Barbara Askins

underexposed photographics

If a photo is too dark, it is underexposed. The transparent areas will appear black on the print, but the brightest highlight areas will still have detail.

In 1978, the Association for Advancement of Inventions and Innovations named her the national Inventor of the Year. She was the first woman to be selected for this title.

award

barbara askins

Barbara S. Askins

Inventor of the improvement for astronomical and geological photos

In 1978, she came up with a way of increasing the quality of the images using radioactive materials. The method she developed used radiology to help improve the quality of underexposed negatives

Received U.S. patent for a “Method of Obtaining Intesified Image from Developed Photographic Films and Plates.” She was the only inventor on the project.

invention

She was born in 1939, in Tennessee. She began her career as a teacher but she returned to school to become a chemist, earning a bachelor's degree in Chemistry after having a son and a daughter, waiting for them until they entered school. Later she will accepted a position as a chemist for the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1975.

Who was she?