Photography Techniques: Road to Acceptance

photo courtesy of Chippewa CountyHistorical Society

Photogrpahy Fights for recognition

In 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce of France used a silver (Ag) compound to create a permanent image on a metal plate made of pewter (any of various alloys of tin with small amounts of other metals) then covered it in a substance called bitumen of Judea—a kind of asphalt that hardened when exposed to light. The part not exposed to the light—such as an object’s shadow—caused those unexposed areas of the still soft bitumen of Judea to wash away when dissolved. The product was a permanent image made by the hardened, exposed bitumen of Judea. That process was known as photogravure; the prints resembled etchings or looked like sketches of a picture, but not an actual photograph. Niepce has been credited as the father of photography due to his use of light and chemical compounds to make a permanent image: the foundation of which future photographers would be building their photography techniques. In 1827, while traveling in England and visiting his brother he had presented a paper describing the process to the Royal Society in London, but the Royal Society rejected his proposal. Although Niepce’s process is accredited today, during his time he was not recognized, and that lack of appreciation was an established trend that would continue to follow photography.

On January 7, 1839, Louis Daguerre presented the public with the daguerreotype, a process that would be foundationally used by most professional photographers. “By 1853 an estimated three million daguerreotypes per year were being produced in the United States alone—mostly portraits but also scenic views.” 4A photograph was made on a polished, silver surface coating a copper sheet. Downfalls to this type of photography were: the image was only visible at certain angles and the mercury used in the developing process gave off highly poisonous vapors. Each plate processed was unique, in that only one print could be made from an individual plate. If you wanted more, one would have to make more plates of the same initial scene. Since the daguerreotype was a one print process with the image made from a positive to positive exposure, photographers found it hard to keep up with the cost of printing and the time it took to capture and expose the plate causing those who used it to turn to other methods to advance photography. The positive to positive process became known as the calotype process (derived from Greek kalos “beautiful” and typos “impression”). What was needed was a negative-positive process where any number of positive images could be made from a single negative; this would propel photography as a more accessible profession.

In June of 1840 William Henry Fox Talbot made paper sensitized with silver chloride and light exposure. An underlying image was created but was invisible until a contact print was made: another piece of sensitized paper was put in contact with the original negative and exposed to light. The dark areas of the paper with the print on it would block the light producing an image where the light was not blocked. The product of this was a positive image on the contact print. Even though this process was easier it also faced rejection because the print lacked sharp detail unlike the daguerreotype therefore never becoming widely popular.