Drawing on their backgrounds in scene painting and stage design, Louis Daguerre and his collaborator Charles-Marie Bouton created spectacular dioramas using optics, light, paint, and other forms of stage technology. They first produced immersive spectacles in Paris and London in the 1820s, then turned to making modestly sized paintings, using only paint and light to attain their magical effects. Following significant commercial success with his dioramas, Daguerre went on to become one of the earliest inventors of photography.