Photography has already become quite commonplace, to which modern man I've been used to it for a long time Everyday life. However, photography was previously considered a real miracle. Over its more than 150-year history, it has overcome a huge development path. Looking back into the past, we can dwell on the most significant milestones and moments associated with recording the reality around us and obtaining photographic images.
First photo (1826)
It is known that the first photo was taken in 1826. It was a shot of "View from a Window" by inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niepce. He obtained the photograph using a camera with a tin plate, which was covered with a layer of asphalt. The exposure time of the image was eight hours. But in fact, the first photograph, apparently, was taken by the same talented Frenchman four years earlier, but it simply did not survive.
The “view from the window” photograph (20×25 cm) is considered the first photograph in history. Obtained by Niépce in 1825 using a camera obscura on a tin plate covered with a thin layer of asphalt. The exposure lasted eight hours in bright sunlight.
Niépce was the first to think that if you cover a tin plate with a thin layer of asphalt, which is sensitive to light, you can capture a photographic image. In the photo “View from the Window” that has survived to this day, we can only see the roofs of city houses located next to the house where Niepce lived with his family.
The first photograph of a man (1838)
The first photo with a person in it was taken in 1838 by self-taught inventor Louis Daguerre. It was he who invented the so-called daregotype. To create it, you had to take a plate that was covered with a thin layer of silver, and then “expose it” for some time in the camera. After which the silver had to be “fixed” with mercury vapor, and finally, the plate had to be placed in a bath of sodium sulfite to obtain the finished photographic image. It was with this technology that a photograph of a man was taken in 1838.
Interestingly, in order to take this photo, Louis Daguerre needed an exposure of about ten minutes. As a result, the entire street in the photo turned out to be practically deserted, although carriages drove along it at that time and people moved around. But all the moving objects simply did not have time to be captured in the frame due to such a long exposure. Except for the human figure in the lower left corner. Apparently he remained motionless for some time as he waited for the shoe shine man he was standing next to to do his job. By coincidence, it was this man who went down in history as the first person to be captured on camera.
First portrait (1839)
It is generally accepted that the first portrait was taken in 1839 by photographer Robert Cornelius. Among other things, this man is also known for being the first in the United States to open a private photography studio, simultaneously selling gas lanterns.
In fact, this was the first self-portrait or, in modern terminology, a “selfie”-style photograph. Simply after removing the cap of a bulky photographic lens, Cornelius rushed into the frame himself, after which he sat in front of the camera for a little over a minute to ensure the proper exposure of the photo. Thus, he managed to obtain a photographic image of himself.
First photo under water (1856)
In 1856, the first photograph was taken underwater. The authorship belongs to William Thompson, who used a camera mounted on a pole for this. He installed a pole with a camera on the bottom of the sea near the coast. In this photo, which, of course, turned out to be of very low quality, only seaweed could be seen.
But the first photo taken by a person directly during his own dive under water had to wait almost another four decades. In 1893, Louis Boutant, wearing a heavy diving suit, sank into the depths of the sea to a depth of fifty meters and took that very historical photograph. To illuminate the underwater scene, Bhutan even had to invent special lighting equipment. But still, filming underwater took about three hours. It is not for nothing that Louis Boutan is today called the pioneer of underwater photography. By the way, this difficult experiment with underwater photography seriously affected the health of the legendary underwater explorer, and he stopped his experiments in photography at significant depths.
The first photo in color was taken already in 1926. This photograph was taken by Dr. William Longley in the Gulf of Mexico. To create color photographs, he had to use several cameras, enclosed in a waterproof, protective case, and a mass of explosive magnesium powder needed to provide illumination in the water column.
First photo from the air (1858)
In 1858, photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Felix Tournache (Nadar) photographed the capital of the French state with hot air balloon. These photographs of Paris were the first to be taken from a great height. Interestingly, Nadar himself, as a true artist, was initially opposed to photography, but nevertheless turned to the camera through his work as a theater director. True, these historical shots of Paris, unfortunately, have not survived to our time.
