Photography and family history 1827-1850

Photography has become an intergal part of family history. This article talks about the early days of photography to better help in using photos in family history.

1827
Before photography, people, places, and events could only only be captured visually by either painting, descriptive journal entries, and using a camera obscura to trace images of life that are projected onto a piece of paper. For the average person, they could not afford paintings.

For some time, scientists has noticed that silver salts mixtures were light sensitive and would darken in light. Then, in 1827, Joseph Niepice of France, took a plate of metal, covered it with bitumen of Judah,(which was also light sensitive) stuck the plate in a camera obscura, placed it facing out his window, and took the very first photo of life. Even though it took eight hours to take the photo, it worked.

1830s
Niepice's method of photography was impractical for talking photos of people, no matter how much they remained still. So he partnered with another French man, Louis Daguerre. In 1833, Niepice died, and Dagurre kept going alone. He turned back to silver salts, this time on copper plates.

Still, photos took along time to take, around an hour or two. In those days, Dagurre and Niepice both took photos that appered on the plate without any developing. Then in 1836, Daguerre made a surprise discovery when talking a photo and clouds covered the sun, ruining the shot. Unhappy, he took the plate and put in in a cupboard. The next day, he took the plate out and was startled to see an image on the plate. As it turned out, the cupboard was warm, and some mercury in the cupboard turned to vapor, developing the photo. Daguerre found out that the time it took to take a photo was cut drastically if one took a latent photo then developed it.

With the time required to take a photo brought down to around ten minutes, in 1837, Daguerre took the first photo with people on it, when he pointed his camera out his window on to the street in Paris. Even though the street was busy, the ten minute exposure did not capture them, except for two men, one having his shoes shined by the other.

So in 1839, Daguerre announced his photography process, called Daguerreotype, to the public.

However, a short time later, and Englishman name William fox Talbot announced his photography process. Unlike Daguerre's, Talbot's used paper instead of metal. Because of this, Talbot's process had a distinct advantage over Daguerre's, in that with Talbot's system, a negative was made which multiple prints could be made(although not very clear, due to the translucent paper being used)

1840's
So in the 1840s, the two types went head-to head.

Most people used Daguerreotype, because of it clarity. In 1840, a mathmatician created a lens that let in 22 times more light in than before, making for shorter photo times. Photos were now taken in less than a minute, and the masses started to be photographed.

An average person would come to the studio to be photographed, preferably on a sunny day. The photographer would sit the person down, or have them stand. Because it still took about 30 seconds to take a photo, head clamps would be put behind the person being photographed, helping their head stay in place. The photo was then taken.

Toward the end of the decade both photography methods had strong followings. Daguerreotypes were even used to take photos during the Mexican-American war.