HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography was not invented by one single person. It was the result of many discoveries throughout the history of mankind. From the historical point of view it is important to know that the principle of the camera was discovered long before a method of recording what the camera saw was found. Chinese philosopher Mo Ti and Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. In 1000A.D. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (9651040) from Basra in present day Iraq, studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera. The camera obscura did not record an image, but only projected brightly lit outdoor scenes from an opening in the wall of a darkened room onto a surface, turning the room into a large pinhole camera. The projected image was inverted. The phrase camera obscura literally means dark chamber. Some artists used the camera obscura to trace scenes as early as the 16th century. This theory is heavily disputed by today's contemporary realist artists who are able to create high levels of realism without optical aids. Italian inventers in the 16th century designed the camera obscura, which one can say was the basic design of the modern camera. A convex lens on the camera produced a bright image and a concave mirror behind the lens could turn the image right way up. It was thus possible to use a small dark box instead of the dark chamber. To sketch natural scenes, the camera obscura was widely used by painters in the 18 th century. The image from the camera obscura could be projected onto a sheet of paper that was used as the basis for the sketch. But the biggest drawback was, the image seen in the camera obscura could not be fixed, so that it could be studied or used for reference at any time. Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a Frenchman studied the work of the pioneering lithographer Alois Senefelder and tried to improve the process by using tin plates. Hearing of the work done with photochemical drawing, he turned his attention to silver salts. He experimented with silver chloride, which darkens when exposed to light. In 1822 when he made a permanent image using a camera obscura. He dissolved bitumen in lavender oil, a solvent often used in varnishes, and coated the sheet of pewter with this light capturing mixture. He placed the sheet inside a camera obscura to capture the picture, and eight hours later removed it and washed it with lavender oil to remove the unexposed bitumen. Nipce called his process heliography, which literally means "sun writing". Fellow Frenchman Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre was a professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects. Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829 he began a partnership

with Nipce. The partnership was a short one, Nipce dying in 1833, but Daguerre continued to experiment. He made an important discovery by accident. In 1835, he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard, and some days later found, to his surprise, that the latent image had developed. Daguerre eventually concluded that this was due to the presence of mercury vapour from a broken thermometer. This important discovery that a latent image could be developed made it possible to reduce the exposure time from eight hours to thirty minutes. Though he now knew how to produce an image, it was not until 1837 that he was able to fix them. He polished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating 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. This process created a lasting image, one that would not change if exposed to light. The image thus achieved was a positive image. This new process he called a Daguerreotype. In 1839, Daguerre and Niepce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. The daguerreotype's lack of a negative image from which multiple positive "prints" could be made was a limitation. The fact that many of those to use the process suffered severe health problems or even death from mercury poisoning after inhaling toxic vapors created during the heating process also contributed to its falling out of favor with photographers. William Henry Fox Talbot a British inventor refined the process of silver fixing so that portraits were made readily available to the masses. By 1840, Talbot had invented the calotype process, which creates negative images. John Herschel the famous astronomer, made many contributions to the new method of image making. He was the first to use the terms "photography", "negative" and "positive". He discovered sodium thiosulphate solution to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819, and informed Talbot and Daguerre of his discovery in 1839 that it could be used to "fix" pictures and make them permanent. He made the first glass negative in late 1839. He invented the cyanotype process, now familiar as the "blueprint". In the 1870s George Eastman experimented using dry plates. He coated glass plates with gelatin, a gummy substance, and silver bromide. In 1879 he opened a shop to manufacture photographic plates in Rochester. To do away with glass plates, Eastman coated paper with gelatin and photographic chemicals. The developed film was stripped from the paper to make a negative. This film was rolled on spools. He also created a lightweight roll holder that would fit any camera. In 1888 Eastman designed a simple camera, the Kodak (a word created by Eastman; it has no meaning), which was easy to carry and made focusing and adjusting the light unnecessary. With a hundred-exposure roll of film, it sold for twenty-five dollars. After

taking the pictures and sending the camera and ten dollars to the Rochester factory, the photographer received his prints and reloaded camera. Eastman's slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest," became well known. In 1892 he established the Eastman Kodak Company. Daylight-loading film and cameras soon made it unnecessary to return the cameras to the factory. Eastman's old slogan changed to "You press the button, we do the rest, or you can do it yourself." A pocket Kodak was marketed in 1897, a folding Kodak in 1898, noncurling film in 1903, and color film in 1928. Eastman film was used in Thomas Edison's (1847 1931) motion pictures; Edison's incandescent bulb was used by Eastman and by photographers specializing in "portraits (photographs of people) taken by electric light." Eastman's staff worked on other scientific problems as well as on photographic improvements. During World War I (191418) his laboratory helped build up America's chemical industry to the point where it no longer depended on Germany. Eventually America became the world leader. The process of research and development still goes on resulting in innovative and exciting improvements appearing year after year. In the 70 years from 1910 1980, camera formats changed from large format to 35mm, lenses changed and films underwent a revolution from very slow speed to fast speed films. Film had reached its apex and now it was time for a new format.. DIGITAL But before we study the digital camera, let us have a look at the progress we made by inventing and refining the camera to make it popular as a tool to capture images. Today, photography is a hobby of millions of people around the globe. From the most accepted aim & shoot cameras to the most professional DSLR camera models, it is the consistent effort of the research and development wing of all the manufacturers, to develop user friendly cameras.