A photo, or photograph in the full form of the word is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:
A picture or image obtained by photography; (originally) a picture made using a camera in which an image is focused on to sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment; (later also) a picture made by focusing an image and then storing it digitally.
The word photograph was first used in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek words φῶς (phos), meaning "light", and andγραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing and or writing" together, these words give a literal meaning of "drawing with light" for photography.
Even though the word photography was not used until the year 1839, the first ever photograph was taken in 1822 by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used ideas from discoveries made by Johann Heinrich Schultz from the eighteenth century in his method. Johann Heinrich Schultz had discovered that when a mixture of silver and chalk was exposed to light, it darkened.
Since this technique was used by Niépce in 1822 there have been many different techniques of taking photographs using chemical based products to capture the image. Modern film cameras using a standard 35mm film will use a strip of film made of light sensitive chemicals fixed in place with a gelatine based gel. This is then developed using a series of other chemicals and can be transferred onto paper for viewing.
In the late twentieth century, a large technological breakthrough arrived in the form of digital cameras. These work by using a large series of light sensitive sensors that capture the image that is focussed upon them. It works in much the same way as film however instead of being recorded irreversibly onto the film, the data is stored and saved to a memory card and then developed by the camera’s processor into an image that the photographer can view on the camera, on a computer by transferring the images onto a computer, or can be printed by professional printing shops straight from the camera.
A picture or image obtained by photography; (originally) a picture made using a camera in which an image is focused on to sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment; (later also) a picture made by focusing an image and then storing it digitally.
The word photograph was first used in 1839 by Sir John Herschel and is based on the Greek words φῶς (phos), meaning "light", and andγραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing and or writing" together, these words give a literal meaning of "drawing with light" for photography.
Even though the word photography was not used until the year 1839, the first ever photograph was taken in 1822 by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used ideas from discoveries made by Johann Heinrich Schultz from the eighteenth century in his method. Johann Heinrich Schultz had discovered that when a mixture of silver and chalk was exposed to light, it darkened.
Since this technique was used by Niépce in 1822 there have been many different techniques of taking photographs using chemical based products to capture the image. Modern film cameras using a standard 35mm film will use a strip of film made of light sensitive chemicals fixed in place with a gelatine based gel. This is then developed using a series of other chemicals and can be transferred onto paper for viewing.
In the late twentieth century, a large technological breakthrough arrived in the form of digital cameras. These work by using a large series of light sensitive sensors that capture the image that is focussed upon them. It works in much the same way as film however instead of being recorded irreversibly onto the film, the data is stored and saved to a memory card and then developed by the camera’s processor into an image that the photographer can view on the camera, on a computer by transferring the images onto a computer, or can be printed by professional printing shops straight from the camera.
