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Description: | By the early 1850s, when Richard Beard's patent to the Daguerreotype process had expired and Scott Archer had introduced a more sensitive wet collodion process, photographers were free to set up commercial studios using any technique. Their success depended as much on the photographers' ability to attract sufficient business as on their skill in operating the photographic equipment.
In London, the number of studios rapidly grew along the main commercial and retail streets - particularly the West End, the City and Westminster. Competition greatly reduced the cost of portraiture. In this advertisement from 1887, Myles Garner announces his special prices for large portraits. These 'Cabinet portraits', intended for display, had been popular from the mid-1860s and usually featured one sitter or a small group.
Daguerreotype was one of the earliest photographic processes. An impression was taken on a silver plate sensitized by iodine, then developed by exposure to vapours of mercury - a potentially harmful process which resulted in a single image.
The collodion process was introduced in 1851. Collodion, a viscuous liquid, dried to form a very thin clear film over the image produced. The process could be used on glass sheets to provide a negative image, from which many positive images could be printed. Collodion was never patented | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Baskett & Borthwick | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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