PIONEERS & PROCESSES
CHEMISTRY MATTERS
CASED IMAGES
PIGMENT & MECHANICAL
Process ID
100

This Englishman created the first negative-positive process called calotype in 1841

William Henry Fox Talbot

100

This chemical, essential for fixing photographs, was first used by Sir John Herschel in 1819.

What is sodium thiosulfate (hypo)?

100

This type of cased image used a glass plate instead of metal and appeared as a positive when backed with black velvet or paint.

What is an ambrotype?

100

This blue-toned process, invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, used iron salts and prussian blue to create images.

What is the cyanotype process?

100

The presence of these two distinct layers - a white baryta layer beneath the image-bearing layer - helps identify this late 19th-century process.

What are gelatin silver printing-out papers (POP)?

200

This process, invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, became the dominant photographic method by the mid-1850s

What is the wet collodion process?

200

This highly flammable substance was the base for collodion, made from nitrocellulose dissolved in ether and alcohol.

What is guncotton?

200

These decorative flexible brass frames surrounding daguerreotype package are called...

What are preservers?

200

This pigment process, developed by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855, used dichromated gelatin and carbon black to create permanent prints.

What is the carbon print process?

200

When examined under magnification, this process's characteristic "screen pattern" appears as a regular dot matrix, and the typical "ink squeeze out" is usually visible.

What is the halftone?

300

Named after its French inventor, this process created a unique positive image on a silver-plated copper sheet.

What is the daguerreotype?

300

This gold-based chemical solution, used in the "gilding" process for daguerreotypes, strengthened and protected the image.

What is gold chloride

300

These two materials were commonly used to create the case for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.

What is leather and wood

300

This photomechanical printing process, developed in 1870, used a lead relief matrix and ink to create high-quality reproductions.

What is the Woodburytype?

300

This distinctive surface texture of carbon prints can be felt and seen - the relief of the image corresponds to the density of the shadows.

What is differential gloss/relief in shadow areas?

400

This photographer's "American Process" was a variant of the wet plate collodion involving Canadian Balsam

Who is James Ambrose Cutting?

400

This silver compound, sensitive to light, was the primary light-sensitive material in albumen prints.

What is silver nitrate?

400

This thin sheet with an oval opening protected the daguerreotype surface.

What is a brass mat?

400

This early colour printing process, invented by Louis Ducos du Hauron in 1869, used three carbon tissues sensitized to different colours to create full-colour prints.

What is the trichrome carbon process?

400

This characteristic visual texture, visible under magnification in both negatives and prints, is a key identifying feature of calotypes.

What are paper fibres

500

This early photographic process, announced by Talbot in 1839, used writing paper sensitized with sodium chloride and silver nitrate.

What is the photogenic drawing?

500

This distinctive colour, created by iron compounds, gives the cyanotype process its common name.

What is Prussian Blue?

500

This type of early photograph used a japanned iron plate instead of copper and produced a direct positive image.

What is a tintype/ferrotype?

500

this photomechanical process used a copper plate coated with light-sensitive gelatin and was etched to create intaglio prints.

What is the Photogravure

500

This physical characteristic of albumen prints can be seen when viewing the print at an angle - a distinctive result from the egg white coating.

What is high surface gloss/sheen?