No people were captured because the exposure was 5-10 mins so all the people and traffic got fused and disappeared into the backdrop. Except one man that have a shoes cleaned on bottom left corner.The image is widely attributed to Louis Daguerre, who developed the daguerreotype process, the first commercially viable form of photography.
Daguerre exposed a polished silver-coated copper plate from his studio window overlooking the Boulevard du Temple, a busy thoroughfare at the time. Early photographic chemistry required long exposure times, typically 5 to 10 minutes, because the light sensitivity of the materials was extremely low. During that interval, moving elements, carriages, pedestrians, animals, did not register clearly on the plate. They passed through the frame too quickly, effectively erasing themselves from the final image.
One figure remains visible: a man standing still long enough to be captured while having his shoes polished. The bootblack and customer stayed in place for several minutes, allowing their outlines to be recorded, making them among the first humans ever photographed.
Added fact: Daguerre announced his process in 1839, and the French government acquired the rights and released it “free to the world,” accelerating the global spread of photography within just a few years.
