Improving Photography
Over the years, the process was further refined and exposure times were reduced to mere seconds, making daguerreotypes the first photographic process to permanently record and fix an image. Exposure times were reasonable for use in portrait photography, which in turn made it the first commercially viable photographic process. A patent for daguerreotypes was obtained in 1839 by a London patent agent, Miles Berry, on behalf of Louis Daguerre. In the United States, a flourishing market in portrait photography developed by the 1840s, as itinerant practitioners of the medium traveled from town to town.
Portrait photography was immensely popular, particularly for those of modest means. For the first time in recorded history, people could get likenesses of themselves and their loved ones at a very reasonable price. The wealthy mostly ignored the new craze and continued to commission portraits painted by fine artists, considering the photographic portraits inferior.
