The word Photography comes from the greek words photos (light) and graphein (to draw), so photography is essentially “drawing with light”. Photography is essentially drawing with light. Without light we wouldn’t be able to create a photograph. As part of the Learning Activity Digging Deeper Into the History of Photography I have collected 3 events from the history of photography. (This blog post is an answer to question 1)
The Tintype
The tintype was introduced in the mid-19th century. Originating in France during 1854, the tintype was first patented in the USA during February 1856 and in England during December of the same year. Tin types was images created on a metal plate coated in silver iodine which is sensitive to light. Tintypes is a variation of the ambrotype, which was a image made on glass, instead of metal. Tintypes was a negative in its chemical formation, but made to appear positive by the black plate. The exposure time for the tintype was a couple of minutes.
The tintypes was very popular. They did not preform as well as the dangurreotypes made on copper plates, but they were durable, easy to make and much cheaper. This made them popular among Civil War soldiers, immigrants and working people in general. Now the general public could have their pictures taken.
Flexible roll film
The first flexible film roll was introduced by the American Geroge Eastman in 1883. Eastman had experimented with the use of a lighter and more felxible support for the photograps than glass and metal. He first coated the photographic emulsion on paper and then loaded the paper in a roll holder. He found that paper was not entierly satisfactory as a carrier for the emolusion bacause the grain of the paper was likely to be transfered to the photo. He came up with the solution to coat the paper with a thin layer of soluble gelatin, and then a layer of light sensitive soluble gelatine
Eastman’s experiments were directed to the use of a lighter and more flexible support than glass. His first approach was to coat the photographic emulsion on paper and then load the paper in a roll holder. The holder was used in view cameras in place of the holders for glass plates.
In 1883, Eastman startled the trade with the announcement of film in rolls, with the roll holder adaptable to nearly every plate Camera on the market.
The first film advertisements in 1885 stated that “shortly there will be introduced a new sensitive film which it is believed will prove an economical and convenient substitute for glass dry plates both for outdoor and studio work.”
This system of photography using roll holders was immediately successful. However, paper was not entirely satisfactory as a carrier for the emulsion because the grain of the paper was likely to be reproduced in the photo. After the photo was created, the gelatin bearing the image was stripped from the paper, and transferred to a sheet of clear gelatin, and varnished with collodion — a cellulose solution that forms tough, flexible film.
Eastman and his company launced the KODAK Camera in 1888, this made the foundation for making photography available to everyone. Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures, the camera could be easily carried and handheld during operation. It was priced at $25. After exposure, the whole camera was returned to the company in Rochester. There the film was developed, prints were made and new film was inserted — all for $10.
Woman with camera 1910
The first Kodak camera, introduced in 1888, sold for $25, loaded with enough Eastman film for 100 exposures. Not dated.
The Color photograph
It was Scottish physicist and poet James Clerk Maxwell who in 1861 produced the first true color photograph – one that didn’t fade immediately or need color adding afterwards by hand. Or the sources I found differs a bit with wikipedia stating that “the first color photograph produced by Thomas Sutton for a Maxwell lecture in 1861″. However Maxwell was the one to develop the technique wanting to demonstrate how the eye process coloure.
Maxwells experiments were taking three photos, of the same object, on three different glass plates, useing three different colour filters. One red, one green and one blue. When he then projected the three images unto the wall in the exact same time it then produced a picture in color.
Today, the three physical plates that together made up the world’s first color photograph reside in Maxwell’s former home in Edinburgh (now a museum)
In color photography, electronic sensors or light-sensitive chemicals record color information at the time of exposure. The recorded information is then used to reproduce the original colors by mixing various proportions of red, green and blue light.
Decades later, in the beginning of the 20th century, color photography had developed sufficiently to allow landscape photographs to be taken, as the exposure time was around 30 minutes.
Sanger Shepherd process and the autochrome
Sarah Agelina Acland was an English pioneer that took a number of artful photographs useing the Sanger Shepherd method. The Sanger Shepherd method was a complicated method for taking color photographs. This process uses the same basis of color filters as James Maxwells process and was technically demanding and time consuming.
A Portrait Outdoors shows Miss Acland’s goddaughter Mary Agnes Brinton on the steps of Clevedon House, Oxford.
My reflective journal 