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FEATURED ARTICLE:
A SHOT AT PHOTOGRAPHY! (continued) Several discoveries had to be made in
order for chemical photography to be invented:
Take a few giant leaps forward to 1825 when French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce produced the first known permanent photograph. He used a pewter plate with bitumen of Judea (a petroleum derivative). The bitumen hardens once exposed to light and the material that is unhardened is washed away. The remaining metal plate has a negative image which is polished and then coated with ink and impressed on paper. EARLY POLAROIDS Niepce and Louis Daguerre worked together to improve the silver process. After Niepce’s death in 1833, Daguerre discovered a process that involved exposing the silver to iodine vapor before light and then to mercury fumes once the photograph was taken. The plate would then be subjected to a salt bath which then fixes the latent image. He coined the term daguerreotype to describe the process of using silver on a copper plate, a process similar to polaroids of today. Simultaneously, Hercules Florence, a French/Brazilian inventor and painter developed a similar process which he called “Photographie.” In 1926, a Harvard freshman, Edwin Land left Harvard to pursue research in polarization. The synthetic polarizer that he invented could selectively screen light waves, blocking those that caused glare. Land produced his polarizing sheets with the aid of George Wheelright III, a Harvard physics professor. They were granted a patent in 1934 and began work to develop their polarizing sheets for car headlights and windshields. Eastman Kodak ordered their photographic polarizing filters or plates which were two glass discs that formed a seal around the polarizing sheets. These plates decreased the glare and increased the contrast for photos taken in bright light environments. Professor Clarence Kennedy of Smith College, a friend of Land and Wheelright, suggested the name “Polaroid” and it stuck. SOME KODAK MOMENTS From the early 1800’s to the digital age, numerous inventions and changes took place at a rapid pace. Here are a few key inventions:
SAY IT WITH COLOR Even though color photography was being explored in the 1800’s during the explosion of black and white discoveries, it wasn’t until 1935 that Kodak introduced color film for public sale. However, this was for use in a slide viewer. It took several more years until 1942 when color images could be printed on paper. WHAT WOULD THEY THINK OF NEXT? Why, digital, of course!
These new “digicams” range in size from large to tiny and can do just about anything including taking still pictures and video. The technology comes in standalone products such as cameras, as well as incorporated into cell phones, PDAs and space telescopes. Makes you wonder who’s taking your picture at any moment of the day. YOUR PRESS THE BUTTON, AND YOU ALSO DO THE REST The options for processing those digital photos are numerous – send it directly to a printer, download into your computer and print, email or bring your disc of your photos to the developer for printing – the options are numerous and easy. And so are the options to enhance and modify photos. Red eye? No problem! Many software packages help repair that and any other perceived “flaw” in the photos. The popular software package, PhotoShop lets the amateur do amazing things with digital photos. Fixing old photos are no longer a problem. They can be easily scanned into the computer to have that old yellow tint removed.
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