"Boston as the eagle sees it and wild goose", 1860 First photomontage (1858)
We all know very well what photomontage is. This is the combination of several photos into one complete image. In film days, montages were made by cutting and gluing together photographs. Today thanks graphic editors and the possibility of obtaining digital photographs, creating a photo montage is a matter of just a couple of minutes. However, it is difficult to believe that the first photomontage in history was made at the dawn of photography, when photographers were dealing with very bulky and inconvenient equipment.
This happened in 1858, when Henry Robinson managed to combine several negatives into one full-fledged picture. The image, titled "Fading Away," was compiled from five images. The theme of the final photograph was very controversial and provocative for that time - the slow and terrible death of a girl from tuberculosis. Of course, such work could not attract the attention of the public, causing a lot of discussion and criticism.
First photo in color
Tartan Ribbon, James Maxwell The first full-fledged color photograph was taken already at a time when even the creation of the simplest black-and-white photograph, due to the low sensitivity of the plates, was impossible challenging task. This happened in 1861, when the talented scientist James Maxwell received the photo “Tartan Ribbon”. The first photographic image in color was a projection onto a screen of three slides (red, green and blue).
First photo from space
Another thing happened in 1946 significant event in the history of the development of photography. A series of shots of our planet were taken from an American V-2 rocket equipped with a 35 mm movie camera. These grainy black-and-white images are the first photographic images of Earth taken from space. Unique shots were recorded from a suborbital altitude (approximately 150 kilometers). These rockets, with film and photographic equipment on board, launched from Earth several times between 1946 and 1950, and with their help a total of more than a thousand photographs of the planet were taken.
The priceless black-and-white footage then appeared in American newspapers and was carefully analyzed by scientists and researchers. The first color photo was taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft in 1972.
Finally, one more thing is worth mentioning interesting fact from the history of photography. Most of us believe that three-dimensional three-dimensional photographic images appeared only in last decades. But in fact, the very idea of 3D images arose back in the 20s of the last century. Back then, Cavenders was trying to find a way to increase sales of its cigarette products by creating interesting, attractive packaging. To do this, its representatives decided to turn to Durden Holmes, who proposed a completely extraordinary solution. Namely, print two photographs located side by side on the packs - one for the left eye, the other for the right. Moreover, one of the photographs on the cigarette packaging was slightly shifted. In this simple way, the effect of depth appeared, attracting the viewer’s eye. These advertising pictures can easily be called the first example of 3D photographic images.
The art of photography, unlike painting, sculpture, architecture, appeared relatively recently and many are interested in where it all began. Almost 200 years have passed since the first photograph was taken. Much has changed since then, and photographic equipment has become incredibly high-quality and varied, but those very, very first photographs still arouse great interest and excite the imagination.
The very first photograph in the world, which was made in 1826 by the Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce. His invention became the first step towards the ability to take photographs, and subsequently to television, cinema and so on. The photo is titled: “View from the window on Le Gras.” To create this image, Joseph Niepce smeared a thin layer of asphalt onto a metal plate and exposed it to the sun for eight hours in a camera obscura. After an eight-hour exposure, an image of the visible landscape from the window appeared on the plate. This is how the very first photograph in the world appeared.
The first photograph of a person. The photo was taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838. The photo is called: Boulevard du Temple. View from the window onto a busy street. Because the shutter speed was 10 minutes, all the people on the streets blurred and disappeared, except for one person who stood motionless and became visible in the lower left part of the photo.
In 1858, 32 years after the first photograph, Henry Peach Robinson made the first photomontage. Fading Away is a photograph combined from five negatives. The photo shows a girl who died of tuberculosis and her relatives gathered around.
The first color photograph appeared in 1861. It was created by the Scottish mathematician and physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
The first self-portrait (what is now commonly called a fashionable word - selfie) was created in 1875. The photograph is by Mathew B. Brady. It was he who first came up with the idea of photographing himself.
