SNEAK-PEEK INTO THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography has existed since around the 5th century B.C.E. However, it wasn’t until the camera obscura was developed by Iraqi scientist Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham in the 11th century that the art of photography itself was born.

When the camera obscura was first created, it projected images onto a surface instead of recording them. This was helpful because it allowed for the accurate trace of real-life objects such as buildings.

It used a pinhole in a tent, which projected an image into a darkened area outside the tent. This camera was too large to be portable. Basic lenses were introduced around the 17th century.

The photography we know today would not be possible without Joseph Nicépohore Niépce. In the late 1830s, Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This resulted in the first-ever recorded image that didn’t fade quickly.

The work of Niépce led photographers to experiment with various chemicals and techniques, resulting in three instrumental developments in modern photography: Daguerreotypes, emulsion plates, and wet plates.

Daguerreotypes, the forerunner of modern film, were the result of a collaboration between Niépce and Louis Daguerre. They are copper plates coated with silver that are first exposed to iodine vapour before being exposed to light. The exposure usually lasted for fifteen minutes and resulted in a fully developed image. This method of photography/photo development was very popular until it was replaced by emulsion plates in the 1850s.

Emulsion plates, known as wet plates, became popular in the late 1850s. They were less expensive than daguerreotypes and required only two to three seconds of exposure time. In fact, many of the photographs from the Civil War were produced on wet plates.

The two main types of emulsion plates developed were the ambrotype, which used a glass plate instead of a copper plate, and Tintypes, which used a tin plate.

In the 1870s, Richard Maddox improved on the previous photography techniques by making dry gelatin plates, which were almost identical to wet plates in terms of development speed and quality.

The only difference between dry and wet plates was that dry plates could be stored. 

This gave photographers more flexibility when taking photographs, resulting in the innovation of smaller, hand-held cameras. As exposure times continued to decrease, the first camera with a mechanical shutter was developed.

Up until the 1880s, photography was only for professionals or the extremely wealthy. That was until George Eastman created the Kodak company. He developed a box camera that held 100 film exposures with a small single lens and no focusing adjustment. The roll film was flexible and didn’t require constantly changing solid plates.

Kodak allowed consumers to send their cameras back to the factory, where they developed the film and printed the final photos.

1950s – Pentax and Nikon came onto the photographic scene and introduced cameras with interchangeable lenses and other accessories. 

1970s & 1980s – The introduction of compact cameras, which included a “point and shoot” system, made it much easier to get high-quality photos.

1990s—Manufacturers introduced cameras that stored images electronically, which is how we now have camera manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, and Pentax, to name a few.

With the widespread adoption of smartphones, photography has become more accessible to people from all walks of life. The convenience and advanced technology of modern smartphones have empowered individuals to capture and create stunning images, leading to the popularity of photography as a hobby and a form of creative expression. However, hi-tech cameras and lenses are still required to capture higher-resolution images and videos.