These are some photos of my models done with Daguerreotype back in the 1800s.
I’ve photographed them more recently.
They haven’t changed a bit.

Daguerreotype Photography

Daguerreotype stared to be used around 1830.  I wasn’t one of the earliest users, but did manage to take some nice photos using this process about 10 years after its development.

Was developed in 1837 by a guy named, you guessed it, ’Daguerre’.  He used a, what is called, a ‘Camera Obscura’. 

The Camera Obscura is kinda like a pinhole camera.  Was used by artists to project a subject onto a wall or canvas for drawing and painting.  In this case a very large box with a pinhole that the light shone through from the outside and the image showed up on the other side (inside) the box wall.  The artist would stand inside and paint or draw. Helped get the proportions correct.

Once some proper lenses were developed, one could insert these for a much higher quality print.  One made a copper plate with a coating of polished silver.  Bromide and iodine vapours sensitized the silver to make it react to light. Throw that in your boxed camera, aim it at your subject, and open the aperture and wait a good ten minutes.  One’s subject had to sit still for that length of time.  That’s why, along with early paintings, most models are in a very relaxed position.

This technique gave a ‘positive’ image as opposed to more modern film photography that gave a ‘negative’ that then had to be printed.