Daguerreotype photo from Louis Daguerre
In addition to the famous Niepce, Louis Daguerre conducted many experiments on image fixing with the help of a camera obscura. This Frenchman in his time was a famous artist. He worked a lot with light images, and he had the idea to try to fix the resulting images.
Later, Daguerre and Nieppe concluded an agreement on joint cooperation. Together they worked a lot on the new invention.
“Heliography” and the cooperation of L. Daguerre with J. Niepce
Daguerre was not the most enlightened researcher in the field of photography, but he turned out to be more practical than many. Therefore, it was he who got all the initial laurels of the discovery of the “daguerreotype”.
Dugher experimented a lot with Niepce. These researchers are very close common hobbies. Dager agreed with his companion to exclude the word “heliography” from their joint agreement, although initially their common invention had such a name.
After the death of Niepce, Daguerre declared to his heirs that the new invention would be named after him – “daguerreotype”. But it should be noted that the researcher continued to work hard and conduct new research in the field of photography.
Paris Boulevard. 1839 Daguerreotype This first photo of a man was sent by Daguer to the King of Bavaria.
The emergence of the method of “daguerreotype”
And in 1837 he managed to create a method, following which, it became possible to show and fix images using a plate. He was the first in the world to get a pretty high quality image.
The French artist and inventor took a difficult still life, consisting of both works of sculpture and painting. This image was transmitted by Daguer to the custodian of the art museum in Paris – in the Louvre.
The process of fixing photos was not so simple. Daguer placed a plate of silver in the pinhole camera. After half an hour, he took her to a dark room, where he held a plate over mercury vapor that had been preheated. The solution, which included salt, helped fix the picture.
This image is well viewed elements of the picture. The scientist called this method of obtaining a photograph by his name – “daguerreotype”. The researcher gave a description of this method to the secretary, who at that time worked at the Academy of Sciences in Paris.
When the meeting of the Academy took place (1839), F. Arago (that is the name of the secretary) informed the scientists about the new invention, the author of which was Louis Daguerre. The meeting members positively accepted this news, and this day, January 7, is today considered to be the birthday of a photo.
A little later, it was decided to award the heirs of Niepce and Daguer with a decent pension for an amazing discovery.
Daguerreotype photo from Louis Daguerre
Daguerreotype and calotype: differences in methods
In parallel with the appearance of the invention of L. Daguerre, “calotype” was invented by another researcher U. Talbot, but it was significantly different from “daguerreotype”.
In the latter method, it was possible to create a positive image in the mirror image on a silver plate. This process was simpler than calotypy, but it did not allow copies to be made.
The method of calotypy assumed the production of negatives, from which it was then possible to obtain the required number (copies) of positive prints. But it is worth noting that the quality of calotypes is largely inferior to the quality of daguerreotypes.
Thus, both methods had an impact on the appearance and development of photography in later times.
