Daguerreotypes: The worlds first pictures
History of Early Photography
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In Paris, France there was an announcement to world in the year 1839 by the French Academy of Science. There was a statement made to the world that the world's first fixed photographic process was invented in France. Prior to this there was just the pinhole camera and the image was traced by an artist or an image could be viewed, but not captured. An inventor and an artist by the name of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, who was a amateur french scientist had developed the Daguerreotype process through which a permanent image could be viewed a silver plated sheet of copper.
Tele: 561-964-5036
In Paris, France there was an announcement to world in the year 1839 by the French Academy of Science. There was a statement made to the world that the world's first fixed photographic process was invented in France. Prior to this there was just the pinhole camera and the image was traced by an artist or an image could be viewed, but not captured. An inventor and an artist by the name of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, who was a amateur french scientist had developed the Daguerreotype process through which a permanent image could be viewed a silver plated sheet of copper.
The process Daguerreotype could be duplicated by anyone and could then be used in a commercial setting. France proposed to not patent this invention and decided they wanted to give this as a gift to the world. The first Daguerreotype form of pictures was born in France in 1839. Technically the daguerreotype were not the very first actual photograph taken but they were the most famous due to the development of the commercial photorgaphy process. Louis Daguerre is usually given the credit for the development of the worlds first fixed photographs.
A fellow frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce had made the very first picture or image with a view from a window in the year 1826, but Joseph Niepce died in the year 1833 and his project was not complete. The first successful permanent picture or photograph was produced by Joseph Niépce. He began experimenting with chemical processes to fix or set optical images in the year 1793 and some of his early camera works produced images. But the problem was that they faded rapidly. Joseph Niepce is credited to have first produced a long lasting pictorial image in the year 1824. Joseph Niépce called his process "heliography", which literally means "sun writing." The exposure time required is an issue that is still debated even today, and it is said that it is somewhere between 8 and 20 hours. Due to the extremely long exposure time, the process was used to photograph buildings and inanimate objects, and it could not be used to photograph people as they would move and the image would be blurred. Joseph worked with Louis Daguerre in the year 1829 on improving the photographic processes, but Niépce died suddenly from a stroke in the year 1833.
Joseph Niepce's photographic process used pewter and resin to fix the photographjic images. Daguerre's photographic process used silver plate on copper sheets that were treated with iodine to create silver-iodine to make the silver plates sensitive to light. When Louis Daguerre exposed the light sensitive plates in a primitive darkroom, using the vapors from mercury that he warmed, He then rinsed the photographic image with distilled water which fixed the images. This created splendid life-like images and he humbly named the photographic process after himself and he called this process the daguerreotypes.
The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who built upon a discovery by the German Johann Heinrich Schultz (1724). A silver and chalk mixture darkens upon exposure to light. Niépce and Louis Daguerre experimented and was able to refine this process. Daguerre first exposed the silver-plated copper plates to iodine, obtaining silver-iodide. Then he was able to expose them to light for several minutes. Then he coated the plate with mercury vapor that was heated to 167 degree Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius, to create a mixture or rather amalgate the mercury with the silver. They were finally able to fix the image in a salt water solution. These ideas led to the famous Daguerreotype.
A fellow frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce had made the very first picture or image with a view from a window in the year 1826, but Joseph Niepce died in the year 1833 and his project was not complete. The first successful permanent picture or photograph was produced by Joseph Niépce. He began experimenting with chemical processes to fix or set optical images in the year 1793 and some of his early camera works produced images. But the problem was that they faded rapidly. Joseph Niepce is credited to have first produced a long lasting pictorial image in the year 1824. Joseph Niépce called his process "heliography", which literally means "sun writing." The exposure time required is an issue that is still debated even today, and it is said that it is somewhere between 8 and 20 hours. Due to the extremely long exposure time, the process was used to photograph buildings and inanimate objects, and it could not be used to photograph people as they would move and the image would be blurred. Joseph worked with Louis Daguerre in the year 1829 on improving the photographic processes, but Niépce died suddenly from a stroke in the year 1833.
