While we are now firmly in the digital age and have moved almost entirely away from film (a few stalwarts continue to use it, though supplies are dwindling as it is no longer made), photography has seen many developments and changes in a history that goes back almost two centuries. Still, the actual photographic techniques professional photographers use today were pioneered over 100 years ago. They are unlikely to change much, even as the technology itself has undergone dramatic and sweeping evolution.
In 1829, the chemist and artist Louis Daguerre partnered with another Frenchman -- the first man to actually "take" a photography -- the well known photochemist Joseph Niepce, in an effort to perfect the first practical photographic technology. Niepce's original method was very impractical and expensive. Exposures could take hours, components were fragile and production of actual finished images difficult. But eventually the two men made progress, resulting in a better, faster method that would eventually be called the Daguerreotype. This probably upset Niepce, but as he died in 1833, there was little he could do about it.
All forms of early photography used light-reactive chemicals and elaborate processes to create black and white images. It was impossible to do for anyone other than specialists. Even this newer, better process of Daguerre and Niepce had many problems and was hardly ready for the mass-market. But Daguerre kept working at it.
By 1839 he had greatly improved the process and patented it. Unfortunately for him, in that same year William Talbot invented the positive-negative film process that would come to dominate the industry for more than a century. Ironically for Daguerre, at the height of his accomplishment his masterwork was eclipsed by something better. He was not and never will be forgotten, though the world embraced an entirely different way of taking pictures. Such is the way of inventions and progress.
In 1861, James Maxwell invented the first color film process. Many other improvements and inventions to both camera and film followed quickly. With the introduction of celluloid film in 1887, the way was paved for the rapid proliferation of all kinds of cameras -- from still cameras to motion picture cameras -- around the world and across countless industries. Wide-scale photography was born. A year later, Kodak introduced the first mass-market box camera. From that point on, things began to accelerate dramatically.
Many, many more inventions and improvements followed. With each one photography became easier and faster. In addition, the end result became more predictable. At least in the sense that photographers could be sure they would have something to show for their efforts, even if the could not exactly predict the final appearance of the end result.
It wasn't until 1922 that Leica introduced the 35mm film format still cameras. Over time, this became the standard for professionals up until the arrival of digital. Eighty or so years alter, with the advent of digital, photography has once again been utterly transformed by technology -- and in a remarkably short period of time.
Not too many years ago, many professional photographers swore they would not switch to digital, much as a few die hards refused to give up their LPs for CDs. They were able to resist for a time. But time and progress marches on. It is now impossible not to work digitally, both because the business demands it and for the reason that traditional film is literally a thing of the past.
Now we look back on that long and illustrious bygone era as that of analog photography. Today, the buzz-word and byword is digital, and it would appear that it will remain thus for good.
NOTE: this is another piece I wrote for our camera club newsletter some time ago. It seemed appropriate to put it here.
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