One of the biggest challenges with painting is that you can’t make the same print twice. Photography was sought after for many reasons, the main being its ability to replicate a scene.

Photography negatives were the stencil for print after print of the exact same scene. From its invention at the end of the 19th century, to today, we still use negatives and positives, just in a more advanced manner.

Cover by Annie Spratt

Photo by Annie Spratt

Negative Vs. Positive

Two terms that are common with photography, from the early processes to the modern era, are Negative and Positive. These words are already loaded in the English language; good and bad, plus and minus, & temperate changes. In this context, we are looking at how light affects our capture medium.

A capture medium such as light-sensitive paper or celluloid photography film is generally called a negative. This is when they show a reversed scene than the one captured. This is down to the UV rays burning parts of the medium, recording a latent image of the scene in front of the camera.

William Henry Fox Talbot, An oak tree in winter, Lacock, c.1842-43

Early Photography Negatives

One of the biggest drives pushing photography to succeed was its possibility of replication. With a negative and simple process, one image could be printed hundreds of times. This vastly increased turnaround and profits for anyone selling prints and images. The Albumen and Calotype processes were two of the first to use negatives for reprinting.

Creating a positive from a negative image required two light-sensitive mediums. One to record the negative, and the second for the positive. As the silver in the negative darkens, it creates a reversed imprint. Here, the most lit areas are dark and the unlit areas are light with a range between.

By sandwiching the negative and 2nd light-sensitive medium together, a positive is made by shining light through the negative. This process was first used by Nicephore Niepce, a French inventor and scientist in 1842. However, it was developed and used consistently by Englishman Henry Fox Talbot as he developed his Calotypes.

Saint Michael's Church, Winterbourne, April 1859, salted-paper print, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC

Modern Negatives

Modern negatives are a much-improved version of the original paper or metal versions. These were used with early alternative photography processes. The negatives in analog cameras are cellulose. It is coated with layers of sensitive silver halides (emulsion), filters, and protective coatings. The color film makes use of red, green, and blue which is not needed for monochromatic.

Film camera negatives come in two forms; sheets and rolls. Sheet film, first developed by John Carbutt in 1888 is used in large and extra-large formats, such as the 5x4 or 10x8 field view camera. Rolls were used for medium and small formats, covering the 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6 x 17, and 35mm film formats. These were first created by Kodak in 1891. Roll film develops simultaneously, whereas sheet film needs individual development.

To get a positive from a film negative requires a light source, most typically from an enlarger. This common yet important darkroom equipment enlarges your negative, allowing you to print a positive in almost any size. Like the early photography negatives, the tonal range on the negative allows varying strengths of light on the positive.