Photographic plates preceded film as the primary medium for capturing images in photography. These plates, made of metal or glass and coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, were integral to early photographic processes such as heliography, daguerreotypes, and photogravure. Glass plates, thinner than standard window glass, became widely used in the late 19th century for their clarity and reliability. Although largely replaced by film during the 20th century, plates continued to be used for specialised scientific and medical purposes until the late 20th century.

Glass plates were far superior to film for research-quality imaging because they were stable and less likely to bend or distort, especially in large-format frames for wide-field imaging. Early plates used the wet collodion process. The wet plate process was replaced late in the 19th century by gelatin dry plates.

A view camera nicknamed "The Mammoth" weighing 1,400 pounds (640 kg) was built by George R. Lawrence in 1899, specifically to photograph "The Alton Limited" train owned by the Chicago & Alton Railway. It took photographs on glass plates measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) × 4.5 feet (1.4 m).

Glass plate photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile films were increasingly adopted. However, photographic plates were reportedly still being used by one photography business in London until the 1970s, and by one in Bradford called the Belle Vue Studio that closed in 1975. They were in wide use for professional astrophotography as late as the 1990s. Workshops on the use of glass plate photography as an alternative medium or for artistic use are still being conducted in the early 21st century.

Many famous astronomical surveys were taken using photographic plates, including the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) of the 1950s, the follow-up POSS-II survey of the 1990s, and the UK Schmidt Telescope survey of southern declinations. A number of observatories, including Harvard College and Sonneberg, maintain large archives of photographic plates, which are used primarily for historical research on variable stars.

Many solar system objects were discovered by using photographic plates, superseding earlier visual methods. Discovery of minor planets using photographic plates was pioneered by Max Wolf beginning with his discovery of 323 Brucia in 1891. The first natural satellite discovered using photographic plates was Phoebe in 1898. Pluto was discovered using photographic plates in a blink comparator; its moon Charon was discovered 48 years later in 1978 by U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer James W. Christy by carefully examining a bulge in Pluto's image on a photographic plate.

Glass-backed plates, rather than film, were generally used in astronomy because they do not shrink or deform noticeably in the development process or under environmental changes. Several important applications of astrophotography, including astronomical spectroscopy and astrometry, continued using plates until digital imaging improved to the point where it could outmatch photographic results. Kodak and other manufacturers discontinued production of most kinds of plates as the market for them dwindled between 1980 and 2000, terminating most remaining astronomical use, including for sky surveys.

Photographic plates were also an important tool in early high-energy physics, as they are blackened by ionizing radiation. Ernest Rutherford was one of the first to study the absorption, in various materials, of the rays produced in radioactive decay, by using photographic plates to measure the intensity of the rays. Development of particle detection optimised nuclear emulsions in the 1930s and 1940s, first in physics laboratories, then by commercial manufacturers, enabled the discovery and measurement of both the pi-meson and K-meson, in 1947 and 1949, initiating a flood of new particle discoveries in the second half of the 20th century.