
History of Photography II From Calotype to Film
Evolution cont. • Daguerre’s and Niepce’s work was publicy announced at the Academie des Sciences in 1839 • Caused immediate public interest in the images • French painter Paul Delaroche declared “from this time on, painting is dead!”
Calotype • Following on the announcement of Daguerre, an englishman, William Henry Fox Talbot, announced his research to the Royal Society and the Royal Institution in England • He developed a process known as “Photogenic Drawing” • Used paper sensitized with silver chloride. Would expose in a camera and fix with a salt water bath. Talbot then contact printed the paper negative to a sensitized paper to form a positive print. Exposure times decreased. • Detail not as great as daguerreotype • Calotype process used to create first book of photography “The Pencil of Nature” 1844
William Henry Fox TalbotThe Open DoorPlate VI, "The Pencil of Nature"c. 1844
Fixing the Image • John Hershel invented a true method for fixing images • Used sodium thiosulfate, which he mistakenly called sodium hyposulfate. • Called it hypo and the term stuck to today! • Salt water fixatives became a thing of the past • Hershel coined terms photography, negative and postive
Collodion Wet-Plate Process • People wanted the ease of the negative to positive process, but with clarity and depth of detail found in daguerreotypes. • Experimented with coating glass plates with silver halide, using egg whites (albumen) as a carrier • Glass plates not as sensitive • Tried same process with paper and had better results. • Billions of eggs used in the late 19th century
Collodion cont. • Frederick Scott Archer used collodion as transparent adherent • Collodion = dissolved gun cotton in ether and alcohol which dries clear and tough • Mixed collodion with potassium iodide and coated on glass plate • Plate sensitized by dipping in silver nitrate, which created silver iodide • Drawback= plates had to be exposed and processed before collodion dried or development chemicals would not penetrate • Incredible results, could create many prints from plates….by 1850’s, daguerreotypes a thing of the past
Dry plate process • Gelatin became important adherent/carrier for silver salts. • Richard Maddox discovered in 1871 • Others perfected process by 1879 • Allowed for development at a later time and allowed for mass production
There’s More! • Glass plates still in use, but heavy and fragile • Search went on for a flexible, light and durable base • George Eastman invented a flexible base • First roll film! • However, base not transparent, so emulsion had to be stripped from base and processed at manufacturing plant. • Eastmen developed a returnable camera and promoted the slogan “You Push the Button, We Do the Rest!” • Modern day photography and mass appeal is born!