Photography
It was while he worked for John Mawson that Swan experimented with photography, improving the permanency, definition and contrasts of images by refining the wet collodion process of exposing and developing photographic plates and by introducing backing paper. Unsatisfactory dry plates were available from 1871 but Swan also improved this method after realising the importance of heat in the preparation of silver gelatine emulsion. Swan also developed bromide printing paper onto which negatives could be printed under artificial light.
In layman's terms, Swan's experiments represented significant contributions to photography: improving image capture, making photography more accessible, making enlargements possible and even helping to revolutionise astronomical photography.
