Pixel Corner - origination of photography 160 years ago

PSA Journal, Feb, 1999 by Russell A. Rohde

Photography: Then and Now

The Way It Was: Capturing photons with asphaltum and silver

Photography originated 160 years ago with the inaugural images presented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1826), Louis-Jacques-Mande-Daguerre (1837), and William Henry Fox Talbot (1839). The first two, both Frenchman, worked with ashphaltum and silvered copper plates, respectively, to produce positive images while the latter Englishman used silver sensitized paper to make negatives which, when contact printed, yielded positive prints. Enthusiasm, acceptance, and popularity of photography was due primarily to the daguerreotype, an invention of Louis Daguerre (1787-1851). The J. P. Getty Center of Los Angeles exhibited the largest assembly of early daguerreotypes including 92 images by Swiss-born Jean-Gabriel Eynard from April to July, 1998 and, at the request of O. P. Sharma, Hon. PSA, FPSA, Maureen and I took photos and obtained brochures of the Getty Center exhibition for the 1998 IIPC Bombay Conference.

Historical or Hysterical?

Several amusing commentaries on early photography recalled that portraiture images were initially regarded as work of the Devil; photographers were cursed and condemned to hell for attempting to do God's work in creating man. As passions cooled these early photographers came to regard photographs as works of nature, and sensed that perhaps Mother Nature played a vital role in their creation. A customary reluctance to stare at portraits was due to feelings of intimidation by the image. Other image art forms as paintings and sketches were judged as being made by the hand of man, a phrase we now use in a different context.

Most early photographs were portraits, and commercial portraiture hastily became vogue and flourished briskly. Unflattering facial depictions were attributed to imperfections of the photographic process. Such was true of crooked noses, warts and sundry blemishes. In short order, photographers recorded their surroundings; the buildings, cities, deserts, jungles, wildlife, and social events that made photo travel and photojournalism studies fashionable and were zealously published by periodicals as National Geographic, etc. Conventional photography literally exploded about 100 years ago with the development of affordable, flexible roll film which gave birth to present-day silver-halide photography used by amateur photographers. Present day exposure times now average one-three millionth of the original 8 hour exposure used by Niepce in 1826.

A Newer Way: Capturing photons with CCDs, PMTs and CMOS

Time-Life, Inc. pioneered digital imaging (DI) by developing the electronic scanner in 1955, and following introduction of the Sony Corp. digital video camera in 1981, there followed almost immediate adoption of digital methods of typesetting and imaging for nearly every newspaper, periodical, magazine and book within a span of a few years. By 1996 the U.S. Government had eliminated 90% of their conventional silver-based imaging from its own agencies for both environmental and cost-saving reasons. Light (photons) is now captured with charge coupled devices (CCDs), photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) and complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS), digitized by analog to digital (A/D) converters, and stored on memory cards which download directly to printers or computers for viewing, storage or transmission.

DI and digital manipulation (DM) artform did not have to seek acceptance, for it is based on expedient, albeit novel, methodology of picture-making for publishers, the Hollywood film and video industry, government agencies, and both professional and amateur photographers. Our PSA organization already has three divisions specifically utilizing DI/DM: Techniques Division CPG, Color Slide Division DI Circuit, and the newly created EID dedicated to digital processing. PSA Divisions of Stereo and PPD also embrace DI technology. Digital Circuits of the Australian Photographic Society and the Royal Photographic Society are both entering their third year, while Austria held its Second International VOEAV Digital Imaging Salon in April 1998 with DI/DM entries limited to transmission via email or floppy disk.

Hardware Trends

Graphics encourages large 17 to 21 inch monitors with higher resolution and accelerator boards to open huge files in seconds instead of minutes. Scanner prices plummeted and many possess software tags for color-matching and boast higher optical and interpolated resolutions. Currently, inkjet printing engines provide color prints of near photographic quality and by using special papers, inks and coatings (Lysonic, etc.) archival prints may be close at hand. Polaroid Corporation announced October 1998 their Direct Connect Adapter for digital cameras to bypass a computer and generate photographic quality prints in 15 seconds from the Colorshot Digital printer plugged into the car's cigarette lighter.

Computers are completing their fifth generation and the sixth generation will have full multiplexing with speeds over 500 MHz. Memory chips dropped in price from $50 to as low as $2 per MB. SyQuest cartridge memory storage rose from 44MB to 88 MB, and now exceeds 200 MB. The tiny 100 MB Zip and 1-2 GB Jazz drives are faster than many large hard drives (HDs). Their cartridges fit a shirt pocket. A dozen digital cameras with megapixel resolution are marketed. As of this writing, the 1.6 megapixel 6X zoom Kodak DC260 priced at $899 is a prima donna; the accessory 48 MB Compact Flash Card stores about 96 images. Missing is a threaded lens barrel to accept accessories as filters.