Camera obscura technology from the 16th century helped improve portable boxes that could recreate upside down images on walls parallel to small holes where light passed through. John Herschel invented the cyanotype process where white paper treated with chemicals turns blue when exposed to light, except where objects on the paper block the light and leave outlines. The daguerreotype created by Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce was the first successful commercial photography process resulting from their partnership and research improving photochemical technology.