History of photography applications

Pinhole Camera

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture - effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. The 'photographer' would then trace the image which would appeal life-like.

Camera Obscura

 This consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from outside of it passes through the hole and hits the surface inside where it is reproduced, upside down, but with colour. The image can be projected onto paper, and can then be traced to produce a highly accurate representation.

Usig mirrors it is possible to project a right side up image. Another more portable type is a boz with an angled mirror projecting onto tracing paper placed on the glass top, the image being upright as viewed from the back. As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper but the projected image because dimmer. Some practical camera obscuras use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperture, giving a usable brightness while keeping focus.

Daguerroetype

 Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce invented the first photographic method of taking photographs which was name the daguerroetype, in 1836. Louis Daguerre coated a copper plate with silver, then treated it with iodine vapor to make it sensitive to light. The image was developed by mercury vapor and fixed with a strong solution of ordinary salt. When taking a photograph the object/person would have to keep very still because the speed of the shutter was extremely slow.

Calotype

Calotype or Talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot. His method including using paper coated with silver idodide. Talbot made his first successful camera photographs in 1835 using paper sensitized with silver chloride, which darked in properotion to its exposure to light. The paper had to be exposed in the camera until the image was fully visible which -with a very long exposure- would typically take an hour or more to produce an acceptable picture.