Photography has come a long way since its beginnings in the early 19th century. In 1826, a French inventor named Joseph Niepce used a camera obscura to capture the first known photograph. Niepce's photograph was made on a pewter plate and required a long exposure time of eight hours.

By the 1830s, a number of other inventors had improved on Niepce’s invention. In 1838, William Henry Fox Talbot patented the calotype, a process which allowed for multiple positive prints to be made from a single negative. This technique revolutionized photography and made it possible for photographers to create prints for sale.

In the late 19th century, advances in technology allowed for the development of the dry plate process. This process significantly reduced exposure time and made it possible for photographers to take pictures of moving objects.

The first color photograph was taken in 1861 by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, using the three-color-separation technique. By the 1900s, the first commercially successful color photographic process had been developed.

Meanwhile, The development of digital photography in the late 20th century revolutionized the field. But the first digital cameras were bulky, expensive and had limited resolution. Over the years, advances in technology have made digital photography more accessible and easy to use. 

In 1975, Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, created the first digital camera. It was a large, box-like device that used a charge-coupled device (CCD) and a digital cassette recorder to store images. It took 23 seconds to record a single black and white image and had a resolution of just 0.01 megapixels. 

In the early 2000s, digital cameras began to become more popular as the technology became more affordable and user-friendly. Digital cameras used memory cards for storage and had higher resolution, allowing for sharper images. Now, digital cameras are used by both professional and amateur photographers, allowing them to take better quality pictures than ever before.

Moreover, in recent years, scientists have began using cutting-edge technology to colorize historical black and white photographs, offering a new way to view the past.

The process of colorizing old photos begins with a digital scan of the original black and white image. Once the image is scanned, the scientists use a combination of software and manual techniques to create a full-color version of the photo. The software is used to identify objects and surfaces, while manual techniques are used to accurately color each surface or object.

Previously, Bored Panda spoke with Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech, where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures. She explained that colored historical photographs have a special appeal.

“We’re often attracted to historical photos that have been colorized because that process allows us to see details we might not notice otherwise—the subtle pattern of someone’s clothing, the scattering of freckles on another person’s face and arms. It quite literally gives us a new perspective on history, fostering a greater sense of connection between ourselves as modern viewers and the historical subjects we are looking at,” the professor explained.

“As a science, colorization is about finding the appropriate hues, tones, and tints to add to a grayscale photograph. This involves intensive research in archives, online, and in conference with other historical experts—all of which, of course, gives the colorist that many more connections to the historical era they are researching,” Yaszek said.

There’s also a combination of instinct and data that comes together in colorizing photographs. The scientists have the desire to make a color choice that feels both intellectually and emotionally authentic to the historical era in question.

“Finally, the colorization of old photos can also remind us that history is always subjective and that historical documents—including photographs—are not just objective representations of reality, but artifacts that are sometimes carefully staged and otherwise manipulated to present viewers with very specific representations of historical people, moments, and events,” Yaszek concluded.