First photo from the air. It was made in 1903. The inventor of this method was Julius Neubronner. For this purpose, he attached cameras with a timer to the pigeons.
In 1926, the first color underwater photograph was taken. The photo was taken by Dr. William Longley Charles Martin in the Gulf of Mexico.
The first photograph from space was taken on October 24, 1946. The photo was taken with a 35mm camera mounted on a rocket and fired 65 miles above the Earth.
You have to start somewhere! In this collection you will see not only the very first photo in history, but also the first “selfie”, the first color photo and even the first DNA photo.
1. The world's first photograph
Many people experimented with image capture at the time, but the first true photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. The earliest surviving photograph of him is called "View from a Window", and was taken from the window of his studio in France.
2. The first ever photograph of people
Photographs taken in 1838 required long exposures, which meant that all moving objects disappeared from the image. Luckily for photographer Louis Daguerre, a shoe shiner was caught in the shot, standing motionless long enough to be caught on camera.
3. The first "selfie" (and also the first portrait)
Robert Cornelius was a lamp maker who pioneered the art of photography. He took the first ever portrait (and self-portrait, respectively) in Philadelphia in 1839.
4. First photo prank
Hippolyte Bayard claimed to be the inventor of photography. So when the French Academy of Sciences recognized Louis Daguerre rather than Bayard, he took it personally. In response, Bayard created this self-portrait in 1840, captioning it “The corpse you see here belongs to M. Bayard.”
5. First photo full moon
John William Draper took the first photograph of the moon in 1840 using a telescope.
6. The first photo of people drinking
David Octavius Hill was a pioneer of photography with a sense of humor. What did he do when he first received the revolutionary technology? In 1844, he photographed himself and friends while they were drinking.
7. First photo of the sun
In 1845, five years after the first image of the full moon was taken, French physicists Louis Fizeau and Léon Foucault took this photograph of the sun.
8. The first ever photographs from a war zone
The Crimean War of 1853-1856 attracted the attention of Europe in the mid-19th century. Then Prince Albert sent photographer Roger Fenton to Crimea to document what was happening. Thus, Fenton became the first war photojournalist.
9. First photo from the air (almost)
The photograph of Boston from above was taken from a hot air balloon by James Wallace Black in 1860, and is the oldest surviving aerial photograph.
But, in fact, it was not he who took the first photograph in the air - it is believed that a French photographer named Nadar took similar photos in Paris two years before Black. Unfortunately, these photos have not survived.
10. The world's first color photograph
To take this photograph in 1861, physicist James Clerk Maxwell asked photographer Thomas Sutton to take three identical photographs with different color filters: red, green and blue-violet. When the three images were combined, they formed the first color photo in history.
11. First high-speed photography
In 1872, railroad magnate Leland Stanford hired photographer Eadweard Muybridge to find out whether a horse's four hooves left the ground at the same time while running. It took some time, but in 1878 Muybridge, using dozens of cameras, proved that all four hooves do indeed leave the ground at the same time.
12. First photo of lightning
In September 1882, Philadelphia photographer William Jennings did what was thought impossible: he captured a lightning strike on camera.
13. First photo of the plane in the air
On December 17, 1903, photographer and friend of the Wright brothers, John T. Daniels, captured history. Daniels later said he was so excited when the plane took off that he almost forgot to take a photo.
14. First photo of a tornado
When a tornado struck Central City, Kansas, in April 1884, a local farmer and amateur photographer named A.A. Adams quickly assembled his equipment and captured the first ever image of a tornado.
15. The first photograph of an atomic explosion
These pictures were taken with an automatic military movie camera during the first test atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, July 16, 1945.
16. The first photo taken from outer space
On October 24, 1946, the United States launched a suborbital rocket with a camera that took a photo every one and a half seconds. These photos were taken at an altitude of 104 kilometers from Earth, which is five times higher than the previous record.
