The First Camera

The word Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’, which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw. Photography is the process of recording an image – a photograph – on lightsensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic or magnetic memory.

The invention of photography is a contested subject. It was the outcome of many technological developments, most notably associated with the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, but was also influenced by earlier technological developments such as the Camera obscura, which is an optical device used during the Renaissance to aid drawing and perspective.

IMMA (n.d) URL

Niépce (1826) 'View from the Window at Le Gras'

Photography began in the early 19th century when the first camera was created. Throughout history, photography has been equal parts art and science. The first photo was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 and was almost a science experiment. He captured the photo, called View from the Window at Le Gras, through a camera obscura—a darkened room with a small hole that projected an image onto a surface using chemicals on a pewter plate. This achievement marked a significant advancement beyond traditional methods of representation like painting or drawing, as it allowed for the direct and precise capture of reality. Niépce’s work laid the foundation for future photographic innovations, inspiring other inventors like Louis Daguerre, who would refine and popularise the process.

A camera obscura, which means "dark room" in Latin, is a simple way to see how light works. If you make a room completely dark and then let a small stream of light in through a tiny hole, you’ll see an upside-down image of the outside world on the opposite wall. This happens because light travels in straight lines, so light from the top of an object, like a candle, ends up at the bottom of the wall, and light from the bottom ends up at the top. Artists discovered this trick hundreds of years ago and used it to help them draw realistic pictures of what they saw outside. More recently, artist Abelardo Morell has turned whole rooms into camera obscuras to project amazing images of cities and landscapes.

Photo Pedagogy (n.d) 'Camera Obscura'  URL

University of Central Florida (n.d.) URL

The camera obscura was an early way of capturing images by allowing light to pass through a small hole into a dark room, creating an inverted image on the opposite wall. Modern digital cameras work on the same basic principle—light enters through a lens and is focused onto a sensor. Instead of projecting the image onto a wall, digital cameras use a sensor that converts the light in to electronic signals which are then converted in to a digital image (made from pixels which are squares of light). This is then stored on your SD card and can be downloaded on to a computer or phone. The mirror in a DSLR works by reflecting the light in to a series of mirrors that then show you the image through the viewfinder until it flips up when you push the shutter button, allowing the light to hit the digital sensor.

Your images will likely still be a little blurrier than you are used to. This is much like some of the first photographs that were taken!

Creating a lens is possible from a toilet roll, Pringles container or coke can! By extending the distance from the pinhole to the DSLR mirrored sensor essentially increases the focal length (f stop). Doing this, will result in a larger magnification of the image but a narrower field of view. Longer distances tend to maintain a large depth of field, meaning most of the scene will remain in focus.