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White Light
Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of different colors. -
The First Photograph
Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photograph with a pinhole camera, created in 330 BC. Before he made the first photograph, people just used the pinhole camera for viewing or drawing purposes. -
The First Practical Process of Photography
Louis Daquerre formed a partnership with Joseph Nicephore Niepce to improve what Niepce had previously created, -
Creation of the Daquerreotype.
After Niepce's death and several years of Daquerre experimenting, he created a more convenient and effective method of photography and named it after himself. The process 'fixed' the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He polished the silver and coated it in iodine, which created a surface that was sensitive to light. Then, he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes. After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution of silver chloride. -
Negative to Positive Process
Henry Fox Talbot created the first negative from which multiple positive prints were made. He sensitized paper to light with a silver salt solution. Then, he exposed the paper to light. The background became black, and the subject was rendered in gradations of grey. This was a negative image, and from the paper negative, he made contact prints, reversing the light and shadows to create a detailed picture. He soon perfected this paper-negative process and called it a calotype. -
First Photo Advertisement
The first Advertisement made with a photo was shown in Philadelphia. -
Wet Plate Negatives
Frederick Scoff Archer invented the wet plate negative. Using a viscous solution of collodion, he coated glass with light-sensitive silver salts. Because it was glass and not paper, this wet plate created a more stable and detailed negative.
Photography advanced considerably when sensitized materials could be coated on plate glass. However, wet plates had to be developed quickly before the emulsion dried. In the field this meant carrying along a portable darkroom. -
Tintypes
Hamilton Smith created another medium that heralded the birth of photography called tintypes. A thin sheet of iron was used to provide a base for light-sensitive material, yielding a positive image. -
Dry Plate Negatives and Hand-Held Cameras
The dry plate is a glass negative plate with a dried gelatin emulsion. Dry plates could be stored for a period of time. Photographers no longer needed portable darkrooms and could now hire technicians to develop their photographs. Dry processes absorbed light quickly so rapidly that the hand-held camera was now possible. -
Flexible Roll Film
George Eastman invented film with a base that was flexible, unbreakable, and could be rolled. Emulsions coated on a cellulose nitrate film base made the mass-produced box camera a reality. -
The Brownie
The first mass-marketed camera called the Brownie. -
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Color Photographs
In the early 1940s, commercially viable color films (except Kodachrome, introduced in 1935) were brought to the market. These films used the modern technology of dye-coupled colors in which a chemical process connects the three dye layers together to create an apparent color image. -
Source
All information is from http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm
