The history of the camera obscura and photography

1. The history of the camera obscura and photography The image of the sun at the time of the eclipse, unless it is total, demonstrates that when its light passes through a narrow, round hole and is cast on a plane opposite to the hole it takes on the form of a moon-sickle. The image of the sun shows this peculiarity only when the hole is very small. When the hole is enlarged, the picture changes... ."

2. Aristotle The first casual reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible, was observed and noted by Aristotle around 330 BC, who questioned why the sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole.

3. Roger Bacon Roger Bacon invented the camera obscura just before the year 1300, but this has never been accepted by scholars; more plausible is the claim that he used one to observe solar eclipses.

4. Reinerus Gemma- Frisius with his ideas he wrote books with many illustrations. From these ideas were later made many discoveries, including the discovery of the camera obscura. Frisius was among the first to the functioning of such cameras has put on paper. In his work he also gave instructions about how the reader could build astronomical instruments

5. Giovanni Battista dellaPorta In the mid sixteenth century Giovanni Battista dellaPorta (1538-1615) published what is believed to be the first account of the possibilities as an aid to drawing. It is said that he made a huge "camera" in which he seated his guests, having arranged for a group of actors to perform outside so that the visitors could observe the images on the wall. The story goes, however, that the sight of up-side down performing images was too much for the visitors; they panicked and fled, and Battista was later brought to court on a charge of sorcery!

6. Johannes Keppler (Around 1550) Early camera obscuras were large; comprising either a whole darkened room or a tent, this was employed by Johannes Keppler

7. Johann Zahn (1685) He was the seventeenth century German author of Oculus ArtificialisTeledioptricusSiveTelescopium. This work contains many descriptions and diagrams, illustrations and sketches of both the camera obscura and magic lantern, along with various other lanterns, slides, projection types, and peepshow boxes. Zahn is considered the most prolific writer and illustrator of the camera obscura.

8. Back with Roger Bacon (1764): About the same time, the lens was being developed. Once again Roger Bacon's name is associated with this; some have claimed that it was he who invented spectacles.

9. Joseph NicéphoreNiépcebegan (1827) Joseph NicéphoreNiépcebegan his developmental process in an attempt to get an image from a camera obscura without needing the steady hand required to trace over the image; he did not have the steady hand of an artist. He began with a photogravure process which led him to experiment with using different chemical solutions to “develop” his images. He continued this process to where he produced the first negative image and then the first positive image before 1830.

10. Modern photography The camera of now days is way simpler. You can shoot your pictures in a second and see them at once or put them on your computer You can choose out of all colours, so no black and white anymore.

11. Digital camera Because the technique used in digital cameras has developed rapidly from 2000, the price / performance ratio continues to improve. For professional use, there are now (2006) 39 megapixels sensors already on the market which give a better resolutionBles the digital camera

12. The End "the best modern painters among the Italians have availed themselves of this contrivance; nor is it possible that they should have otherwise represented things so much to the life... Let the young painter, therefore, begin as early as possible to study these divine pictures...”