A Brief History of Photography

1850 to 1899

The latter half of the 19th century sees the advent of the first colour photographs, though, curiously, these early colour plates appear well before panchromatic emulsions (which are sensitive to all three primary colours) are produced. For that, we will have to wait until the next century. Lens development, as you can see from the diagrams, becomes more complex, achieving faster apertures and sharper results.

1850: John Whipple and William B. Jones introduce their dry plate, which they call the “Crystallotype.” But, like Abel Niépce de Saint Victor’s version, it is not very sensitive to light, and neither is widely used.

1851: Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884) finds that waxing the paper before sensitizing it greatly improves the ...