During the early days of photography, the primary users of this new invention were painters. They experimented not only with the light and the photosensitive materials, but also retouched, painted and used multiple exposures in their work. Mixing photography and painting has been a common practice among photographers and painters, starting with earlier hand-colored daguerreotypes and continuing through contemporary digital art.

Unknown photographer "portrait of a woman" 1850, private collection, Bogotá Colombia

The Swiss painter Johann Baptist Isering had probably the first exhibition of daguerreotype portraits in 1840; one year after photography was made public. He had to use very long exposures, which forced his sitters to pose with their eyes closed. In his book Historie de la photographie, Jean A. Keim noted". . . [he] scratched the pupils of the eyes on the photographic plate to bring the images to life” (page 24). Isering also hand colored the portraits for the exhibition.

The hand coloring process of a daguerreotype was usually carried out immediately after gold toning and drying. A finely ground pigment was applied with a fine brush and the excess pigment was blown away. Artists usually applied flesh colors for the skin, and liquid gold and silver to jewelry; the highlights could be produced by carefully scratching the silver surface.

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