THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (TO 1839)
Daguerreotype
- Daguerreotype is a photographic technique taking its name from Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre . It used a silver or silver -coated copper plate to register an image in a camera obscura. The daguerreotype plates were eventually standardized in terms of size (width first).
- Construction of a daguerreotype: hinged, velvet-lined case, plate. frame. matte, and glass.
- The daguerreotype's greatest technical advantage is its ability to render incredible detail.
- Early exposure times are 4 to 5 minutes.
- Very sharp, lots of detail, people loved this
- Metal plate is sturdy
- Highly mirrored surface, ghostly vision
- Does not have a full tonal range (no whites) since it is on a piece of metal
- Does not have a negative, so you can’t make multiple prints
- The surface is very shiny so it scratches easily,placed in cases to preserve them
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
- Photography was presented to the world on August 19,1839, at a joint meeting of the Academy of Science and the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.
- Because Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was sick, he did not originally present. Francois Arago (1786-1853) presented the invention, but credit is given to Jacques-Mande Daguerre.
- The basic ingredients of photography- a light-tight box, lenses, and light-sensitive substances- had been known for hundreds of years before they were combined.
Silhouette or shadow drawing
- Silhouettes, or shadow portraits, were part entertainment and part artistic venture.
- Silhouette-makers primarily served the bourgeoisie, but they also sold profile portraits on the streets and at parties.
- The middle class tried to define itself as a distinct social class by buying these portraits.
- People would sit in front of a sheet of paper with either candle light or sunlight casting a shadow of their profile onto the paper which the artist would then trace.
- The artist might cut the profile out and use it as a guide to cut out their portrait from dark paper or just color in the outline with black ink.
The Camera Obscura and Camera Lucida
- Camera Obscura means dark room, the camera obscura was originally a darkened chamber with a hole or lens in one wall that allowed an image of the outside world to be projected on to the opposite wall. Small, portable versions were later constructed, which made it possible to copy images reflected on to a panel of translucent glass. The camera obscura ultimately became the box of the photographic camera.
- Camera Lucida means light room, the camera lucida was neither a light, nor a room, but a prism, mounted on a slim rod attached to a drawing board. By adjusting the prism, an artist could create the illusion that a scene was projected on to the drawings board.
The " Sun Writing" of Niépce
- Another precursor of photography was the "sun writing" developed in France by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833).
- Lithography: A printing technique in which an image is reproduced on a flat surface, originally a stone, but later a copper or zinc plate, rather than by being cut or gouged into a surface, like metal or wood. To make a lithograph, the surface is treated in such a way that areas intended to convey an image will hold ink, and the remaining or negative areas will repel ink.
- Negative, positive, direct positive: A negative is a photographically produced image in which the tones of the actual subject are reserved - that is , light areas are dark and darks are light. It is used to produce a positive print, in which tones are re-reversed to create an image that reproduces optical reality. A direct positive is a unique, single image without a negative . In a direct positive print, like the daguerreotype, an image is produced on a surface and then treated chemically to imitate the tonal range of nature.
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877)
Calotype: Also called the Talbotype, after British inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot, who patented the process in 1841. As with Daguerre's generous donation of the daguerreotype to the world, there were legal restrictions on its use. Photographers had to apply for a license, although Talbot gave the calotype process free to science and amateur photographers.
- Talbot, who was British, knew Sir John Herschel.
- He had had success as early as 1833 and 1834 in fixing a photographic image.
- At the time he heard about Daguerre’s announcement he had been about to announce his discovery to the British Royal Society.
- He didn’t know if his process was the same as Daguerre’s or different.
- Talbot, unlike Daguerre who was not well educated, had been educated at Cambridge and lived on his family estate (at Lacock Abbey).
Calotype: Also called the Talbotype, after British inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot, who patented the process in 1841. As with Daguerre's generous donation of the daguerreotype to the world, there were legal restrictions on its use. Photographers had to apply for a license, although Talbot gave the calotype process free to science and amateur photographers.