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Photography. Pre-photography. Camera obscura (dark room), optical phenomenon noted by Aristotle, Arabic and Oriental scholars Johannes Kepler – in 1611, described what happened to solar rays that passed through a lens – image was up righted. Camera Obscura. Camera Obscura. Camera Obscura.
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Pre-photography • Camera obscura (dark room), optical phenomenon noted by Aristotle, Arabic and Oriental scholars • Johannes Kepler – in 1611, described what happened to solar rays that passed through a lens – image was up righted
Development of Photography • Joseph Nicephore Niepce – had a strong interest in lithography, wanted to figure out a way to reproduce the image easily • He experimented with silver salts but never found a way to fix the image • In 1826, produced the first photograph ever outside of his window in Gras, France
A partnership with Daguerre • In 1829, after 3 years of correspondence, Niepce entered into a partnership with Louis Daguerre – a painter, entrepreneur, inventor • Niepce died in 1833 of a stroke
Daguerre continues the work… • 1835 – Daguerre was able to reduce the time the plate had to be exposed to light, but could not fix the image • He was persuaded by Francois Arago to turn over the rights to the French government
Photographic process revealed to the world • Arago gave a speech on Jan. 7, 1839, in Paris to the Academie des Sciences • News began to be reported of this invention • 7 months later, the process was revealed and the term “daguerreotype” was born • very popular
The daguerreotype process • copper plate, covered with silver and polished • fumed with iodine, which reacted with the silver and created a coat of silver iodide on it • put it in a camera obscura for 5-60 minutes • develop it with mercury fumes • dipped in sodium chloride which removed the iodide that was not struck by the suns rays • rinsed with water
Pitfalls & Advantages of the Daguerreotype • Pitfalls • very delicate • shiny, had to be tilted • impossible to make prints • tons of chemicals • Advantages • crystal clear images
William Henry Fox Talbot • At the age of 33, in 1833 he had developed an interest in fixing the image of the camera obscura • In 1835 produced the first reverse image • Took it to the Royal Society of London in January 31, 1839 • Images called Calotypes or Talbotypes • Released a book called “The Pencil of Nature” with some of the images he made
The film negative was born • Sir John Herschel – accidentally discovered the phenomenon of the latent image and for fixing the image • Herschel coined the terms “positive” and “negative” • Term “photography” comes from the Greek words photos (light) and graphia (writing)
Pitfalls & Advantages of the Calotype • Pitfalls – • blurred images • texture of the paper • images faded quickly • Positives – • could make many prints • more practical and economical as opposed to Daguerreotypes
Photography brought to the U.S. • Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, brought photography to the U.S. • He was in Paris at the time of its announcement by Daguerre • Wrote back to the NY Observer in April 1839 about it • Opened the first photography school in NYC, $25-$50 to enroll
Mathew Brady • Mathew Brady – in 1844 at the age of 22 he opened a studio on Broadway in NYC • Engravings from his daguerreotypes were used in newspapers • Known best as Civil War photographer
Brady’s portrait of Walt Whitman • Anyone of importance had their photograph taken (Lincoln, Poe, Whitman, P.T. Barnum)
Brady’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln • Lincoln credits the photograph that Brady too of him as having been the key factor that led him to win the presidency
Sent to Egypt by the French Ministry of Education Used the calotype Took more than 200 photographs over three year period Established a means of communication for photography that profoundly changed man’s vision of the world and himself. Maxime du Camp
The wet collodion process • From 1839-1850, no changes had been made • Various researchers had been trying to combine the benefits of the daguerrotype and the calotype by using a glass plate for a negative • Problem was finding a chemical coating for the glass plate • Frederick Scott Archer established that the substance collodion was the best and in 1851 he published his method
The wet collodion process • Glass plate was was coated with a uniform thickness of collodion which was potassium iodide that was dissolved • Plate was then dipped in a silver nitrate solution that sensitized it • Plate had to be used within 15 minutes while the collodion was still wet because it would lose its light sensitivity
The wet collodion process • Guaranteed remarkable quality • Allowed for the first accurate visual reports of battlefields • Now make landscape views and panoramas with sharp details • Became more of a documentary medium
Photography and the Civil War • Mathew Brady and a team of photographers documented the war • First time in history that dead bodies photographed in a war • Many Civil War photographs are credited to Mathew Brady but were actually taken by one of his assistants
Problems in Photography • Until the late 19th century, cameras only had one size aperture, photographer had to judge the light and replace the cap at the right time • Hard for landscape photographers – trees moved, people moved, clouds moved
Eadweard Muybridge • Invented the “Sky Shade” – a rudimentary shutter that allowed mechanical control over the time the film was exposed to light • It was made from two thick perforated wooden slats that could slide over one another • This made it possible to admit less light in the area of the negative that would register the sky
Leland Stanford’s bet • Muybridge performed experiments for “stopping time” • 1873 – Gov. of California Leland Stanford wanted Muybridge to capture the galloping hooves of his horse Occident • controlled the shutter to snap at 1/500 of a second
Muybridge set up 12 cameras side by side with electrical shutters that worked at one thousandth of a second, horse tripped shutters by snapping twelve strings that stretched across the track
Eadweard Muybridge • under the patronage of U. Penn, he carried out further studies in the motion of men and animals • in 1880 used a camera called the zoopraxiscope which projected light through rapidly spinning single photographs mounted on a circular glass plate…made it appear as if the images were in motion
More changes • 1871 – gelatin coated plate proposed by Richard Maddox • gelatin emulsion could be allowed to dry before use and the exposed plate could be developed later • made from glass, fragile • Hannibal Goodwin solved this problem in 1887 with the use of celluloid, a substance flexible enough to be wound up in a roll
George Eastman • George Eastman made use of this discovery and in 1888 patented a small box-shaped camera called the Kodak which was already loaded with a roll of film • Slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”
The Kodak Produced 100 circular images