Camera Obscura
Daguerreotype
Throughout the 16th Century many
descriptions were published of these
‘camera obscuras’, and they were used
as novelties to project scenes of sunlit
exteriors onto the walls of darkened
rooms. In all cases of early camera
obscuras, the scene projected onto the
wall would appear upside down.
When the first practical photographic
process was introduced in 1839, the
Daguerre Camera that went on sale was
a wooden box with a brass-mounted lens
at the front and a ground glass focusing
screen at the back. The photographer set
up the camera, peered at the upside
down image, and focused by sliding the
back away from the front.
By the 17th Century, movable camera
obscuras were in use. These were usually
black tents or adapted sedan chairs
fitted with a lens. Inside, there was a
drawing board, which allowed the artist
to trace over the projected image.
Smaller
portable
box-like
camera
obscuras were standard artists aids by the
18th Century. There were helpful when
accurately drawing the perspective and
scale of buildings and landscapes. Most
of these new camera obscuras had a 45
degree mirror inside which projected the
image the right way up and allowed the
artist to draw on a horizontal surface.
Rather than tracing a projected image
onto
paper,
the
first
practical
photographic process was called a
daguerreotype, named after Louis
Daguerre. To make a daguerreotype,
the daguerreotypist polished
a
sheet
of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish;
treated it with fumes that made its
surface
light-sensitive; exposed it
in
a camera for as long as was judged to
be necessary, which could be as little as
a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects
or much longer with less intense lighting;
made the resulting latent image on it
visible by fuming it with mercury vapour;
removed its sensitivity to light by liquid
chemical treatment; rinsed and dried it;
then sealed the easily marred result
behind glass in a protective enclosure.
1. Compare ‘Camera Obscuras’ from the 16th Century to that of the 17th and 18th
Centuries. Consider what they were made from, the projected image and the use.
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2. Outline how the first ‘Daguerre Camera’ was focused.
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3. Describe the process required to produce a ‘Daguerreotype’.
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In 1826 or 1827 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce developed a chemical process that allowed him to create the
first photograph. He coated a pewter plate with the same solution from his previous experiments and
placed the plate into a camera that was looking out from an upstairs window of his house at Le Gras. After
an exposure of at least eight hours, the plate was washed with a mixture of oil of lavender and white
petroleum, dissolving away the parts of the bitumen that had not been hardened by light. The result was
the permanent direct positive picture you see here, a one-of-a-kind photograph on pewter. It renders a
view of the outbuildings, courtyard, trees, and landscape as seen from the upstairs window.
Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 3rd arrondissement, Daguerreotype. Believed to be the earliest photograph
showing a living person. It is a view of a busy street, but because the exposure time was at least ten minutes
the moving traffic left no trace. Only the two men near the bottom left corner, one apparently having his
boots polished by the other, stayed in one place long enough to be visible.
4. Outline the exposure time of Niepce’s photograph.
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5. Describe the Niecpe’s process.
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Above: A contemporary photograph shot from the same window as Niecpe’s
photograph from 1826.
6. Explain why there are only two figures visible in Daguerre’s ‘Boulevard du Temple’.
Consider shutter speed and the movement of traffic and pedestrians.
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