Joseph Niepce's photographic process used pewter and resin to fix the photographjic images. Daguerre's photographic process used silver plate on copper sheets that were treated with iodine to create silver-iodine to make the silver plates sensitive to light. When Louis Daguerre exposed the light sensitive plates in a primitive darkroom, using the vapors from mercury that he warmed, He then rinsed the photographic image with distilled water which fixed the images. This created splendid life-like images and he humbly named the photographic process after himself and he called this process the daguerreotypes.
The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who built upon a discovery by the German Johann Heinrich Schultz (1724). A silver and chalk mixture darkens upon exposure to light. Niépce and Louis Daguerre experimented and was able to refine this process. Daguerre first exposed the silver-plated copper plates to iodine, obtaining silver-iodide. Then he was able to expose them to light for several minutes. Then he coated the plate with mercury vapor that was heated to 167 degree Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius, to create a mixture or rather amalgate the mercury with the silver. They were finally able to fix the image in a salt water solution. These ideas led to the famous Daguerreotype.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
The resultant plate produced a mirror like exact reproduction of the scene. The image was a mirror like picture perfect reproduction of the original scene. The image could only be viewed at an angle and needed protection from the air and finger prints so they were encased in a glass protected case.
Daguerreotypes were created and were developed using natural lighting in makeshift artist studios. The object or person had to be perfectly still for a period of up to 45 minutes. This did not work very well for active young boys. Children where kept from moving by being restrained with a harness with metal neck braces. The children did not find this to be the most comfortable thing for them to put up with. The daguerreotype image itself is likened to the chalk on a chalkboard.
One needs to protect the image under glass and it is sealed to keep it from being exposed to the elements. There are early daguerreotype photographs on display in museums today to be viewed for our pleasure. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was able to create art on a miniature silver plated canvas that was made of copper that has been left behind for posterity.
Glossery and list of terms used when talking about Daguerreotypes;
Brass mat -- Used to frame the image and provides a protective space between the daguerreotype plate and the cover glass. Some of the brass mats are stamped with the photographer's name and address.
Case -- Daguerreotype cases are made from a variety of materials. The most common cases are made of wood covered with tooled leather or embossed paper. In 1854, thermal plastic union cases, noted for elaborate designs, came into use.
Calotypes -- Early commercial introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot in the year 1841 and it is a photographic process that uses paper that is coated with a silver-iodine compound. The root words comes from the Greek Καλο for 'good', and type meaning, 'drawing'. So the word literally means "good drawing". Calotypes was the first commercial process using the image to negative and negative to picture principle, greatly improving the contrast qualities of the resulting pictures or images. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotype
Daguerreotype -- A plate of copper, plated with silver. After cleaning and polishing the silver plated plate, they were exposed to iodine vapors which created a light-sensitive surface that resembled a mirror. The plate, which was held in a lightproof holder, was then put into the camera and was then exposed to a subject or object in the light. The silver coated copper bodied plate had the image developed over hot mercury vapors until the object image appeared. To fix the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride. sodium thiosulfate is used in water treatment for testing compounds in water. This substance is found in municipal water treatment plants all over the United States. Source: http://duenow.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiosulfate
Hallmark -- Stamped marks on the daguerreotype plate that identify the manufacturer of the plate or the photographic supply house. Hallmarks usually consist of symbols, initials, and/or numbers. The number indicates the ratio of silver to copper. The most popular number was 40, indicating 1 part silver to 39 parts copper. Hallmark is was used as a term long before the printed greeting card company was around. If you want picture greeting cards then please contact me.
Preserver -- is a thin brass binding that is used to hold the daguerreotype, brass mat, and cover glass together. Preservers were widely used in the 1850s.
Timeline of the Daguerreian Era
1839: The invention of the daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is formally announced in Paris, France. William Henry Fox Talbot announces a camera-less photographic process which he calls photogenic drawing. This creates an image of plant forms, lace and any other small object that is placed directly on a sheet of light-sensitive paper. In September 1839 the first American daguerreotypes are made in New York City.
1840 William Henry Harrison is elected as President of the United States of America.
1841 William Henry Fox Talbot patents the calotype, or a paper negative process.
This lays the foundation of the paper printing process by Kodak to print pictures that is still in use today. President William Henry Harrison dies and is succeeded by John Tyler as president of the USA. Circus great and showman P. T. Barnum opens the American Museum in New York City.
