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Beginning of Photography, 1820
Photography dates all the way back to the late 1820's, however attempts in permanently documenting images were unsuccessful. These two words then make up the words photography, which was used in the early development of photography. In the mid 1820's Nicéphore Niépce was successful in capturing a camera image in permanent form but many days of exposure were required, which caused the results to be very poor. -
Hércules Florence, 1833
In 1833, French photographer by the name of Hércules Florence, was doing working with paper that was designed sensitised with silver salts, so that he may produce various prints of drawings. Florence called this action, photography. Hércules Florence's method, contributed in making what photography is to this very day. -
William Henry Fox Talbot, 1835
William Henry Fox Talbot was a scientist, who could not draw his scientific observations, so he made very light and sensitive paper, by simply soaking it with two solutions of sodium chloride and silver nitrate and by the year 1835, Talbot had a fully functional photographic process. But it was not until the year 1839, when Sir John Herschel, one of Talbot's astronomers, suggested that he use sodium hyposulphite and wax it before printing, in order to reduce the grain. -
Development of the Daguerrotype, 1839
An associate of Nicéphore Niépce who's name was Louis Daguerre, then went on to create the daguerreotype, which was the very first photographic process. Unlike Niépce's, the daguerreotype only required a few minutes of exposure and along with that could produce clear and detailed images. The daguerrotype was introduced in 1839, which is the year now considered as the birth of photography. -
József Petzval and Friedrich Voigtländer, 1840
In March 1840 József Petzval and Friedrich Voigtländer, began working on a new and improved design for the camera and its lens. Petzval was successful in creating achromatic lens that was 20 times faster than the Meniscus lens that Charles Chevalier and N.M.P Lerebours had made for Daguerre. While Voigtländer fixed the rather clumsy wooden box that Daguerre had invented and made it into a more transportable item for travellers. -
Richard Beard and John Fredrick Goddard, 1941
In 1941 Richard Beard opened his own studio in London and hired a chemist named John Fredrick Goddard, to improve the exposure. To achieve this Goddard studied the a method Wolcott had already tried, which increased the sensitivity of the silver iodide with bromine vapours, which would then filter the daylight needed for exposure through the blue glass, so the portrait sitter's eyes would not get strained. And by December of that same year he successfully made small portraits. -
Claudet, June 1841
In June 1841, Claudet opened a studio on the roof of the Royal Adelaide Gallery. Claudet had a great contribution in various improvements that were made in photography. In fact, he was the one who discovered that the red light did not affect the sensitive plates at all, which meant that it was 100% safe to use in a dark room. He was also involved in improving the lenses and sensitising methods that were able to reduce xposure times to as quick as 20 to 40 seconds at the time. -
Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, 1850
In 1850 albumen paper was introduced by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, it was a slow printing paper, man that it produced very visible images on exposure without the use of any chemicals of some sort. The albumen paper is coated with egg whites before it is sensitised, the egg white will then give the albumen paper a glossy appearance to the surface, which resulted in an improved image. -
Fredrick Scott Archer, 1851
In the year 1951 photography was apparently revolutionised, when Fredrick Scott Archer, invented the wet collodion process, which made glass negatives. The technique was said to be 20 times more faster than all of the previous processes that were invented in the past and along with that had very little restrictions. However the only problem was that you must sensitize the plate immediately before exposure, then expose and process it while the coating is still moist. -
Richard Leach Maddox, 1870
In the year 1871 Richard Leach Maddox, who was an English physician, recommended that the silver bromide should be suspended in a gelatine emulsion. This idea then led to dry plates coated in gelatine which had silver salts, being produced in factories. The creation of this method was an introduction to modern day photography, but it also meant that portable dark rooms were no longer needed.