Leonardo da Vinci was the first to discover the optical principle of the camera in the 16th century. However, the credit goes to a Frenchman: Nicéphore Niepce who invented photography by fixing images. The first known photograph to date dates from 1822: “Point du vue du Gras”, which is the favicon image of this site Aesthetics of Photography. Seven years later, in 1829, the painter Daguerre met with Niepce to work and share their knowledge. Unfortunately, Niepce died in 1833 leaving Daguerre to continue his research by himself. The first camera is called the “Daguerreotype”. In 1835, William Henry Fox Talbot produced the first negative in history, an image representing the window of the Lacock Abbey library, taken from the photographer’s house. Accompanied by an inscription by the photographer, it marks the starting point of his photographic career: Talbot invented the basics of the film photography process, as we knew it.
The eye inspired the invention of the camera. This is why we can observe several similarities between these two optical systems. Several parts have exactly the same function in one as in the other. For example, the crystalline lens and the objective serve to converge the light rays to the desired location. Also, the iris and the pupil, in comparison with the diaphragm, modulate the amount of light entering and the surface onto which the light is projected. Also, both the retina of the eye and the sensor are used to receive the image. Finally, the eyeball and the housing serve as protection.
Some cameras have a different constitution, but despite these variations, they work on the same principle and are composed of the following basic elements: A lens: It is a system of lenses that allows the light from the object or scene being photographed to reach the sensor. A diaphragm: It is located in the lens and is made up of slats that open and close to let a certain amount of light pass through. A shutter : It is a mechanical object that is responsible for varying the exposure time of the scene or object photographed. The sensor (digital) or film (analog): It is a photosensitive component that receives the light filtered by the diaphragm and the shutter.
The photographic film (or film) is a flexible support coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive compounds, usually silver halide. When the emulsion is exposed to light in a camera, a latent, invisible image is formed. In order to obtain a visible image, development is required. George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, used it around 1888 to produce the first flexible photographic film for a single body, the Kodak “100 views”. He perfected it around 1900 to allow daylight loading and introduced it in the Brownie No. 1 which popularized photography to the general public. On digital photography, a digital sensor is the electronic component used to convert electromagnetic radiation into an analog electrical signal to obtain a digital image. There are two main types, of digital sensors: the CMOS and the CCD.
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