The exact date of the beginning of photography is not known. The history of photography is the history of obtaining images in a dark box as well as the history of detecting these images by photochemical means.
In order to understand the basis of photography, it is first necessary to understand how the act of seeing is realised. Greek scholars had 2 views on how vision is realised:
1. Rays emanate from the eye and these rays are intercepted by objects.
2. Something representative of the objects was entering the eye.
Islamic scholars have made studies on the issue of vision based on the information they have received and have revealed the truth of vision. Kindī, one of the Islamic scholars, stated that vision consists of voluminous, three-dimensional and continuous rays. Ibn al-Haytham, who developed this view, became the founder of the Science of Optics by compiling his work titled Optics (Kitabu'l Menazir), on which almost all of the foundations of today's optical science are based. In addition, Ibn al-Haytham applied the geometry of refraction by approaching the eye as a dioptric system and determined the height of the atmosphere with this method in today's measurements. Ibn al-Haytham explained that the light rays do not scatter as they pass through the small hole and form an upside-down image on the flat white surface parallel to the hole. The smaller the hole, the clearer the image. He explained why we see straight when the image is upside down by explaining that the optic nerves provide a connection with the brain that analyses and defines the image. He analysed light sources and the qualities of the light they emit, and called the light emitted by objects that are themselves light sources as primary light, and the light emitted by illuminated objects as secondary light. At the same time, he thought that light propagates along a straight line, and to prove this, he organised the darkroom experiment, which constitutes the basis of today's camera, and other experiments that take into account the qualities of shadows. Based on this information, it becomes clear which scientist laid the foundation of photography in which century: Ibn al-Haytham, 10th century AD.
BAŞALAN iSTANBUL CAMERA MUSEUM
In the 10th century, the Muslim scholar Ibn-i Heysem found that silver nitrate darkened under the influence of sunlight, and in the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci's reflection of the appearance of the outside world through a small hole in the darkroom are important beginnings in the history of photography. Artists found the dark box in the Renaissance period. Thus, through a small hole through which the light entered, they could see an inverted image of the subject at the other end of the dark box. In the 18th century, a lens was placed at one end of the dark box and frosted glass at the other end, making the image visible outside the box.
The effect of light on chemical substances and the image deviation sensitivity of silver salts were known 200 years earlier. In 1725, it was observed that when a figure was placed on a paper smeared with lime and silver nitrate and exposed to the sun, an image of this figure was formed on the paper. At the beginning of the 19th century, negatives were obtained by immersing the paper in silver nitrate solution. The first and fundamental development of photography was the transfer of an image on paper, which had been made transparent with varnish, onto tin plate. Later, it was observed that the places where sunlight fell on an image dropped on a tin plate coated with Yuda Bitumen turned white.
Photographic studies, which started with Niepce, began to develop suddenly in 1829 when Jacques Mande joined with Daugerre and introduced the Daugerreotype in 1837. This process required a copper plate mixed with silver to be wiped with sponge powder and olive oil, then washed in a combination of 1/16 of water and nitric acid, heated over a gentle fire and dipped in nitric acid for a second time. The prepared plate was then dipped in iodine, placed in the machine and exposed for 5 to 40 minutes depending on the light conditions. The resulting image did not appear until it was placed in a tray containing mercury at 47.5 °C.
In 1840, the exposure time was reduced by using a lens that transmitted light 16 times more. Although the image obtained with the Daugerre type was very clear, the easy breakage of the silver-copper mixed plate and its high cost prevented further development.
In the same period of time, Henry Fox Talbot succeeded in obtaining images on paper soaked in a number of chemical substances, but it was easily forgotten because it gradually darkened and the image was not clear. However, the word ‘PHOTOGRAPHY’ was used for the first time for this invention of Talbot. After a while, the negatives were converted into positives. Thus, the foundation of modern photography was laid.
Later, photographic papers were dipped in egg white to obtain a smooth surface. However, this method failed to reveal details. The iodisation of egg white gave successful results. After this, the wet plate method and then the dry plate method were found.
At this time, the maximum exposure time to take a photograph was 1/25 second.
In 1888, George Eastman introduced Kodak cameras with bromide-coated gelatine rolls that could take 10 exposures in Kodak cameras, allowing easy movement for the photographer who had to carry very large tools. After the photograph was taken, the camera was sent to the factory and after the gelatin film was separated from the paper, it was placed on a glass and then the film was loaded back into the camera and returned to the owner.
In 1870 Hermann Vogel found a way to increase the sensitivity of emulsions by immersing them in various baths. In 1880, panchromatic films appeared next to the orthochromatic film, which had very limited sensitivity to red. Photography reached its present state in the 19th and 20th centuries with the use of different astigmatism lenses, cellulose-based films, and developments in the camera and film industry.