17. First digital photograph
In 1957, American engineer Russell Kirsch and his team at the National Bureau of Standards developed the first digital image scanner. The first digital image Kirsch took was of his three-month-old son Walden.
18. The first photograph of the Earth taken from the Moon
In 1966, the world saw our planet from the moon for the first time. The photo was taken on August 3, 1966.
19. The first photo from the surface of Mars
On July 20, 1976, Viking 1 landed on Mars and took the first photo from the surface of the red planet.
20. The first photo uploaded to the World Wide Web
In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee invited the parody rock band Les Horribles Cernettes (which was founded by employees of the European Organization for Nuclear Research) to donate their photo to his project, which he called "The World Wide Web." If only they knew then that their photo would be the first on the Internet!
21. First DNA photo
In 2012, using an electron microscope and a microscopic “photo studio,” a physics professor at the University of Magna Graecia named Enzo Di Fabrizio took the first photograph of a double helix model of DNA.
22. The first photo of a hydrogen atom from the inside
In 2013, using a newly invented quantum microscope, physicist Aneta Stodolna and her team at the Institute of Atomic and molecular physics In the Netherlands, for the first time, a photograph of the internal structure of an atom was taken.
This photograph, entitled “View from a Window,” was taken by photography pioneer Joseph Nicéphore Niepce in 1826. The shot was taken from an upstairs window at Niépce's estate in Burgundy, France. The image was produced using a process known as heliography.
The first color photograph was created by physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. This is a picture of a three-color bow called a Tartan Ribbon (or Tartan Ribbon).
NASA photographers photographed the first launch at Cape Canaveral in July 1950. The two-stage Bumper 2 rocket you see in the frame contained a V-2 rocket (upper stage) and a WAC Corporal (lower stage).
The first digital photograph was taken in 1957; almost 20 years before Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera. This is a digital scan of a photograph originally taken on film. It shows Russell Kirsch's son.
The first photograph of a person is considered to be the picture you see above. It was made by Louis Daguerre. The exposure lasted about seven minutes. The shot captures the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. In the lower left corner of the photo you can see a man who stopped to clean his shoes.
Robert Cornelius set up his camera and took the world's first self-portrait while on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. He sat in front of the lens for just over a minute before the lens closed. This historical selfie was taken in 1839.
The first hoax photograph was taken in 1840 by Hippolyte Bayard, who competed with Louis Daguerre in claiming the title of “father of photography.” Bayard was supposedly the first to develop a photographic process, but delayed reporting his achievement. And the efficient Daguerre presented a report on the daguerreotype without mentioning Bayard, who, in despair, made his self-portrait with a regrettable signature. It said that the inconsolable inventor drowned himself.
The first aerial photograph was taken from a hot air balloon in 1860. It depicts the city of Boston from a height of 610 meters. The photographer, James Wallace Black, titled his work “Boston as Seen by the Eagle and the Wild Goose.”
The first photograph (daguerreotype) of the Sun was taken by French physicists Louis Fizeau and Foucault Leon on April 2, 1845.
The first photograph from space was taken from the V-2 rocket, which was launched on October 24, 1946. This is a black and white image of the Earth taken with a 35 mm camera at an altitude of 104.6 km.
The photojournalist's name is unknown, but this image, taken in 1847, is considered the first news photograph. It shows a man who was detained by police in France.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, became the first head of state to have his photograph taken. The daguerreotype was taken in 1843, many years after Adams left office.
This photograph was taken by photographer William Jennings in 1882.
Disasters are not the most pleasant topic, but you can learn from the mistakes of the past. This photo was taken in 1908, when aviator Thomas Selfridge died, becoming the first victim of an air crash.
John William Draper was the first to photograph the Moon on March 26, 1840. He obtained the image using daguerreotype from the rooftop observatory at New York University.
The first color landscape, showing the world natural colors, was filmed in 1877. Photographer Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron, a pioneer of color photography, captured the landscape in the south of France.
The Earth was photographed from the Moon on August 23, 1966. This image was taken from the Lunar Orbiter traveling in close proximity to the Earth's satellite.
