The Creation Of Photography: Daguerre And Talbot

Photography dates back to 1839 as a result of the camera obscura. The camera obscura was a photographic medium that captured beautiful pictures, drawings, objects, still life and any views. Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot invented separate processes in London and Paris called the daguerreotype and the calotype. They both implemented the camera obscura to make their inventions. Both Daguerre and Talbot were passionate about and envisioned reproducing nature into images. They both scientifically demonstrated how the effects of light sensitivity by specific salts could produce a photograph. Daguerre was the first chemist who successfully demonstrated how this process is used to produce a photograph with his …show more content…
This picture contained highlights and shadows with deep contour. Daguerre’s Still Life claimed scientific innovation, although it was astonishingly artistic. Daguerre sensitized the plates by placing the silver side down. The silver box containing iodine was put into the camera obscura. After heated in mercury, bathed and washed, the images became clearer. This produces images in frosted whitish mercury amalgam. With much success, the daguerreotype proved to be a great invention. Photographs reproduced images and made Daguerre an internationally acclaimed photographer. Talbot’s 1st calotypes were produced in 1839 and remained successful for two decades much like the daguerreotype. Calotypes invlove placing a piece of paper with a clear focus at first, which caused the images to imprint themselves durably and to stay fixed upon the paper. The result this produced was a negative. Talbot bathed the paper in the different silver salts. He could fix the image by washing the paper in a salt bath. Talbot’s calotype Botanical Specimen is a geourgous example designed in 1839. Talbot placed the specimen on paper and noticed when exposed to light, the background would be dark. When shielded to light, the