Color photography

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The first permanent colour photograph, taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.
The first permanent colour photograph, taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.
An 1877 colour photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photography. The overlapping, yellow, cyan and red subtractive color elements can clearly be seen.
An 1877 colour photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photography. The overlapping, yellow, cyan and red subtractive color elements can clearly be seen.
Early color photograph from Russia, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1909 to 1915
Early color photograph from Russia, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1909 to 1915
An undated color photograph between 1905 and 1915 by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
An undated color photograph between 1905 and 1915 by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Colour photography is photography that uses media capable of preserving colours. It is often contrasted with black-and-white photography, which uses media capable only of showing shades of gray.

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[edit] Modern colour film

The first modern ('integrated tri-pack') colour film, Kodachrome, was introduced in 1935 based on three coloured emulsions. Most modern color films, except Kodachrome, are based on technology developed for Agfacolor (as 'Agfacolor Neue') in 1936. (In this newer technology, chromogenic dye couplers are already within the emulsion layers, rather than having to be carefully diffused in during development.) Instant colour film was introduced by Polaroid in 1963.

There are basically two colour systems:

  1. Additive: The colours are added as coloured lights. In this system, the most common set of primary colours is red, green and blue. Maxwell's experiment was of this type, as are screen-plate methods, such as Autochrome. Modern digital photographs seen on a VDG are also viewed by addition of light from an RGB phosphor array.
  2. Subtractive: Colours are subtracted from white light by dyes or pigments. In this system the most common set of primary colours is cyan, magenta and yellow. Ducos du Hauron made several pictures by this method in the late 1800s.

Several commercial print methods were devised using the subtractive technique during the 1930s (see e.g. Coe, ref 1), for printing from 'separation negatives'. Kodachrome was the first commercially-available 'integrated tri-pack' film of this type.

There are two main types of colour film in current use:

  • Colour negative film forms a negative image when exposed, which is fixed during developing. This is then exposed onto photographic paper to form a positive image.
  • Colour reversal film, also known as slide film, forms a negative image when exposed, which is reversed to a positive image during developing. The film can then be projected onto a screen.

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People

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