Today, we enjoy the availability and convenience of digital cameras, which are present practically everywhere and integrated in almost every modern electronic device. For this reason, a lot of people have easily been able to take up, and enjoy photography, and almost everyone can be a photographer. But it took over two hundred years of modern development, using concepts dating back thousands of years, before it reached this point.
Long before the dawn of chemical photography, our ancient ancestors have already begun experimenting on the fundamentals and concepts that will make photography possible. Ancient philosopher Mo Ti, and almost at the same time, Greek mathematicians Euclid and Aristotle, have toyed with what is called a pinhole camera, from as far back as the 5th and 4th centuries BC. But it wasn't just the ancient Greeks and Chinese that experimented, because during this time, Byzantine mathematicians have also been using their form of a camera obscura for multiple experiments.
But all of the examples above simply dabbled with the basic principles of photography, because it wouldn't be until 1826, that the first actual and permanent photograph would be produced. It was an image made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, whose photographs were made on a combination of polished pewter plate, and bitumen of Judea, which hardens when exposed to light. Once the bitumen hardens on the metal plate, it leaves a negative image which can then be used to produce a print, by coating it with ink and pressing on paper.
From that point onward, very similar processes would be developed, each one taking one step further. The next big step would be made by Fox Talbot in 1840, when he invented the calotype process, which used paper sheets coated with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image that can then be used to reproduce positive prints. This silver chloride covered paper was a precursor of the modern chemical film.
But it wasn't just film and camera technologies that were being advanced during that time, because even the methods of taking photos were taking huge strides. In 1849, a Russian photographer named Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, a man who created a bellows camera design that improved the way photographers would focus, began using artificial light in studios, to take photos of subjects. It was a far cry from the old ways of using simple or natural light, and have earned him numerous awards during his time, in addition to beginning the trend of studio photography.
These major milestones of the past, paved the way for more modern cameras, lenses, and films, to be made. With the arrival of digital photography, however, along with massive advancements in technology, photography is poised to take even greater strides in the near future. These advancements would make photography even more accessible, and more enjoyable by the average person.
Long before the dawn of chemical photography, our ancient ancestors have already begun experimenting on the fundamentals and concepts that will make photography possible. Ancient philosopher Mo Ti, and almost at the same time, Greek mathematicians Euclid and Aristotle, have toyed with what is called a pinhole camera, from as far back as the 5th and 4th centuries BC. But it wasn't just the ancient Greeks and Chinese that experimented, because during this time, Byzantine mathematicians have also been using their form of a camera obscura for multiple experiments.
But all of the examples above simply dabbled with the basic principles of photography, because it wouldn't be until 1826, that the first actual and permanent photograph would be produced. It was an image made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, whose photographs were made on a combination of polished pewter plate, and bitumen of Judea, which hardens when exposed to light. Once the bitumen hardens on the metal plate, it leaves a negative image which can then be used to produce a print, by coating it with ink and pressing on paper.
From that point onward, very similar processes would be developed, each one taking one step further. The next big step would be made by Fox Talbot in 1840, when he invented the calotype process, which used paper sheets coated with silver chloride to create an intermediate negative image that can then be used to reproduce positive prints. This silver chloride covered paper was a precursor of the modern chemical film.
But it wasn't just film and camera technologies that were being advanced during that time, because even the methods of taking photos were taking huge strides. In 1849, a Russian photographer named Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, a man who created a bellows camera design that improved the way photographers would focus, began using artificial light in studios, to take photos of subjects. It was a far cry from the old ways of using simple or natural light, and have earned him numerous awards during his time, in addition to beginning the trend of studio photography.
These major milestones of the past, paved the way for more modern cameras, lenses, and films, to be made. With the arrival of digital photography, however, along with massive advancements in technology, photography is poised to take even greater strides in the near future. These advancements would make photography even more accessible, and more enjoyable by the average person.
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