Photo Printing Origins

Photo Printing Origins Copyright (c) 2007 6StarReviews

Kelly Liyakasa is a staff writer for 6StarReviews.com. Kelly Staller is site manager at 6StarReviews.com, a site dedicated to giving YOU, the consumer, the best product and service reviews around. If you like saving time and money by having someone else review leading sites and products, then Visit our site at 6StarReviews.com.

Ever since black and white photographs arrived on the scene, this industry has seen constant change and improvement in quality. Online digital photo printing is the 21st century’s version of traditional portraits, allowing aspiring photographers to express themselves and capture special memories. Not only is taking digital photos a fun hobby, it’s a growing market. See if you know these interesting facts on photographs and where it all began.

History of Photographs:


• The word “photography” actually originates from the Greek phrase “drawing with light.”

• Modern photography has roots in the early 1800’s, when chemical printing first began.

• The earliest image exposures took 8-hours. No one-hour express printing at the local drugstore back then!

• A man named John Herschel was the first one to use the terms “photography, positive, and negatives.” He also made the first negative out of glass in 1839.

• George Eastman invented film in 1884, which replaced photographic plates and began the earliest stage of modern photography.


Modern Photo Facts:

• All photos were monochrome in the beginning, another word for black and white.
• Color photographs were emerging in the mid-1800’s.

• A physicist named James Clerk Maxwell took the first color photograph in 1861.

• The Lumière brothers invented the first color plate, Autochrome, in 1907.

• Throughout the 1900’s, photo technology continued to advance.

• Digital photos began when professionals such as photo journalists found they had to carry portable photo-developing labs with them on the job.

• Sony created the first non-film camera in 1981: The Sony Mavica.

• The first camera that took digital photos was released in 1990, the Kodak DCS 100.

• Digital photos are taken when an image sensor records a photograph, instead of through a chemical-changing process.


Today, digital cameras are a hot trend and many own at least one. Photographers and your average Joe alike have turned to online digital photo printing, where they can easily transfer images into online digital photos in mere seconds. This can alleviate film-developing issues and early exposures. We’ve all had the bad experience with popping our cameras open too soon and exposing all our hard-taken photos to sunlight, essentially ruining them.

This exact experience has led many to make the transition into digital photographs. 6StarReviews.com mentions a digital photo processing service called Snapfish in their photo printing reviews. Snapfish offers photo-fans the option of printing out their digital images at local grocery and drugstores.

They also give you fun features like sharing digital photo albums online with friends and family members. For you traditionalists who love antique cameras, you may find digital photo sharpness and online editing features hard to resist. The nearly 11 billion online digital photos printed in 2007 will vouch for that!