An image in which the tones are reversed. On black-and-white negative film, bright areas of the scene appear dark and dark areas appear light. On color negative film, each color is recorded as its complementary color, usually on an orange base. When a negative is printed on photographic paper, the tones are reversed again and a positive image appears. One negative can make many prints.
Most negatives are on clear plastic film, but early ones were on paper or glass. The oldest surviving negative was made by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1835. It shows a window at Lacock Abbey in England. Talbot later developed this idea into the calotype process.
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