunlight darkens. He had accidentally created the first photo-sensitive compound.
  • Creation of "Sun Pictures"

    Thomas Wedgewood makes "sun pictures" by putting opaque objects on leather that was coated with silver nitrate. The images he created would deteriorate quickly if exposed to light stronger than candle light.
  • First Image Created Using Camera Obscura

    Joseph Nicephore Niepce was the first to make a photograph using the camera obscura. He created "sun prints" by allowing the light to draw the picture. Creating the image required hours of exposure and development, but the picture faded very quickly.
  • Develpment of Daguerreotype

    Louis Daguerre, working with Niepce, created the daguerreotype as a more effective method of photography. This idea again essentially allowed the light to draw the image but used silver chloride to make an image that was lasting and would not change if exposed to light.
  • First Negative Image is Created

    Henry Fox Talbot invented the first negative that allowed multiple positive prints to be produced from it. After being perfected, this paper-negative process was called a calotype.
  • Patenting of Name "Calotype"

    Henry Fox Talbot patented his process of creating negative images officially under the name "calotype."
  • Invention of Wet Plate Negative

    Frederick Scott Archer invented the wet plate negative by using glass as the surface for the development of the photos. While wet plates led to advancements in photography, they still posed a problem to photographers in the field. Since wet plates had to be developed quickly, many photographers had to carry portable darkrooms with them.
  • Development of Carte-De-Visite Photography

    Adolphe Disderi developed carte-de-visite photography in Paris, France. This eventually ledd to the worldwide boom in potrait studios for the next decade.
  • Tintypes were Patented

    Hamilton Smith patented tintypes this year. Tintypes were another type of medium that used a thin sheet of iron to provide a base for light-sensitive material to create a positive image.
  • Color Separation Method

    Scottish physicit James Clerk-Maxwell demonstrates a color photography system that involved three black and white photos. Each one was taken through a red, green, or blue filter, turned into lantern slides, and projected with the same color filters. This became known as the "color separation" method.
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    Civil War Photographs

    Mathew Brady along with many staff members cover the American Civil War and take thousands of photographs. They eventually developed 7,000 negatives.
  • US Photographers Sent West

    This was the time when the US Congress sent photographers farther west in the country. The most famous photographers were William Jackson and Tim O'Sullivan.
  • The Proposal of Dry Plate Process

    Richard Leach Maddox was an English doctor who was the first to propose the use of an emulsion of gelatin and silver bromide on a glass plate. This process would eventually become known as the dry plate process.
  • Founding of Wratten and Wainwright

    Wratten and Wainwright manufactured collodion glass plates and gelatin dry plates. wratten also invented the noodling process and eventually also created the first panoramic plates in England.
  • Creation of Dry Plate

    In 1879, a glass negative plate with a dried gelatin emmulsion was created. These plates could be stored for longer periods of time, so photographers in the field no longer needed to carry darkrooms around with them. Dry plates could also obsorb light more quickly.
  • Eastman Dry Plate Company

    George Eastman set up the Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, New York. This was also the year that the first half-tone photo appeared in a newspaper called the New York Graphic.
  • Invention of the Kodak Camera

    In 1889, George Eastman created a new type of film that was so flexible that it could be rolled. The camera that was created in 1888 was a wooden, light-tight box that had a simple lens and shutter.
  • First Kodak Camera

    The first Kodak camers is created with a 20-foot roll of paper. This was enough for 100 2.5-inch diameter circular pictures.
  • Introduction of Kodak Film

    A new Kodak is introduced that has a roll of film instead of paper.
  • Barnack Lessened the Format of Negatives

    Oskar Barnack wanted to lessen the format of film negatices and then enlarge the photographs after they had been exposed.
  • High Quality Color Photography

    Panoramic black and white film becomes available, so, as a result, higher quality color separation color photography becomes available.
  • First Commercial Color Film

    The first commercial color film is manufactured by the Lumiere brothers in France. They were called Autochrome plates.
  • 35mm Movie Film

    Oskar Barnack developed a camera using the modern 24x36mm frame and sprocketed 35mm movie film. Barnack worked for a German microscope manufacturer called Leitz.
  • Creation of Photograms

    Man Ray began making photograms, which were aso called rayographs, by placing objects on photographic paper. The shadow cast by a distant light bulb was then exposed.
  • Introduction of the Leica

    Leitz marketed a derivative of Barnack's camera commercially and called it the "leica." This was the first high quality 35mm camera.
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    Fuji Film

    Fuji Film was founded in 1934. They had grown so much in four years that by 1938, the company was already making cameras, lenses, and film for the general public.
  • Development of Pioneering 35mm SLR

    The Kodachrome was developed, and it was the first color multi-layered film. In addition, the pioneering 35mm single-lens reflex camera, also called the SLR, was developed named Exakta.
  • Creation of One-Step Process

    Edwin Hervert Land was an American inventor who created a one-step process for developing and printing pictures. Then, in November 1948, the first polaroid camera was created and sold to the public.