How Photography Has Evolved Over Time
Without photography, we wouldn’t have valuable memories, records, and hobbies. Though the miniaturization of photography developed in the 20th century, the concept of photography has existed since the time of ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations. Photography has a complicated background. Learn about its past and how photography has evolved over time to gain a better understanding of what the technology went through to end up as an essential application on any cellphone.
The Beginning: Camera Obscura
Before any invention’s creation, an idea must exist. Photography didn’t begin with chemical reactions and flashes of bright light—it began with manipulating shadows and light with simple architecture. Early editions of the camera obscura—Latin for “dark chamber”—consisted of a completely dark room with a small hole in one side. Sunlight would reflect off the objects outside the camera obscura and project them through the small hole onto one of the walls of the dark room.
The image would be both reversed and upside-down when projected, but the perspective and details would all be there. With a smaller hole in the wall, the image would become dimmer but sharper—if the hole was too small, the image would lose both sharpness and brightness.
Eventually, the camera obscura became smaller for portability and used both lenses and mirrors to present a better picture. Artists used both the room-sized and the smaller-sized camera obscura as references for their work. Some camera obscura are used as tourist attractions across the world—there are even a few in California still open to the public.
Photo Etching and Heliography: Slimming Down Exposure Length
Though the camera obscura was useful, capturing the projected image without the need to sketch it would prove more useful. The next step in photography was to use light-sensitive chemicals to leave an image on a surface. Innovators tried utilizing the photochemical effect to their advantage, but many failed—their images were often too dim and would darken over time.
The first inventor to create a permanent heliograph was Nicéphore Niépce of France in 1827. He used a camera obscura and a pewter plate coated in a light layer of bitumen of Judea—a naturally occurring asphalt and light-sensitive material. He left the camera obscura in the same position for at least 8 hours. Some scholars say that he would have had to leave the plate to expose for several days.
Niépce was unwilling to share the details of his experiment with the Royal Society, and his work nearly faded into obscurity with his death in 1833. Luckily, before his death, he gave his work to English botanical illustrator Francis Bauer—who would later get him the recognition he deserved for his work.
Daguerre Improves the Exposure Length
Niépce also worked with Louis Daguerre, another inventor, to shorten the exposure period needed to etch an image into the surface. They didn’t succeed at shortening the exposure, but they did make progress and managed to make the image look better.
Once Niépce passed away, Daguerre took up the mantle and brought back Niépce’s original idea of using silver halides. He sensitized a silver plate with iodine vapor, mercury vapor, and hot saltwater. After exposing the plate to the reflected light of the camera obscura for only a few minutes, he created the very first photograph featuring a person—and the highest quality photograph you could find at the time.
That daguerreotype lasted for about a hundred years in the Munich Arts Association before it required restoration. Unfortunately, it was kept in disastrous conditions during WWII, and the final attempts to restore it resulted in its destruction. Scans and recreations of Daguerre’s photo help preserve the memory.
The Transparent Photo Negative
Several inventors came forward with claims that they had invented the photograph before Daguerre and Niépce—though they had apparently kept their work secret. One of the inventors, a British man named William Fox Talbot, published his silver imaging method shortly after the publication of daguerreotypes.
He shortened the exposure process by focusing on a more efficient development stage using his calotype process. After letting his salted paper react to the well-lit object in the camera obscura and allowing an image to appear, Fox quickly shaded the paper and chemically developed the image in a darkroom.
Though this process was unpopular compared to the widely accessible daguerreotype, its legacy would pave the way for more modern photography. Fox’s technique evolved into the reproducible photo negative style of photo development, which became popular in the early 20th century. This allowed for the development of multiple copies of a single photograph, which consumers had wanted since the invention of the daguerreotype.
Adding Color
Originally, color photography required three separate photographs taken through three different colored filters—red, green, and blue. While this method worked well for still-life images, a moving person or object would create a ghostly visage of where they were during that filter’s shot.
George Eastman, the co-founder of Kodak, created the original photographic film roll for cameras in 1885. However, it wasn’t until 1935 that Kodak developed color film for cameras. Polaroid created instant color film with their instant cameras in 1963, and photographers of all ages would famously wave their photos in the air until they finished developing. This film would take over the photography industry and lead to the color camera becoming a household staple.
The Move To Digital
Film photography remained widely popular until the very late 20th century, when the swift evolution of technology took over the commercial and consumer photography market. Many companies tasked themselves with the invention of a completely digital camera, but ultimately, Sony and Fujifilm laid the foundation for digital photography in the 1980s. Sony developed a partially digital camera in 1981, while Fujifilm created the first camera to record and save images to digital in 1988.
During the 1990s, the industry continued to evolve as Kodak created its own digital cameras. In the late ‘90s, the price of a digital camera became low enough for average-income households to afford. Cellphone companies miniaturized the camera even further, seamlessly integrating them into flip-phones and eventually touch-screen phones. Cellphone cameras now compete with the quality of some high-end cameras—featuring added convenience.
Though the swift upgrade to digital played a large role in how photography has evolved over time, some photographers swear by film photography and many households still hang onto their physical photos and photo negatives.
With high-end scanners and photography experts, DiJiFi offers a photo digitizing service to anyone who needs their photos or old negatives converted to a digital medium. Whether you’re cleaning out a closet full of old memories or seeking a high-quality scanning service, contact us for assistance with your project today. Our experts will be happy to help you find the correct package you need.
