Today, photography is an art and a profession both. It is one of the most popular hobbies in the world and a multi-billion dollar industry. Looking back in history, one gets insight on how the fascinating techniques in photography were created and how those years of experimenting and efforts led to further improvement. There have been notable photographers in the history of photography and its progress. The collecting knowledge and increasing experimentation associated with knowledge and imagination led to the exploration of new domains. By the late nineteenth century, the photographic media experienced a shift when the demarcation between science and art was beginning to harden (Sheehan and Zervigon 203).Looking back in times photography was firmly associated with the use of light. Photography carried a dual appeal right from the very beginning. It carried an artistic expression as well as worked as a scientific instrument.The beginning of the photography Before photography arrived on the scene, images were created with the help of an instrument known as Camera Obscura that came much before the invention of photography in 1800 (Osterman and Romer 27). Literary speaking, the words "photos" and "graphos" are Greek in origin and mean “light drawing.” Today, the term has been manipulated to fit digital imaging and is described as a stable image made by the effect of light energy on a chemical substance. There is still obscurity related to the beginning of the photography. Efforts were being made to fix the pictures created by Camera Obscura. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce made efforts in this direction and succeeded about the same time. The theoretical efforts to master photography have gone through the rudimentary phases. Daguerre was able to get permanent images with iodized silver plates exposed in the Camera Obscura to create a delicate light gray image (Benjamin 201). This is how he was able to get permanent images and with remarkable details. Thomas Wedgwood recorded some of the first images with light-sensitive materials on paper and white leather that was coated with silver nitrate. Improvements were made, but they were slow. Later, Schulze discovered the higher sensitivity of silver nitrate to light than to heat. Those earlier experiments are important as they combined photochemical technology to create images with light. Several years later Joseph Nicephore Niépce began his own experiments using silver chloride sensitized paper and later made use of light to draw the pictures and coated lithographic stones and plates, pewter, copper and glass with asphaltum. He called those plates heliographs and later prepared a heliograph with a thinner asphalt coating as claimed by Osterman and Romer (27).
Daguerreotype and collodion process Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was already working on similar concepts and create a lasting image with the help of light and chemistry. He entered into a partnership with Niépce as they were working toward a common goal. They developed a variant of the heliograph that resulted in superior images. The experiments involved exposing silver plates fumed in the back of a camera obscura fumed with iodine. Daguerre found out that the silver iodide plate needed only a fraction of the exposure time, and the image could become stable with a dip in sodium chloride. The resulting image was called a daguerreotype. However, every daguerreotype was unique as the final image was created on the same plate that was used in the camera during exposure (Osterman and Romer 28). It was developed in mercury fumes with sensitized with iodine vapors and exposed in a huge box camera. Henry Fox Talbot started his own experiments, and his observations led him to discover how to make the images less sensitive and more stabilized. The great benefit of Talbot’s method was that the process required both a negative and a positive and allowed multiple prints. A convenient “dry plate” process developed by 1880 allowed a fast development in the field (Sirota 36).Daguerre’s procedures were still slow because of the slow lens and optics that limited the process. The formulation of a faster lens was introduced with the introduction of bromine fumes. Because of more experiment and research, a design of a faster lens was introduced in 1840 that allowed for shorter exposures and allowed the first practical application of daguerreotype for portraiture. As asserted by Osterman and Romer (30), experiments were done on the paper and its coatings. There were changes and developments in the photographic materials and the new paper required only a fraction of the time to print a visible image when removed from the camera. The new procedure was known as calotype, and those negatives could be fixed with graphite or inks. By avoiding the addition of gallic acid in the sensitizing step, another improvement was made. The results were further modified by using different lenses and filters and paper and by adding new variants of preparing calotype paper. However, daguerreotype method was well established by then, and it was not to be upset by the introduction of the wet collodion process 1851. The process was much faster than previous methods and free from any restrictions of the patent. Exposure times were lower by half with the wet plate technique of the collodion process. By 1855 (Osterman and Romer 31), the collodion process was adopted quickly as results carried details with high precision. Later, the collodion process was used for stereo and microphotographic transparencies. Still, the correct collodion processing of paper prints was not understood completely. Another process invented in 1841, the e-cyanotype was permanent but not suitable for most pictures (Osterman and Romer 33). George Eastman played a significant role in popularizing photography because of his invention to mass produce roll of paper covered with thin gelatin emulsion. The new Roll film made it possible for a new and inexpensive of camera that was light to career and easy to use (Sirota 37). The cameras gave more freedom and accessibility to the photographers and encouraged amateur photography.The digital era The first commercial color results were developed in 1907 by two French brothers. Kodachrome, a subtractive color procedure and a single sheet of film covered with three layers of an emulsion made it possible to create color photography (Sirota 45).Kodak and other companies began to experiment with filmless technologies in the mid1970s and succeeded in creating a sensor that could record a picture in pixels. This led to the development of Digital Photography. The first digital cameras appeared for commercial sale in the 1990s and the digital entrance in photography revolutionized the way cameras worked. The major difference between digital and traditional film cameras is how they capture the image as claimed by Sirota (49). The industry of silver halide materials declined rapidly with the advent of digital photographic technologies and practices (Osterman and Romer 36). The concept of photography has come a long way ever since it was conceived centuries and many technologies ago. Every generation and photographer of that time have gone through a natural progression, facing technological changes and challenges. The digital era in photography is here to stay and marks the start of a new era of artistic exploration, not to forget those inspiring moment of Daguerre and Talbot. The silver-based photographic emulsion based image has moved on to the computer processed digital image, thanks to the incredibly versatile digital technology, which has become a very important part of photography today. The transition from an analog to digital in photography is mostly complete (Vickers 1). Over the last couple of years, the major photographic business and companies have undergone a major shift from analog to digital and are taking advantage of the exponential growth in the digital camera market.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Walter. "A Short History of Photography." Screen 13.1 (1972): 5. Web.
Osterman, Mark and Romer, Grant B. "History And Evolution Of Photography." George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film1.1 (2009): 27-156. Print.
Sheehan, Tanya and Zervigon, Andres. "Photography and Its Origins." Routledge 1.1 (2014): 1- 254. Print.
Sirota, Alex. "Photography - a new art or yet another scientific achievement." Taylor & Huntington. 1.1 (2009): 1-129. Print.
Vickers, Richard. " Photography As New Media: From The Camera Obscura To The Camera Phone." University of Lincoln 1.1 (2015): 1-9. Print.
