Since the first photo was taken, photography technology has evolved and continues to evolve. With today’s technology, it is possible to take hundreds or even thousands of photos in seconds. But in the past, of course, everything was very different.
The history of photography goes back to the times when humanity tried to understand the properties of darkness and light.
It all started with the discovery of the dark room. So what is a dark room?
The darkroom/box, called the pinhole in English and the camera obscura in photography, is the earliest known form of the camera.
A small hole is drilled into a light-tight sealed room. The light reflected from the object opposite the hole passes through the small hole and is reflected on the opposite surface in the room.
The history of the darkroom dates back to the 4th century BC.
Although the Chinese philosopher Mozi gave the description of the dark room, the later scholars did not put this view into practice.
The person who took the first serious step towards this view was Ibn al-Haytham. Known as the “ancestor of modern optics”, Ibn al-Haytham tried this technique practically and succeeded in viewing the reflections of objects in the dark room.
Over the past centuries, scientists and scholars have understood the principles of the light and the dark room, and have added new ideas to their development.
The first photograph was taken in the 19th century.
This photograph called “Looking at Le Gras from the Window”, taken in France in 1827 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, is the oldest photograph ever taken. Niépce called this process “Heliography”, which means “drawing the sun”.
Examining the letters of Niépce and his brother, we realize that the first photograph was actually taken in 1824, not 1827. This photo, projected onto a stone surface, was later deleted. After 3 years, he achieved a permanent photograph by reflecting the view from the window of his house, this time on a lead-tin alloy plate. There are different studies and opinions about how long the photo was taken. Some sources say that it takes 8 hours, some sources say that this process takes a few days.
Two years after the photograph was taken, Niépce began collaborating with Louis Daguerre, who was looking for a way to create a permanent photograph. Together they discovered a new technique in which photos are created using photosensitive chemicals. He exposed a silver plate to iodine vapor, creating a light-sensitive surface. Then, a photograph was projected onto this surface, which had a powdery white appearance. Thanks to this process, the exposure time was greatly reduced and a clearer image was obtained.
The two worked together until Niépce died in 1833. After that, Louis Daguerre invented a new technique he called “daguerreotypie”. Thanks to this technique, it was possible to produce more permanent and clear images with the development of ink printing.
Louis Daguerre took the “first photograph of a human being”.
When you look at this photo, you will see two silhouettes of people on a ghostly street. Shoemaker and someone who polishes his shoes. “And where are the other people?” you may be asking. The answer is quite simple; At that time, it was necessary to make a long exposure in order to take pictures. In other words, it was necessary for the camera and objects to remain still in order for the light to pass through the lens and be reflected in the dark room. Otherwise, the moving objects would not be visible in the photo.
William Henry Fox Talbot, who was in England at the same time, was working on the same process in his own way. Talbot’s process was to create a negative image using photosensitive paper coated with silver chloride. The resulting image had a big and important difference from previous processes, and that was the ability to reproduce these photos. The negative image could be used for more than one positive print.
The first consciously photographed self-portrait.
American photographer Robert Cornelius was working on the photography process just like others. In 1839, he adjusted his camera and faced it. Staring at the lens for 10-15 minutes, Cornelius became the first person in history to photograph himself (selfie). It was also the first manned photograph to be deliberately taken in America.
The great invention that paved the way for cinema.
Eadweard Muybridge is an English photographer who wrote his name in the history of photography in gold letters towards the end of the 19th century.
Hired by a racehorse-owning businessman from California, Muybridge’s job was to find out if the horses had all their feet off the ground while running. In order to fulfill this task, he placed a camera at regular intervals along the entire path of the horse, and when the horse started to run, he began to photograph one after the other. When you look at these photos in quick succession, it is possible to see that the horse looks like it is running. This was the first major step that laid the foundations of cinema.
In 1855, Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell took the first color photograph in history.
With this technique, three separate photographs with the same image; red, green and blue color components were taken separately and then these three photos were combined to form a color photograph. By photographing a colored ribbon with this method, Maxwell took the first color photograph in history.
When we come to the 20th century, taking photographs has become more common and easier than in the past.
Invented in 1885 by Kodak founder George Eastman, the film roll became more accessible with Kodak Film. There was no longer a need for large parts and materials to take photographs. Anyone with a Kodak camera could take pictures.
When we look at the historical process of taking photos, which has become almost as ordinary as breathing today, we understand how precious a process it was to take photos in the past. In fact, photographing was very valuable for everyone until our recent past. How can we forget 36 exposure movies?
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