Joseph Nicephore Niepce was the first person to take a photograph. In 1814, he used a sliding wooden box camera that was made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier.

The picture was not permanent and soon faded. Johann Heinrich Schultz discovered that when mixed together, silver and chalk darkens under exposure to light.

This was considered as the introduction of photography even though the camera can be traced back even further. An Iraqi Arab scientist named Ibn al-Haytham developed the camera obscura which is a device that uses a pinhole or lens to project an image from the outside to a viewing plate upside down.

A man who was a scientist monk named Roger Bacon was also influential in further advancing photography. He had several notes and drawings that were included in the book “Perspective” in 1267.

These describe how the Devil could indicate himself through the pinhole by using magic. Even though he had several drawing of this device, it is unclear whether or not he was able to ever produce it.

Back in these days, there was no way to preserve images produced by the early photo devices except to manually trace the images. Joseph Nicephore Niepce is credited as the first person to take a photograph.

He coated a pewter place with bitumen which is a mixture of organic liquids that are composed of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. He took this plate and exposed it to light.

The areas which were hardened with bitumen stayed while the unhardened areas were dissolved away and faded. This was the first exposure of the camera and it took place in France in 1814.

The first photographic method which came to be known as a daguerreotype in 1836 was a plate coated with copper and silver and then treated with iodine vapor to make it more sensitive to light. The image was developed and fixed with mercury vapor and salt.

The calotype process was designed by William Fox Talbot in 1840. He put a sensitized sheet of paper in front of the viewing screen to record the image.

Up until 1855, only wet plates were used to record images were used. Collodion dry plates were invented by Desire van Monckhoven and used sparingly.

It was not until 1871 when Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate that dry plates started to take place of the wet plates because they proved themselves worthy opponents. They were just as fast and of good quality of the wet plates that they soon replaced them.

All this time, cameras had been getting smaller and smaller from the first design that they started out with. They began to be manufactured small enough to be hand held and better concealed.

They basic design went through several models from single to twin lenses, reflexes to large and bulky cameras to ones that could pass as pocket watches, hats and other objects. Because the exposure time was shortened, it made candid photography possible with a mechanical shutter.

Today, shutters are built into the camera whereas before, they were sold as separate accessories. Photographic film was started by George Eastman who invented the paper film in 1885 before using celluloid in 1889.

His first camera was called the “Kodak” and sold in 1888. It was a simple design of a box camera that had a fixed focus lens and single shutter speed.

It was sold for a pretty inexpensive price for the time and appealed greatly to your average customer. These box cameras were pre-loaded with film that could take up to one hundred photos.

When you had used up all the exposures, you had to send it back to the factory to be processed and receive your device reloaded and the images printed on paper. Soon more models followed the box to include folding cameras as well.

Because of the advances we have made with photography in the last one hundred years, it has become more of a commercial thing rather than just strictly an expensive movie toy. Now, practically everyone owns their own digital camera and is able to take pictures to preserve their own memories.

About the author of this article:

Tommy Greene has been writing about photography for years. He recommends Provo photography for all of your photography needs.

Contact Info:

Tommy Greene
TommyGreene09@gmail.com

http://www.glenricksphotography.com

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