Simon checks his exposure.
Bruce poses (as usual).
In this longer-than-usual episode, you'll learn how obsessed the world has become with taking images, where it all started, and how many pictures it takes to capture a nuclear explosion.
The world's oldest photograph
Not only was it taken almost 200 years ago, but it took 8 hours to capture! The photo was taken by Joseph Niepce and named ‘view from the window’.
The scene took place in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. The photo shows the surrounding castle and other buildings.
A projected image from the window hit a sensitized plate, which was then used to place the image on paper. A lot of work went into this photo, and we are lucky it survived.
The First Kodak Camera
This used a roll of film that took 100 pictures. The Kodak was launched publicly in the summer of 1888. Inventor George Eastman received a patent (number 388,850) for the camera’s shutter and the trademark (number 15,825) for the Kodak name on September 4, 1888. The immediate triumph of the camera prompted Eastman to change the name of his company from Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company to Eastman Kodak Company in 1892. Designed with the novice photographer in mind, the Kodak was a box-style camera requiring no adjustments or prior photographic knowledge. To use the camera, the photographer simply armed the shutter by pulling up on the string (located on the front right of the camera), pointed the camera at the subject, and then pressed the shutter release. These steps were clearly explained in the camera’s instruction manual and were used to promote the ease of the camera along with the slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest.".
I need cameras. Lots of cameras.
This is Dilish Parekh, a photojournalist from Mumbai, India with some of his camera collection. He owns 4,425 antique cameras.
First photo of a person
In 1828, Louis Daguerre took the first photo that captured a human being. His intention was to take a photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. The man in his photo was standing in the street, getting his shoes polished. Since the exposure lasted for seven minutes, the man also got captured.
Using a Large Format Camera
Not quite pocket-sized
In 1975, Steven Sasson invented the world’s first digital camera. He was working at Eastman Kodak at the time.
How to take a flash photograph using Magnesium
More about flashbulbs than you ever wanted to know
The world's first colour photograph
In 1861, Thomas Sutton proposed the process for creating the world’s first colour image. The result of layering three separate images of red, green, and blue filters. These were then projected onto a photosensitive plate with the corresponding filters.
Sutton was a great photographer and inventor. Around the same time as the colour photograph, he also created the first SLR camera.
And he developed the earliest panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens in 1859.
How a Daguerrotype works
A Polaroid Land Camera
MoonCam
When the Apollo 11 mission took off for the moon, they carried Hasselblad cameras with them. They are still there, on the moon. The astronauts decided the cameras were too heavy for the return journey. So, they left them behind to make space for the 25 kilos of rock samples they brought back. They did, however, bring the film back with them.
Cat Photos
Something we didn't talk about when discussing camera phones and digital photography was Cat Photos. Older than you think... This one was taken in the 1870s when Harry Pointer took a photo of his cat.
How to develop your negatives in coffee:
The Most Viewed Photograph in History
Here it is. The default wallpaper for Windows XP. The image named ‘Bliss”, captured by Charles O’Rear in 1996
Factoralites - Sounds like something you find in a cave ceiling.