-
The first permanent photograph
The first permanent photo was captured in 1826 by a french inventor called Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The french inventor created a picture of the countryside in an estate in Le Gras, France. He names his technique "heliography," meaning "sun drawing." The black-and-white exposure takes eight hours and fades significantly, but an image is still visible on the plate today. -
The first photo of a person
In early 1839, a French painter and chemist called Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre photographs a Paris street scene from his apartment window using a camera obscura and his newly invented daguerreotype process. The long exposure time (several minutes) means moving objects like pedestrians and carriages don't appear in the photo. You may be wondering what a street has to do with a street, however an unidentified man who stopped for a shoeshine remained still long enough to become the first person -
The first ariel photo
In 1858 the first ariel photo was produced, Felix Tournachon, better known by the nom de plume Nadar, became the first to capture an aerial photograph in a tethered balloon over Paris in 1858. -
The First colour photo
In 1861, the Scottish Physicist James Clerk Maxwell created a colour image by superimposing onto a single screen three black-and-white images each passed through three filters—red, green, and blue. His photo of a multicolored ribbon is the first to prove the efficacy of the three-color method, until then just a theory, and sets the stage for further color innovation, particularly by the Lumißre brothers in France. -
The first action photo
In 1878, the first action photo was captured. English photographer Eadweard Muybridge, using new emulsions that allow nearly instantaneous photography, begins taking photograph sequences that capture animals and humans in motion. His 1878 photo series of a galloping horse, created with 12 cameras each outfitted with a trip wire, helps settle a disagreement over whether at any time in a horse's gait all four hooves leave the ground. (They do.) It also causes a popular stir about the potential of -
The first underwater colour photo
In 1926, Ichthyologist William Longley and National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin use an Autochrome camera and a raft full of explosive magnesium flash powder to illuminate the shallows of Florida's Dry Tortugas and make the first undersea color photographs. -
First photo from space
In 1946, Researchers with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory strap a 35-millimeter camera to a German V-2 missile and launch it into space from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The camera snaps a picture every second and a half as the rocket ascends to 65 miles (105 kilometers) above the surface. The camera falls back to Earth and slams into the ground, but the film, contained in a steel cassette, is unharmed. The developed photos are the first ever to show Earth fro -
The first survey of the night sky
In 1946, Researchers with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory strap a 35-millimeter camera to a German V-2 missile and launch it into space from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The camera snaps a picture every second and a half as the rocket ascends to 65 miles (105 kilometers) above the surface. The camera falls back to Earth and slams into the ground, but the film, contained in a steel cassette, is unharmed. The developed photos are the first ever to show Earth fro -
The first magazine to publish everything in colour
After decades of pioneering color photography technology, National Geographic magazine introduces a new era in February 1962, becoming the first major American periodical to print an all-color issue. The magazine goes on to publish more color in its editorial pages throughout 1962 than any other major magazine in the country. -
First digital still camera
In 1991 the first digital still camera, Kodak released and designed the first digital camera. This device was extremely expensive and marketed to professional photographers. The camera uses a Nikon F-3 camera body fitted with a digital sensor. Over the next five years, several companies designed and marketed with more affordable models, and today, the market is overwhelmed with thousands of digital still camera models.
