Ferdinand Hurter
Ferdinand Hurter (15 March 1844 – 12 March 1898) was a Swiss industrial chemist who settled in England. He also carried out research into photography.
Early life
Ferdinand Hurter was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the only son of To ...
(1844–1898) and
Vero Charles Driffield
Vero Charles Driffield (7 May 1848 – 14 November 1915) was an English chemical engineer who also became involved in photographic research.
Driffield was educated at Liverpool Collegiate and Sandbach Grammar School. He also attended a priv ...
(1848–1915) were nineteenth-century photographic scientists who brought quantitative scientific practice to
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
through the methods of
sensitometry
Sensitometry is the scientific study of light-sensitive materials, especially photographic film. The study has its origins in the work by Ferdinand Hurter and Vero Charles Driffield (circa 1876) with early black-and-white emulsions. They determin ...
and
densitometry
Densitometry is the quantitative measurement of optical density in light-sensitive materials, such as photographic paper or photographic film, due to exposure to light.
Overview
Optical density is a result of the darkness of a developed picture ...
.
Among their other innovations was a photographic
exposure estimation device known as an
actinograph
An actinograph is an instrument for measuring or estimating the amount of light available, in terms of its ability to expose photographic film. That is, it measures the ''actinic'' or ''chemical'' intensity of light, as opposed to radiometric o ...
.
See also
*
H&D speed numbers, originally described in 1890, for
film speed
Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system. A closely related ISO system is used to describe the relations ...
measurements
References
External links
A brief history of Hurter and Driffield by Ron Callender in ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography'' 2008 pp.732-4
History of photography
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