1851 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype, dies. Daguerreotypes are exhibited at the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations held at London's Crystal Palace in England.
1854 James Ambrose Cutting patents the ambrotype process. In the late 1850s, the ambrotype would replace the daguerreotype. George Eastman, the father of Kodak and the Kodak camera, is born.
1856 William and Frederick Langenheim copyright the first paper photographs, stereographs of Eastern U. S. sites.
The resultant plate produced a mirror like exact reproduction of the scene. The image was a mirror like picture perfect reproduction of the original scene. The image could only be viewed at an angle and needed protection from the air and finger prints so they were encased in a glass protected case.
Daguerreotypes were created and were developed using natural lighting in makeshift artist studios. The object or person had to be perfectly still for a period of up to 45 minutes. This did not work very well for active young boys. Children where kept from moving by being restrained with a harness with metal neck braces. The children did not find this to be the most comfortable thing for them to put up with. The daguerreotype image itself is likened to the chalk on a chalkboard.
One needs to protect the image under glass and it is sealed to keep it from being exposed to the elements. There are early daguerreotype photographs on display in museums today to be viewed for our pleasure. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was able to create art on a miniature silver plated canvas that was made of copper that has been left behind for posterity.
Glossery and list of terms used when talking about Daguerreotypes;
Brass mat -- Used to frame the image and provides a protective space between the daguerreotype plate and the cover glass. Some of the brass mats are stamped with the photographer's name and address.
Case -- Daguerreotype cases are made from a variety of materials. The most common cases are made of wood covered with tooled leather or embossed paper. In 1854, thermal plastic union cases, noted for elaborate designs, came into use.
Calotypes -- Early commercial introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot in the year 1841 and it is a photographic process that uses paper that is coated with a silver-iodine compound. The root words comes from the Greek Καλο for 'good', and type meaning, 'drawing'. So the word literally means "good drawing". Calotypes was the first commercial process using the image to negative and negative to picture principle, greatly improving the contrast qualities of the resulting pictures or images. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotype
Daguerreotype -- A plate of copper, plated with silver. After cleaning and polishing the silver plated plate, they were exposed to iodine vapors which created a light-sensitive surface that resembled a mirror. The plate, which was held in a lightproof holder, was then put into the camera and was then exposed to a subject or object in the light. The silver coated copper bodied plate had the image developed over hot mercury vapors until the object image appeared. To fix the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride. sodium thiosulfate is used in water treatment for testing compounds in water. This substance is found in municipal water treatment plants all over the United States. Source: http://duenow.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiosulfate
Hallmark -- Stamped marks on the daguerreotype plate that identify the manufacturer of the plate or the photographic supply house. Hallmarks usually consist of symbols, initials, and/or numbers. The number indicates the ratio of silver to copper. The most popular number was 40, indicating 1 part silver to 39 parts copper. Hallmark is was used as a term long before the printed greeting card company was around. If you want picture greeting cards then please contact me.
Preserver -- is a thin brass binding that is used to hold the daguerreotype, brass mat, and cover glass together. Preservers were widely used in the 1850s.
Timeline of the Daguerreian Era
1839: The invention of the daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre is formally announced in Paris, France. William Henry Fox Talbot announces a camera-less photographic process which he calls photogenic drawing. This creates an image of plant forms, lace and any other small object that is placed directly on a sheet of light-sensitive paper. In September 1839 the first American daguerreotypes are made in New York City.
1840 William Henry Harrison is elected as President of the United States of America.
1841 William Henry Fox Talbot patents the calotype, or a paper negative process.
This lays the foundation of the paper printing process by Kodak to print pictures that is still in use today. President William Henry Harrison dies and is succeeded by John Tyler as president of the USA. Circus great and showman P. T. Barnum opens the American Museum in New York City.
1851 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype, dies. Daguerreotypes are exhibited at the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations held at London's Crystal Palace in England.
1854 James Ambrose Cutting patents the ambrotype process. In the late 1850s, the ambrotype would replace the daguerreotype. George Eastman, the father of Kodak and the Kodak camera, is born.
1856 William and Frederick Langenheim copyright the first paper photographs, stereographs of Eastern U. S. sites.
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