Posted: 3/2/2005 3:42:22 AM EDT
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I know French bashing is a national pastime here at ARFCOM but there are some amazing color photos taken by the French during WWI at this web sight. Go to links and look for the WWI color photos. www.bigdandbubba.com/ |
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This is not color film. "AUTOCHROME process The Autochrome was the first viable colour photograph process, and was introduced in 1907 by the Lumière brothers. The Autochrome "screen" was created by forming a layer of minute starch grains dyed in the primary colours (red, blue and green)**, behind which was a layer of panchromatic film. When the picture was taken these starch grains acted as tiny filters on the film. The film was then subjected to reversal development, and then viewed, as a transparency, though an identical screen. The pictures, though dark by present day standards, were delicate and of a soft pastel nature. " www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=328382 www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=328135 www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=327936 |
Ah! The Lumiere bros. strike again! 
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| great pics... but isn't it typical how all the pics just show french soldiers standing around not doing anything... no fighting with the Germans, no firing artilary, no combat photos at all... seems like the only shooting the french did was when the cameraman shot the pics... |
There were attempts at color film as far back as the 1850s. BTW Kodachrome is not a color film as we know it, it is a reversal film using an additive process. Nasty stuff chemically, but makes great slides- too bad EKC is trying to kill it off- Kodachrome has the longest archival life of any film. |
It came from potato starch grains, IIRC. I remember an issue of LIFE magazine back in the 1960s that had some of these pics, and some taken by the French society photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue of his family around 1905. Fascinating pictures. ETA: it was also VERY slow film,- ISO 2 or 4, if that. Action shots were rare, although I think Lartigue might have done some of racing cars, somehow. |