Calotype

Also known as: Talbotype

The calotype process was an early photographic method introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot. It was developed shortly after the daguerreotype and represented a fundamentally different approach to photography. Unlike the daguerreotype, which produced a unique direct positive image on metal, the calotype was a negative–positive process. Images were recorded as paper negatives, from which multiple positive prints could be made. This reproducibility was the calotype’s principal advantage and marked a major conceptual shift in photographic practice.

Calotypes were made by sensitising paper with silver iodide, exposing it in the camera, and developing the image. The negative was then fixed and used to produce positive prints on salted paper. However, the paper support introduced visible fibres and texture, resulting in images that appeared softer and less detailed than daguerreotypes.

Despite its flexibility, the calotype did not become as popular as the daguerreotype. Calotype declined with the introduction of the wet collodion process in the early 1850s, which combined the sharpness of the daguerreotype with the reproducibility of a negative.

The limited sharpness of paper negatives reduced the visual impact of stereoscopic depth compared with later glass-based processes. As a result, calotype stereoviews are very rare.

Process summary: