Cinechrome

1914

|

Colin Benett (Cinechrome Ltd.)

Additive 2 color: Prism, rotary filter, double-sized film

“[…] pictures were taken side by side, full-size, on double-width film, the film not only being perforated on the edges but also down the centre between the pairs of images.” (Klein, Adrian Bernhard = Cornwell-Clyne (1940): Colour ...

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Credit: Courtesy of BFI National Archive. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger. Film: Cinechrome Colour Test with Soap Boxes and Packets (1920)
Credit: Courtesy of BFI National Archive. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger. Film: Cinechrome Colour Test with Soap Boxes and Packets (1920)
Credit: Courtesy of BFI National Archive. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger. Film: Cinechrome Colour Test with Soap Boxes and Packets (1920)

3 Images

Colcin

1913

Additive 2 color: Simultaneous 1 strip

“The first two-colour additive method in which the two components were taken and projected simultaneously was the Colcin process, in 1913. The result of a Franco-Japanese collaboration, it was demonstrated at the International Kinematographic ...

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Source: Coe, Brian (1981): The History of Movie Photography. Westfield, N.J.: Eastview Editions.

1 Image

Donisthorpe

1913

|

Frank Wordsworth Donisthorpe

|

England

Additive two color process: rotating filters and toning

The film is recorded through alternating red and green filters, creating two color separations. After development, the print is placed in two alternating dye-baths, toning the blacks green and the whites red. Additionally, a black-and-white copy is ...

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Paget Color Screen

1913

|

Geoffrey S. Whitefield (Paget Prize Plate Company of Watford, England)

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen, separate system, still photography

“Paget Color Screen (1913–ca. 1922): lines of red and blue squares alternated with lines of green and blue squares (Fig. 2.52). The lines are at a 45-degree angle from the edge of the plate. The side of the red and green squares measures ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 69.

1 Image

Procédé Tetrachrome

1913

|

Louis Mauclaire, Alfred Bréon, Pierre Randabel

|

France

Additive four-color process: rotating filters

Based on four primary colors, the process successively recorded two simultaneous images for two primary colors each. In projection, the four images were combined on screen, supposedly via a regular projector.

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Colorgraph / Cinecolorgraph

1912

|

Arturo Hernandez-Mejia

Subtractive 2 color: Beam-splitter, double-coated film

“The principle of the subtractive colour process was described first by Louis Ducos du Hauron in 1868. Although eminently suitable for colour motion pictures, the principle could not be applied until means were found of producing several colour ...

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Source: Ryan, Roderick T. (1977): A History of Motion Picture Color Technology. London: Focal Press, p. 67.

1 Image

Gaumont Chronochrome

1912

|

Léon Gaumont (Gaumont)

Additive 3 color: Sawn-off lenses and filters, simultaneous taking and projection

“The competition between Kinemacolor and other rival systems was partially stimulated by a Utopian faith in the potential of film technology to achieve ‘natural colour’, reality ‘as it is’ being the goal of the cinematic ...

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Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.
Source: Ede, François (1994): Jour de fête ou la couleur retrouvée. Cahiers du Cinéma: Paris.
Credit: Paolo Cherchi Usai. Source: Cherchi Usai, Paolo (2000): Silent Cinema. London: BFI.
Credit: Illustration by Sarah Steinbacher, Multimedia & E-Learning-Services, University of Zurich. Source: Ede, François (1994): Jour de fête ou la couleur retrouvée. Cahiers du Cinéma: Paris.
Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.
Source: Gaumont, Léon (1959): Gaumont Chronochrome Process Described by the Inventor. In: Raymond Fielding (ed.): A Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television. An Anthology from the Pages of The Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967, pp. 65-67.
Source: Gaumont, Léon (1959): Gaumont Chronochrome Process Described by the Inventor. In: Raymond Fielding (ed.): A Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television. An Anthology from the Pages of The Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967, pp. 65-67.

