Major Moments in photography

Photography truly began after the work of many scientists work was pieced together to lead to the discovery of camera obscura. It was noticed ages ago that a sunbeam penetrating through a tiny hole into a dark room would leave a light drawing of the outer world objects on the wall. The outside objects outside the pinhole are seen exactly as they are on the wall as they are outside. The only differences would be size ratio and the image was seen flipped upside down. After this discovery a waterfall of findings and inventions began to take place. A good handful of those discoveries either changed the game completely, or propelled it forward at an immense speed. All of which lead to the capabilities of the cameras today.

The first major discovery comes from Joseph Nicephore Niepce. This man is credited with creating the first permanent photographic image in 1826 called “View from the Window at Le Gras”. In order to achieve his final product Niepce used a camera obscura. He used a bitumen coated pewter plate and lenses from a Paris optician, to cast an image of the view of the courtyard outside his window. The exposure time needed for the photograph took approximately 8 hours to complete. The exposure was then washed with a mixture of oil, lavender and petroleum, revealing a view of the surrounding buildings, and courtyard. He called his photography changing process “heliography.” His discovery ultimately led to a partnership with Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1829.

After the partnership the two directed their work to achieve a far lower exposure time than the excessive time it already took. Unfortunately Niepce passed away due to a fatal stroke in July of 1833. Daguerre did not stop there. He went on to discover a process, which...

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...on. From this point the camera very quickly turned into what we see them as today.

The everyday person is now able to take photos of whatever he/she wants whenever they want. There’s no need for a portable darkroom, a handful of chemicals, butimen plates, or even 8-hour exposure times. All this is thanks to the guys like Joseph Nicephore Niepce, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Henry Fox Talbot, and many others. Personally I believe these guys deserve more credit. Photography is one of the most powerful tools. It is used in advertising, documenting, to sell a product or service, for publicity, commentary, and even one of the greatest art forms. Their discoveries allowed us to instantly snap a Hi-definition photo from an 8mp crystal clear camera, with the touch of a button on our cell phones, all of which resulting from the discovery of camera obscura ages ago.