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Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris. Film: Test for Jour de Fête.
- Principle of capturing and projecting lenticular film. Credit: Joakim Reuteler and Rudolf Gschwind, Digital Humanities Lab, University of Basel, Switzerland. Illustration by Sarah Steinbacher, Multimedia & E-Learning-Services, University of Zurich.
- Principle of capturing and projecting lenticular film. Credit: Joakim Reuteler and Rudolf Gschwind, Digital Humanities Lab, University of Basel, Switzerland. Illustration by Sarah Steinbacher, Multimedia & E-Learning-Services, University of Zurich.
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- Chromogenic monopack
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- Tinting
- Toning
In this process, two positives, one orange-red one blue-green, were cemented together. Several specifications and modifications exist, for instance the strengthening of the perforated film margins via a second exposure, in an attempt to overcome wear ...
Kodak Sonochrome was a specially prepared tinted film for sound film that did not interfere with the spectral sensitivity of the photo-electric cell for the reading of the optical sound track.
The 17 Sonochrome tints were dyed in mainly light hues ...
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Credit: Paolo Cherchi Usai. Source: Cherchi Usai, Paolo (2000): Silent Cinema. London: BFI.
- Source: The International Photographer, July 1929
- Source: The International Photographer, July 1929
- Source: The International Photographer, July 1929
- Source: The International Photographer, July 1929
79 Images in 3 Galleries
For tinting, the positive print is immersed into a variety of dye baths, scene by scene. To this end, the print has to be cut into the corresponding fragments and reassembled after the dyeing process. The dye homogeneously attaches over the entire image’s gelatin including the perforation area. Usually synthetic dyes were dissolved in a weak acid solution to form a chemical bond with the gelatin.
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Salomé (USA 1922, Charles Bryant). Credit: George Eastman Museum. Photographs of the tinted, toned and Handschiegl nitrate print by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger. Source: Agfa Kine-Handbuch. Berlin: Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation. (around 1927, estimated).
- See Mazzanti (2009: 71). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna. Film: Lyda Borelli in Malombra (Italy, 1917).
- As coloured for South America, see Mazzanti (2009: 71). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna.
- As coloured for the domestic Italian market, see Mazzanti (2009: 71). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna.
- Photomicrograph, 25x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Photomicrograph, 50x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Photomicrograph, 50x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Dagli Appennini alle Ande (ITA 1916, Umberto Paradisi). Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Gaumont Woche.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Gaumont Woche.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Gaumont Woche.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Gaumont Woche.
- Credit: Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern. Film: Selznick News.
4499 Images in 113 Galleries
Very little information is available on this very rare process. Instead of immersion into a dye-bath the positive print was coated uniformly with a varnish. This technique can be identified by the lack on dyes in the perforation area and by the ...
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Credit: Paolo Cherchi Usai. Source: Cherchi Usai, Paolo (2000): Silent Cinema. London: BFI.
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In contrast to tinting, toning is not the simple immersion of a film into a dye bath but involves a chemical reaction converting the silver image. In this reaction the neutral silver image in the emulsion of the positive film is replaced by one consisting of colored metal compounds. These were usually iron ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue) for blue, copper ferrocyanide for red/brown, silver sulfide for sepia or rarely uranium ferrocyanide for reddish brown. Toning had been used in still photography before. But since film was projected on the screen it required translucent toning compounds.
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Hongarije (FRA 1926, Anonymous). Credit: EYE Film Museum. Photographs of the tinted, toned and stencil colored nitrate print by Olivia Kristina Stutz, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors.
- Virages sur films à support teinté Pathé, Film teinté lavande (virage bleu) lavender tinted stock with blue toning, the same image from a different copy of the book, combination of tungsten backlight with daylight toplight. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger. Source: Didiée, L. (1926): Le Film vierge Pathé. Manuel de développement et de tirage. Paris: Pathé. [quote id='16']
- Photomicrograph, 25x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Photomicrograph, 50x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Photomicrograph, 100x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.
- Toning samples from the Tinting and Toning Workshop by Ulrich Ruedel, Seminar "Materiality of Film" by Barbara Flueckiger and Bregt Lameris, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich, in collaboration with Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern, David Landolf and Brigitte Paulowitz.
- Toning samples from the Tinting and Toning Workshop by Ulrich Ruedel, Seminar "Materiality of Film" by Barbara Flueckiger and Bregt Lameris, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich, in collaboration with Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern, David Landolf and Brigitte Paulowitz.
1550 Images in 63 Galleries
“In the imbibition process, a dye image is transferred from a gelatin relief image to a receiving layer made either of paper or film. Charles Cros described this method of ‘hydrotypie’ transfer printing in 1880 and suggested it ...
“In 1916 Traube found that copper toning baths3 were especially suitable for dye mordanting and patented the Uvachrome process.4 At the time, Germany was at war with most of Europe, and little commercial progress was made until the end of ...
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Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 103.
- Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 277.
- Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 138.
3 Images
“After the war, in 1921, J. F. Shepherd introduced in England a printing method called the Triadochrome Color Process, which was very similar to Hamburger’s Polychromide.10 To make a print, a cyan impression obtained from an iron-toned ...
Theory of trichromatic vision proposed by Thomas Young.
“By the 1940s, most of the two-colour subtractive processes, apart from Cinecolor, were obsolete. The widespread use of the high-quality Technicolor process showed up the serious deficiencies in the simpler methods. The only significant new ...
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Magnification of an image area. Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
- Color chart. Credit: Guido Seeber Nachlass, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92.
- Credit: Guido Seeber Nachlass, Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92.
- Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
- Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, photo: Marian Stefanowski. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Bunte Tierwelt. Studien in Hagebecks Tierpark in Stellingen (1931).
- Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, photo: Marian Stefanowski. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Karneval (1936).
- Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, photo: Jeanpaul Goergen. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Bunte Fischwelt (1936).
- Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, photo: Marian Stefanowski. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Karneval (1936).
- Credit: Deutsches Filminstitut DIF (Vicas Nachlass), photo: Jeanpaul Goergen. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Potsdam (1934).
- Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, photo: Marian Stefanowski. Source: Goergen, Jeanpaul (2010): Rotorange und blaugrün. Das Zweifarbenverfahren Ufacolor 1931-1940. In: Filmblatt, no. 43, pp. 77-92. Film: Farben machen froh (1938).
- Magnification 5x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann.
- Magnification 10x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann.
- Magnification 20x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann.
- Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. In:Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
- Magnification of an image area. Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. In:Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
- Reflection on Ufacolor film. Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. In:Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
- An opened splice of an Ufacolor positive shows the two colors used in the process. Credit: David Pfluger. Source: David Pfluger’s collection.
136 Images in 7 Galleries
“Berger then started to work with the master carbro printer Richard Newmark Kauffman (1916−1998), and together they founded Ultrastable Color Systems, Inc. In 1992 they introduced presensitized UltraStable material for four-color carbon ...
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 95.
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The process relied on two-, three- or even four-color selections being superimposed on the screen. On the positive, two, three or four images of reduced dimensions were printed on a single frame with a longitudinal and lateral distance corresponding ...
Photographs of unidentified color film technologies. Several different principles and times. Feel free to contact us if you can help identifying them!
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Unidentified Processes from the Kodak Film Samples Collection and the Cinematography Collection.
Credit: National Science and Media Museum Bradford.
Photographs by Barbara Flueckiger in collaboration with Noemi Daugaard, SNSF Film Colors.
- Unidentified Processes from the Kodak Film Samples Collection and the Cinematography Collection. Credit: National Science and Media Museum Bradford. Photographs by Barbara Flueckiger in collaboration with Noemi Daugaard, SNSF Film Colors.
- Unidentified Processes from the Kodak Film Samples Collection and the Cinematography Collection. Credit: National Science and Media Museum Bradford. Photographs by Barbara Flueckiger in collaboration with Noemi Daugaard, SNSF Film Colors.
298 Images in 5 Galleries
“In the design of apparatus Urban was assisted after 1905 by Henry W. Joy. The Urban-Joy perforator appeared in 1906. The Urban-Joy anti-firing device, a shutter to prevent the firing of inflammable film when projectors broke down, was another ...
“In 1906 John Henry Smith (1860–1917) and Waldemar Merckens commercially introduced a collodion paper impregnated with fugitive yellow, magenta, and cyan dyes. They called it Uto paper, after a range of mountains near Zurich (Johnson 1917: ...
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 209.
- Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 211.
2 Images
“Uvatype was yet another variation of the dye imbibition process, introduced by the Uvachrome Company of Germany in 1929 (Fig. 4.12). Its inventor, the German chemist Arthur Traube, worked diligently to improve the then-available imbibition ...
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 138.
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Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
- Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Magic Isle.
40 Images
“The most successful of all the screen processes was the one initiated by Louis Dufay. Today the product is known as Dufaycolor, but it was first introduced about 1910 as the Dioptichrome plate. The first Dufay patents were assigned to an ...
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 105.
1 Image
“The Warner-Powrie process patented in 1905 was the earliest commercial process using a screen made with bichromated colloid. A glass plate was thinly coated with bichromated gelatin or fish glue and exposed to light through a screen having ...
Much like many other additive processes, the Wolff-Heide system was based on three black and white color separations printed consecutively on one film strip and projected through a rotary filter attached to the projector. However, the biggest ...
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Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.
- Source: Coe, Brian (1981): The History of Movie Photography. Westfield, N.J.: Eastview Editions.
- Credit: Collection Gert Koshofer, Bergisch Gladbach (Germany).
16 Images in 1 Gallery
Timeline of Historical Film Colors by Barbara Flueckiger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Quote as Flueckiger, Barbara (2012 ff.): Timeline of Historical Film Colors. (= https://filmcolors.org/).
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