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| Archer, Frederick Scott |
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Archer's process, which required that the negative be exposed while still wet from coating, was the principal method of making negatives from its introduction in 1851 until it was replaced by the dry plate around 1880.
| Bayard, Hippolyte |
A Bl D E L N Ni T W
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With Gustave Le Gray, Charles Negre, and others, Bayard photographed historic monuments during the 1850s for the government. His intimate views of his surroundings won him his place among French primitive photographers.
| Blanquart-Evrard, Louis Desiree |
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He invented the albumen print in 1850. It was a positive photographic print made on photographic printing paper coated with egg white, or albumen, which contained the light-sensitive chemical mixture that recorded the image.
The albumen print had a finish that enhanced image detail by adding brightness to the highlights in the print. Although albumen paper was vulnerable to damp and required careful handling, it remained in general use until about 1900, when more stable emulsions were developed.
In 1851 in Lille, Blanquart-Evrard opened an establishment for mass-producing photographic prints, the first of its kind in France. The firm issued editions of photographs by Maxime Du Camp, Charles Negre, Henri Le Secq, and others and pioneered the use of original photographs for book illustration.
| Daguerre, Louis J. M. |
A B Bl E L N Ni T W
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Trained as a painter, Daguerre was primarily a showman. His elaborate stage designs won him initial fame during the 1820s. He expanded his reputation with the Diorama (opened 1822), a theater for the display of large panoramic views; the impressive illusions of the Diorama were enhanced by dramatic changes in lighting.
In 1824, Daguerre began attempts to fix chemically the image of the camera obscura, which was already widely used as an aid to sketching.
He made only minor progress until, in 1826, he heard of similar research by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and, in 1829, joined him in a partnership. Niepce had achieved a crude photograph in 1822. Daguerre, however, did not succeed in perfecting a daguerreotype until 1837, four years after Niepce's death. The invention was received with surprise and acclaim and was soon being used widely. Because Daguerre's process could not produce copies, it was soon replaced by William Henry Fox Talbot's calotype, which could produce many prints from a single negative.
His daguerreotype was the first practical form of reproduction in
photography.
A daguerreotype was made on a silver-plated sheet of copper
made light-sensitive by prior exposure to vapors that produced silver iodide.
The plate was next exposed in a modified camera obscura, then treated with
mercury vapors. Since the portions of the plate exposed to the light had
changed back to silver, the mercury joined with the silver to form an
amalgam, which was the image.
The remaining silver iodide was removed by washing, originally with a salt
solution but later with sodium hyposulfite.
Costly and time-consuming, daguerreotypes were, nevertheless, superbly
detailed.
The process, although popular, was soon replaced.
| Eastman, George |
A B Bl D L N Ni T W
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Company. While working as a bank clerk, he became interested in photography. He
refined the process for making photographic plates, which he soon began
to manufacture, and in 1884 he introduced flexible film.
He produced his Kodak box camera in 1888, marketing it on a mass basis for
amateur photographers.Large investments in research led to further innovations in cameras and equipment, including daylight-loading film and pocket cameras. Eastman gave enormous sums to educational institutions, and in his company introduced the first employee profit-sharing system in the United States.
| Le Gray, Gustave |
A B Bl D E N Ni T W
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| Negre, Charles |
A B Bl D E L Ni T W
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Negre's studies of street life and architecture (especially Chartres Cathedral) are classics of the advanced French school of calotype photography of the 1850s. Negre also contributed to the early development of photomechanical reproduction.
| Niepce, Joseph Nicephore |
A B Bl D E L N T W
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Daguerre later sold their invention to the French government.
Although Niepce's reputation has been greatly overshadowed by that of Daguerre, Daguerre owed much to his partner's superior scientific knowledge.
Niepce also perfected the pyreolophore, an early combustion engine.
| Talbot, William Henry |
A B Bl D E L N Ni W
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His process, variously called: photogenic drawing, calotype, and Talbotype, produced a negative, on paper, from which any number of paper positives could be made. This advantage over the daguerreotype, a unique picture on metal, was not immediately recognized, but it provided the basis of modern photography. Talbot first fixed (1835) the camera image on paper made sensitive to light with silver halides.
When Daguerre's process was announced (1839) in France, Talbot reported his work to the Royal Society in London.
By 1841 he had perfected his process.
Paper impregnated with light-sensitive chemicals was exposed in a camera;
then the negative image was fixed through chemical development. The negative
was used with more photo paper in a glass frame to make a positive
contact-print by sunlight. Unlike the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype
print, the calotype print could be reproduced many times, as said before,
but the paper negative's fibrous opaqueness reduced image quality.
Talbot also produced The Pencil of Nature (1844-46), the first book
illustrated with original photographs, at his own photographic printing
establishment.
| Wedgwood, Thomas |
A B Bl D E L N Ni T
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With Sir Humphry Davy, Wedgwood published (1802) his results, but he died before finding a way to fix his silhouette images or to make a photograph.
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