Charles Wales Wyckoff was an American photographic innovator, a photochemist

Photochemistry

Photochemistry, a sub-discipline of chemistry, is the study of chemical reactions that proceed with the absorption of light by atoms or molecules.. Everyday examples include photosynthesis, the degradation of plastics and the formation of vitamin D with sunlight.-Principles:Light is a type of...

 specializing in high speed photography, also noted today for his innovations in the field of high dynamic range imaging

High dynamic range imaging

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...

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Born in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, he was a graduate of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

. He later did postgraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 with Harold Edgerton, graduating from MIT in 1941. After World War II he worked with Edgerton to develop techniques to photograph atomic experiments in the Pacific Ocean. With little resources in the field, he solved chronic fogging

Fogging (photography)

Fogging in photography is the deterioration in the quality of the image caused either by extraneous light or the effects of a processing chemical.-Taxonomy of fogging:...

 problems during tests in the Marshall Islands

Operation Castle

Operation Castle was a United States series of high-energy nuclear tests by Joint Task Force SEVEN at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954...

 in 1954, thus saving the entire photographic record of the project. He was later engaged by CBS to analyze the famous Zapruder film

Zapruder film

The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...

 of the Kennedy assassination. In 1975, with Edgerton and Robert Rines he made headlines by allegedly photographing the Loch Ness monster

Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....

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He was a Life Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...

. In 1967, he was made a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology.