The History of Modern Photography

Its amazing how photography has evolved from simple pinhole camera to the most advanced digital single reflex cameras. Beginning with the humble pinhole camera, which was developed in 1600s and then in 1850. From successful recording of positive image on a metal plate, photographic industry has evolved into a giant digital age. In earlier days photographic equipment were very hefty and heavy. For example,during the Civil War, photographic equipment involved two horse wagons coupled with lightproof buggy. The biggest limitation in earlier days was lighting. As such early photographic industry was limited to light sources available.

1.Impact of Incandescent Lighting on Photography

Until the incandescent bulb including the flash bulbs were invented around 1880s, indoor photography was difficult and tricky. On the invention of flash effect (using powdered magnesium in a vacuum tube) serious portrait photography was a reality. Similarly, metal plate positive imagery was replaced by flexible films using celluloid, which enable to print hundreds of photos, utilizing a single film roll. Robert Eastman, is the first creator and an entrepreneur to develop and sell these new film cameras in mass scale. He is the founder of Kodak Eastman Inc.

The new Kodak camera had a double lens shutter box including a roll of film in it. To get your prints, you shipped the entire camera back to New York, where the film was secured, prints made, and the camera re-loaded before it was shipped back to the photographer. The whole process of developing photos and the prints to be received took nearly three weeks which means lot of waiting time.

2. Introduction of Photo Processing

During the 1930s, with the introduction of Kodachrome color processing, colors in photography was available to many. Through the 1940s and 1950s, most photograph processing took place at photography labs in major cities, while the turnaround time for processing photographs was cut to about four days. In the late 1940s, the next phase of the photographic revolution was catalyzed by Edwin Land a Chemist. His extensive research resulted in the development of Polaroid Process. The Polaroid camera was an instant success. This made it possible to take a picture, remove a print from the camera, peel off the protective layer, and see it slowly fade into view.

3.Development of Fast Processing Speeds

Even with the popularity of the Polaroid camera, only the Japanese company, Fuji, that made the first breakthrough by introducing "disposable" camera in mid '80s. The disposable camera made by Fuji, was an immediate challenger to the Kodak Polaroid model. you bought a camera, loaded the film, taken photos, handed the film to studio, and got your negatives and pictures back. Usually the photo studios was located at a corner drug store, and the time taken to process the pictures was within 24 hours.

4.Invention of Digital Camera

The popularity of film cameras was beginning to decrease in early 1988, when Fuji introduced the first generation digital camera, called DS-1P utilizing CMOS sensors. The difference between this camera and the traditional film camera was it can instantly display photographs taken, which allowed the user to review or delete or print them at once.
Since then wide range of digital cameras have flooded the market as such the art of taking a photos has become reality to many. If you are interested, there are many online photography courses to be selected.

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