some color history .....

[ceebee23]

For those interested in the history of color image technology a visit to this site at the Library of Congress may be of interest.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

The online exhibit is of color photographs of Tsarist Russia, taken around 1910.

The images were taken using a "one shot" color camera. One shot cameras work much like three tube color television cameras. A camera with three negatives with red, green and blue filters in front takes three simultaneous pictures which when projected together recreates a full color image.

This process is essesntially the same additve system as color television or the original three strip Technicolor film system.

The images were projected because at that time printing them was very difficult.

Colormetrically the system is as valid today as it was in the1900s when the photos were taken.

The photo here is of the Monastery of St. Nil' near Moscow and was taken in 1910

[ceebee23]

The Emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan (1880-1944), poses solemnly for his portrait, taken in 1911 shortly after his accession....

[old_tv_nut]

The amazing thing to me is that they had panchromatic plates at that time, which would be needed for the red and green records.

[Celt]

Wonderful site and scenery! Thanks!

[ceebee23]

Although I do not have a image to show you, in 1913 the Kaiser's daughter married. The event was filmed in colour using an early three strip colour film format, similar to Technicolor.

The film, or at least parts of it survive, and the thing that struck me when I saw it was the bright blue uniforms of the mounted guard escort.

I will try and find an image to post here.

This and the Russian images required panchromatic film which had arrived in the early 1900s. Pan film had been invented in the 1890s in Germany when it was discovered that using anoline dyes sensitised the film to the full range of the spectrum but ortho film remained the mainstay of photography until the 30s.

[Aussie Bloke]

Wow, fair dinkum I never thought colour photography looked THAT good back then (with the aid of digital level adjustment), bloody awsome !!!!! The photos looked as if they were shot only yesterday !!!

Anyhow speaking of early colour photography, I've watched on History Channel on Austar PAY TV a doco on early colour films which there were colour films dating as early as 1906 up to the 1930s and they looked bloody awsome in colour accuracy, the quality ranged from scratchy on the earliest films to fantastic on the 1920s/30s colour films from memory at a frame rate of roughly 12-15 frames/sec I think. Anyhow I'm guessing they used some 3 colour additive method to make these films colour as I notice with some of the fast motion particularly on some girls dancing in dresses that there is flaring of red and blue of the swaying dresses.

Anyways I've done a little more searching on the net for early colour photos and found some more good examples of early colour photos http://www.worldisround.com/articles/2378/ . They aren't quite as superb as the Russion photos but still fantastic. There's also the oldest known colour photo on there dating 1872. Though as a lot of us know the first colour photograph was made in 1861 using I think 3 colour filter composite of a ribbon:

[ceebee23]

There were many attempts at colour photography prior to the introduction of modern colour film by Agfa in 1936 and Kodak the following year.

Additive processes of various types were available until then including the best known "Autochrome" where a panchromatic plate was coated with fine grains of rice starch dyed in red green and blue. The plates were reversal processed into slides giving a full colour image. These systems all suffered from slow speeds and grainy images lacking saturation.

Only the one shot type systems used by Gorkii (the Russian photographer) were capable of proper colour rendition. but also suffered from slow film speeds due to the need for the rgb colour filters.

Moving films in colour were also experimented with, many including Kodak and Technicolor used two colour systems with the front and back of the film stock coated in red/green sensitve layers. But two colour systems could not provide a full spectrum of colour. (Hence the development of three strip Technicolor in the 30s.)

Various "field sequential" type systems were also developed with spinning filters in front of the camera but they too proved difficult as the frame rate was a problem.

Maxwell's additive experiments in the 1860 and 1870s led to many attempts at RGB colour systems. At the same time a French experimenter, whose name escapes me, succeeded in developing a subtractive system but his experiments went unnoticed for decades.

[Sandy G]

Seems like I remember seeing a color pic of the Flatiron Building in NYC taken in color at the beginning of the 20th century (I think). Don't remember what the process was, only that it produced a very soft, pastel, dreamlike photograph.Really quite striking & beautiful.-Sandy G.

[ceebee23]

Sandy, images taken using the autochrome process usuallyhave very soft and pastel shades ..I suspect the image you saw would have been an "autochrome".

The plates were produced by Pathe and many thousands still exist.

[ceebee23]

The plates were made by the Lumiere brothers ....eeek ..must be old age ......

www.autochrome.com has some wonderful examples