What is silver plate photography?

When Angel, a great French painter, saw the work of the silver plate photographer, he could not help but sigh: "Photography is really wonderful. I wish I could paint so realistically, but no painter can do it. " Silver plate photography was invented by French stage artist Daguerre in 1837. The silver plate method is considered as the first valuable photographic method in the world.

Silver plate photography was born on the basis of a series of scientific and technological achievements such as the discovery of pinhole imaging, the discovery of lens black box and the discovery of silver chloride.

1822, Nieps, a French lithograph printer, began to test how to save the images obtained in the black box in order to improve the printing method. 1826, he melted Judea asphalt (an asphalt that hardens when exposed to light) in Lafonte oil, coated it on a metal plate, and put it in a black box. After more than 8 hours of exposure and development, he finally succeeded in obtaining the first photo recording the outdoor street view of the workplace. From 65438 to 0829, Daguerre began to cooperate with it. 1837, Daguerre finally invented a perfect photography method-Daguerre photography (also known as silver plate photography). This method is a direct positive method that appears on silver copper plate and cannot be printed and reproduced.

Daguerre believes that if the invention patent right is owned by individuals, it will inevitably affect the interests of society, and it should be supported by state acquisition and announced to the world. 1839, the French government bought the patent right of this invention, and in August 15, the optical photos of Daguerre were publicly displayed at the joint meeting of French Academy of Sciences and Academy of Fine Arts. 19 In August, the French government officially announced the details of the silver photography law, and Daguerre published a 79-page manual. As Daguerre expected, after that, silver photography quickly became popular all over the world.

At that time, Daguerre photography could only be used to shoot still life, and the camera was rough and bulky. 1857, asir, an Englishman, invented wet lithography, which gradually replaced Daguerre photography and became the beginning of modern photography.