History of Photography Camera Obscura Earliest technological development

History of Photography

Camera Obscura • Earliest technological development in cameras • Works on the principle that light travels in a straight line • The earliest mention of this type of device was by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5 th century B. C. ) http: //brightbytes. com/cosite/what. html

The result in a completely dark room with no source of light we can puncture a small hole in the wall and observe the product of the light on the opposite wall

Camera Lucida • The original design of the camera lucida was published by William • Hyde Wollaston (1766 -1828) in 1807. Wollaston's design, used a four-sided glass prism

• The prism was cut precisely to allow the light from an object and the light from the paper to travel to the eye • Essentially a tracing tool that enables the user to trace 3 D objects

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce Creator of the first known photograph Nicéphore Niépce positioned at the back of a camera obscura sheets of silver salts coated paper, known to blacken with daylight. (1817) http: //www. niepce. com/pagus-inv. html

William Henry Fox Talbot

Wooden camera Talbot 1836

Talbot 1836 • The first negatives - this allowed multiple copies to be printed • Printed to writing paper prepared with washes of silver nitrate and common salt http: //www. makingthemodernworld. org. uk/icons_of_invention /technology/1820 -1880/IC. 111/

Talbot - University College, Oxford 1843

An 1837 daguerreotype by Daguerre

1837 daguerreotype Daguerre • Using a process with copper plates silver nitrate and mercury daguerreotype was a successful photographic process • The exposure time was between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the light • “His first plates were 8 1/2" by 6 1/2"; it is interesting to note that this still remains the standard "wholeplate" today. ” http: //www. rleggat. com/photohistory/daguerro. htm