Nature sometimes demonstrates its enormous destructive power. This image of a tornado was taken in 1884 in Anderson County, Kansas. Amateur photographer A.A. Adams was 22.5 km from the tornado.
The first mention of creating an image on a wall was made in China five centuries BC. However, the actual beginning of the development of photography in modern understanding dates back to 1828, when the first photograph was taken of the human figure. This became possible as a result of the discovery in 1634 by the chemist Gomberg of the photosensitivity of silver nitrate, and the physician Schulze in 1727 discovered the sensitivity of silver chloride to light. Then Chester Moore developed an achromat lens, and the Swedish chemist Scheele made it possible to ensure the stability of photographs against light (1777).
Interesting and educational history The invention of photography will be told to the reader further.
The origins of photography
Numerous experiments to create a stable photograph led to the production of a stable photograph on a brass plate using heliography technology (1827), which has survived to this day. The official announcement of the discovery of the daguerreotype by Daguerre and Niepce, made in January 1839 by physicist Francois Arago at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, is officially recognized as the date of the invention of photography.
Development of photography at the first stage
In his development XIX a century characterized by industrial, radical social change, made the invention of photography a necessity. Actively developing dynamic society the man-made image could no longer satisfy. At the beginning of their appearance, photographs were of an applied nature and were perceived as an auxiliary tool. For example, for the purpose of documenting botanical specimens or for recording specific objects, events, or capturing found artifacts. The now common practice of photographing people and other living objects was difficult and expensive in the early days of photography, a 19th-century invention.
Obtaining a negative consists of several stages:
- The prepared silver plate is placed in a camera obscura.
- After opening the lens, a barely noticeable image appears in the silver iodide layer when exposed to sunlight.
- The image was fixed by treating the removed plate with mercury vapor in the dark and subsequent treatment with a solution of table salt (hyposulfite).
Alternative Methods
Many scientists were involved in the invention of photography. Thus, the English inventor Fauquet Talbot, who worked in the same period as the French, obtained photography, the invention of the century, in a different way. In a camera obscura, an image is obtained on paper soaked in a light-sensitive solution. Then the photograph is developed and fixed, and a positive image is printed from the negative on special paper.
The disadvantage of both methods is the need to stand for a long time (30 minutes) in front of the camera in a motionless state. In addition, the use of heated mercury vapor to obtain a daguerreotype is unsafe for health.
Invention of color photography
Between a photograph in black and white and a color one there is a distance of 30 years. English physicist and mathematician James Maxwell took three color photographs of the same object using filters of different colors. The next invention was the invention of Louis Hiron from France. To obtain color photographs, he used photographic materials sensitized with chlorophyll. By exposing black-and-white plates through color filters, he obtained color-separated negatives. Then the images from the three negatives were combined into one using a chronoscope, and a color photograph was obtained.
Improving Color Photography
Louis Ducos du Hauron, by copying three negatives onto gelatin positives painted in the appropriate colors, simplified the process of obtaining color photography (you already know briefly about the invention). Three gelatin positives folded into a sandwich, illuminated with white light, were projected by one device. At that time, the inventor was unable to bring his idea to life due to the low level of photoemulsion technology. Subsequently, his method became the basis for the emergence of multilayer photographic materials, which are modern color films. In 1861, using three-color technology, Thomas Sutton took the world's first color photograph. Good photographs were obtained using photographic plates from the Lumiere Brothers, which began to be sold in 1907.
Further development of color photography
The real breakthrough in color imaging came with the invention of 35mm color photographic film in 1935. Marvelous high quality The images were produced using Kodachrome 25 color film, which was only recently discontinued. The quality of the film is so high that even half a century later, the slides made at that time look the same as when developed. The disadvantage is that the dyes were introduced at the editing stage, which was only possible in a laboratory located in Kansas.
The first negative film capable of producing color photographs was released by Kodak in 1942. However, until 1978, when film development became available at home, Kodachrome color slides were the most popular and widespread.
