Photography history question: when did photography originate?

12 years 7 months ago #150295 by Martha
Who was the inventor of the idea of taking a photo of something? I'm sure this must date back a few years. I'm just sitting here looking at my camera and thinking about how marvelous these things are. Would be curious to know when the first camera was invented or the concept? Any history buffs here?


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12 years 7 months ago #150321 by icepics
I think Niepce is generally credited w/making probably the earliest photo out of his window in France in the early/mid 1800's. Henry Fox Talbot is another early photographer from that era and Louis Daguerre developed the process of a photo on a metal plate.

A forerunner was the camera obscura which was either a room or a big box where an image was projected upside down thru a hole so an artist could trace it then use it as the basis of a painting etc. I think that goes back to DaVinci.

Some of the early processes are called alternative processes - one site is www.alternativephotography.com . I discovered it not too long ago and have been doing Lumen prints (sun prints/photograms) using old photo paper.

Sharon
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12 years 7 months ago #150365 by effron

Why so serious?
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12 years 7 months ago - 12 years 7 months ago #150370 by MLKstudios
Fixer was the key. Many light images had been made, but no one figured out how to "fix" them.

They would fade away when viewed.

One of the early proponents of light drawings was Wedgewood (maker of china plates in England), but he too couldn't get the image to stick.

Bitumen tar hardened after being exposed to light, and became the oldest "known" image created by light and a lens. The one attributed to Niepcé.

You might find this interesting too:

www.petapixel.com/2010/10/27/first-ever-...ph-of-a-human-being/

Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"

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12 years 7 months ago - 12 years 7 months ago #150547 by Henry Peach
Check out David Hockney's book Secret Knowledge on how artists were using optics in their work before Niepce figured out how to make "permanent" images with light sensitive materials.

George Eastman invented the machine that could mass produce dry plates, and soon after introduced film. These allowed photographers to take photos without having to create their own materials, and allowed for drop-off/send-out processing so photographers no longer had to understand that part of creating a photograph. It was these things that made it so anyone could be a photographer, and that's when it really took off.
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12 years 7 months ago #150551 by QueenB

effron wrote: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography


gotta love wikipedia. Gives you more info then you really need sometimes.


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12 years 7 months ago #150587 by MLKstudios

Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"

,
12 years 7 months ago #150592 by Henry Peach
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12 years 7 months ago - 12 years 7 months ago #150655 by icepics
Supposedly if you use Liquid Light I guess you can make a picture on just about anything - www.rockaloid.com . Haven't tried it, I'm still doing photograms and lumen prints (and have plenty to run thru some fixer...) Next for me is cyanotypes.

Thanks Henry didn't know about the Hockney book. Took a look to see what it was about, I remember reading something about that, Vermeer maybe using a camera obscura type device. Of course artists often sketch in an outline as the basis of a painting.

Sharon
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12 years 7 months ago #151005 by MYoung
For someone just getting started this was helpful topic to read. :P


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12 years 7 months ago #151287 by Monster

MYoung wrote: For someone just getting started this was helpful topic to read. :P


Welcome to the site and photography :patriot:


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