Publication after a colloquium held in France in 1989 commemorating the 150 years of public disclosure of photography according to the Daguerre process. There are several texts referring to conferences of the following authors grouped by themes: PHILOSOPHY OF INVENTIONS Andreas HAUS A.D. COLEMAN Jerzy A. WOJCIECHOWSKI HISTORICAL ASPECTS Bernard MARBOT Sylvain MORAND Mike WEAVER…
Book by Isidore Niépce, Nicéphore Niépce’s son, accusing Louis Daguerre of having failed the contract he had signed with Nicéphore in 1829 by forcing Isidore to forgo the use of his family name for the invention that came to the public in 1839. Nicéphore died in 1833 and the book was published in 1841. It…
A good history of photography focusing on its discovery. The author begins by defining photography, talking about the camera obscura, mechanical means of reproduction of drawings and his major focus is in the first experiments of Wedgwood and then Niépce and Daguerre. Published in 1929. Can be downloaded here.
After a few years without showing up, I decided to visit the 54th edition of Bièvres super fair. It is a fair organized by the Photoclub Paris Val-de-Bièvre and the Commune de Bièvres. I think my first visit was in 2002 and then I went there 6 times being the last one in 2009. I was even…
At the height of film photography the color amateur picture was mostly 10 x 15 cm (4 x 5 inches) on matte or glossy paper. The B & W photo persisted with the most enthusiastic on papers from Kodak, Agfa, Ilford and a few other brands. Even professionals used basically the same processes with bigger sizes and more…
Finding the focal length of a lens This is a calculator that will help you in finding the focal length of a photographic lens. The method is about focusing on one or more objects at different distances. Each time, you write down 3 measurements. Only one measurement could do. But the idea is that “averaging” several instances it…
Pinhole is a photographic technique that employs most of the times a home made camera in different degrees of improvisation and roughness. Matchboxes, shoeboxes and whatever boxes and containers are sort of starting point for those projects. The photographer bricoleur may also start from scratch by cutting cardboards and assembling his camera with adhesive tape. There are…
For generations, Chevalier family was in the scientific business producing specially optical instruments since 1765. Charles Chevalier (1804-1859) designed the first lenses that equipped photographic cameras, produced by Alphonse Gireaux, intended for daguerreotypes. This book was written by his son, Arthur Chevalier, and published in 1862. On top of the biography, it features several documents and…
Angle of View based on image circle and focal length Result is presented in degrees.
Nicéphore Nièpce biography published in 1867 written by Victor Fouque. Josef Maria Eder cites this book as the best source about life and work of the man who produced the very first photographic image in history. Available for download at Google Books
George Eastman Museum is a multifaceted institution challenged by its own superlative assets in different branches of image making. There you find a fantastic library with historic material like the “Pencil of Nature” from Henry Fox Talbot, complete Camera Work (1903–1917) edited and published by Alfred Stieglitz, Josef Maria Eder yearbooks and handbooks, photographers’ annotations, manuscripts,…
Front raise and horizon line For a given lens and given film or sensor format, this simulator shows how much it is possible a front raise and where the horizon line will end up in the final picture. Focusing is assumed to be at, or closer to, infinity, a frequently used condition for a landscape….