1^st cycle

Design purpose: more easily and effectively way to capture image rather than drawing

 

Plan: investigate material that capture image

 

Create: capture small camera images on paper coated with silver chloride

 

Evaluate:

Image successfully captures, yet results were negatives, dark where they should be light and vice versa

Could find no way to stop them from darkening all over when brought into the light for viewing

 

Design purpose: find ways to permanent the image formed

 

Plan: focus on photosensitive material

 

Create: Use bitumen of Judea which used by artists as an acid-resistant coating on copper plates for making etchings. During experiments he found that the bitumen coating became less soluble after it had been left exposed to light.

Niépce dissolved bitumen in lavender oil, a solvent often used in varnishes, and thinly coated it onto a lithographic stone or a sheet of metal or glass. 

 

Result: After the coating had dried, a test subject, typically an engraving printed on paper, was laid over the surface in close contact and the two were put out in direct sunlight. After sufficient exposure, the solvent could be used to rinse away only the unhardened bitumen that had been shielded from light by lines or dark areas in the test subject. The parts of the surface thus laid bare could then be etched with acid, or the remaining bitumen could serve as the water-repellent material in lithographic printing.