Photography equipment
The first camera is considered to be a model developed by the English photographer Sutton in 1861, consisting of a large box with a lid on top and a tripod. The lid did not let in any light, but you could look through it. In the box, using mirrors, an image was formed on a glass plate. The active development of photography dates back to 1889, when George Eastman patented a fast camera, which he called the Kodak.
The next step in the photographic industry was the creation in 1914 by a German inventor named O. Barnack of a small camera into which film was loaded. Based on this idea, ten years later, the Leitz Company, under the Leica brand, began mass production of film cameras with focusing and delay functions when shooting. Such a device made it possible for a significant number of amateur photographers to take pictures without the participation of professionals. The release of Polaroid cameras in 1963, where the picture is taken instantly, led to a real revolution in the field of photography.
Digital cameras
The development of electronics led to the emergence of digital photography. The pioneer in this direction was Fujifilm, which released the first digital camera in 1978. The principle of their operation is based on the invention of Boyle and Smith, who proposed a charge-coupled device. The first digital camera weighed three kilograms, and the picture was recorded for 23 seconds.
Massive active development digital cameras dates back to 1995. In the modern photo industry market, a huge range of models of digital cameras, video cameras, and mobile phones with built-in cameras are offered. In them, the rich are responsible for getting a beautiful photo. software. In addition, you can further edit your digital photo on your computer.
Stages of creating photographic materials
Discoveries in the photographic industry were associated with the desire to capture visual information technical means, achieve clear, accurate images. Such photographs have educational, artistic value and significance for society and individuals. The main thing in this is to find ways to secure and obtain a stable image of any object.
The first photograph was taken using a pinhole camera on a metal plate covered with a thin asphalt layer. The invention of gelatin emulsion in 1871 by Richard Maddox made it possible to produce photographic materials industrially.
Lavender oil and kerosene were used to wash asphalt from loose and unlit areas. Improving Niepce's invention, Daguerre proposed a silver plate for exposure, which, after holding it in a dark room for half an hour, he held over mercury vapor. The image was fixed with a solution of table salt. Talbot's method, which he called capotonia and which was proposed at the same time as the daguerreotype, used paper coated with a layer of silver chloride. Talbot's paper negatives allowed for a large number of copies to be made, but the image was unclear.
Gelatin emulsion
Eastman's proposal to pour gelatin emulsion onto celluloid, introduced in 1884 new material, led to the advent of photographic film. Replacing heavy plates, which could be damaged if handled carelessly, with celluloid film not only made the work of photographers easier, but also opened up new horizons for camera design.
The Lumière brothers proposed producing the film in the form of a roll, and Edison improved it with perforation, and from 1982 to today it has been used in the same form. The only replacement was that cellulose acetate material was used instead of flammable celluloid. The invention of photographic emulsion made it possible to replace paper, metal plates and glass with more suitable material. The latest advancement was the replacement of roll film with digital.
Development of photography in Russia
The very first daguerreotype device in Russia appeared literally a year after the invention of photography. Aleksey Grekov, starting in 1840, established the production of daguerreotype devices and offered service and consulting services. The great master of photography, Levitsky, proposed a significant improvement to the device in the form of leather bellows between the stand and the body of the device. Grekov took the lead in the use of photography in printing. IN Russia XIX centuries were invented:
- Stereoscopic apparatus.
- Curtain shutter.
- Automatic shutter speed adjustment.
IN Soviet time More than two hundred camera models were developed and put into production. Currently, the attention of inventors is aimed at increasing the level of resolution.
Information about the invention of cinema
Photography was one of the first steps towards cinema. Initially, many scientists worked to create a device that could bring the drawing to life. After the advent of photography, in 1877, chronophotography was invented - a type of photography that allows you to record the movement of an object using photography. This was a significant step in the development of cinema. The invention of photography is one of the most significant achievements of the 19th century. And it's hard to argue with that.
