Adamson was keen on becoming an engineer, but ill health led to him pursuing photography. He was taught calotype by his brother, John, and by the physicist David Brewster of the University of St Andrews in the late 1830s. As early as April 1839, Adamson's talents were recognized, and Fox Talbot, the inventor of the calotype, would call his pictures "Rembrandtish". Adamson's brother John, a general practitioner, lecturer, and curator of the University Museum, produced the first calotype in Scotland in 1841.