Did You Know? The First Photo Took 8 Hours To Expose

In an age when capturing moments takes a single second, it's difficult to think that the first snapshot in history took nearly an entire workday to create.

Niépce's "View from the Window at Le Gras" marked a milestone in innovative photography.

Imagine having to wait 8 hours just to take one snapshot. In an age when capturing moments takes a single second, it’s difficult to think that the first snapshot in history took nearly an entire workday to create. But that’s exactly what happened in 1826, when French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the world’s first surviving photograph, “View from the Window at Le Gras.”

Niépce had an inquisitive mind who was attracted by the concept of permanently capturing an image. At a time when photography was not even a notion, he experimented with several light-sensitive chemicals in order to develop a fade-resistant image. His breakthrough came with a technique he dubbed “heliography”—derived from the Greek words for “sun” and “writing.”

The Era of Photography Begins

Niépce coated a pewter plate with bitumen of Judea, a natural asphalt that hardens when exposed to light. He inserted the plate into his camera obscura, an early form of the camera, and pointed it through the window. Over the course of 8 hours, sunlight etched the panorama into the bitumen, creating a blurry image of the rooftops and buildings that surrounded his estate. The end effect was dim and unsophisticated by today’s standards, but it had revolutionary implications. The era of photography had begun.

Why Did it Take So Long?

In the early nineteenth century, light-sensitive materials were inefficient, necessitating extended exposure times to capture enough information. It would be some decades before photography evolved to the point where exposures required only minutes, and even longer until the invention of film and digital sensors made instant photos possible.

Niépce’s achievement cleared the way for pioneers such as Louis Daguerre, who went on to create the daguerreotype, a speedier and more practical photographic technique. By the 1840s, exposure periods had been lowered to a few seconds, allowing the world to capture life’s fleeting moments.

Remember Niépce’s 8-hour marathon the next time you take a quick selfie or photograph a breathtaking sunset. It demonstrates the patience and ingenuity of early inventors who pushed the boundaries of what was possible, setting the groundwork for the simple photography we enjoy today. Niépce’s work reminds us how far technology has come, changing photography from a scientific experiment to a global art form.