12 Images in 2 Galleries

Audibert

1911

|

Rodolphe Berthon and Maurice Audibert

Additive 3 color: Prism

“R. Berthon and M. Audibert patented a method of obtaining a virtual image by means of an anterior lens and prisms or mirrors. This idea was further improved upon in E.P. 17,023, 1913. In F.P. 458,040 Audibert proposed to use a negative front lens ...

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Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.
Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.

2 Images

Chromogenic film stock

1911

|

Rudolf Fischer and Hans Siegrist (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Biocolour

1911

|

William Friese-Greene and Colin Bennett; Claude Friese-Greene

Additive 2 color: Alternately stained images

“Inevitably, the success of Kinemacolor led to the appearance of imitations. One company, Friese Greene Patents Ltd had been formed in 1908 to exploit several patents, mostly impractical, filed by Friese Greene. From this came a new company, ...

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Source: Coe, Brian (1981): The History of Movie Photography. Westfield, N.J.: Eastview Editions.

39 Images in 3 Galleries

Bassani

1910

|

(Société Chromofilm)

Additive 3 color: Successive exposure, 72 fps

“Camera.—An interesting camera has been made by the Société Chromofilm, Paris. An astonishing mechanism moves the entire gate, and film within it, at each exposure, with reference to the normal fixed objective. Three miniature negatives are ...

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Source: Klein, Adrian Bernhard (Cornwell-Clyne) (1940): Colour Cinematography. Boston: American Photographic Pub. Co.

3 Images in 1 Gallery

Dufay / Dioptichrome-B

1910

|

Louis Dufay (Société Anonyme des Plaques et Produits Dufay)

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen, combined system, still photography

“In 1907 the French lawyer Louis Dufay (1874-1936) patented a system whose screen pattern was obtained by the combined use of dichromated colloids, greasy printing inks, and imbibition. To take a photograph, the screen was mounted in a metallic ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 33.

1 Image

Dufay / Dioptichrome

1909

|

Louis Dufay (Société Anonyme des Plaques et Produits Dufay)

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen, separate system, still photography

“In 1907 the French lawyer Louis Dufay (1874-1936) patented a system whose screen pattern was obtained by the combined use of dichromated colloids, greasy printing inks, and imbibition. To take a photograph, the screen was mounted in a metallic ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 32.

1 Image

Omnicolore

1909

|

Ducos du Hauron, Raymond de Bercegol

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen, still photography

“To produce the Omnicolore color screen, a sheet of glass was coated with a layer of gelatin on which lines of greasy blue-violet ink were ruled. The space between the lines was dyed yellow. Lines of greasy light blue ink were then ruled at ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 29.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 70.

2 Images

Mordant toning / dye toning

1909

|

Rodolfo Namias

Applied colors: Silver replacement by mordanting

Mordant toning or dye toning is a special case of toning whereby the silver image is replaced by colored compounds. Soluble dyes attach to a colorless (silver ferrocyanide) or nearly colorless (silver iodide) silver salt obtained by bleaching. Dye ...

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Virages sur mordançage, Bleu (blue mordant toning), backlight, Swiss collectors'copy. Source: Didiée, L. (1926): Le Film vierge Pathé. Manuel de développement et de tirage. Paris: Pathé. [quote id='7']
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.
Photomicrograph, 100x. Credit: Norbert Wey, Institute of Pathology, University of Zurich.

171 Images in 7 Galleries

Thames Colour Plate

1909

|

Clare Livingston Finlay (Thames Colour Plate Company of London)

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen (circles), combined system, still photography

“Thames Colour products originated from a 1906 patent by Clare Livingston Finlay (d. 1936) and were introduced commercially in England by the Thames Colour Plate Company of London in 1908 (Fig. 2.10). Color screens were obtained by repeatedly ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 30.

1 Image

Kinemacolor

1908

|

George Albert Smith and Charles Urban (The Natural Color Kinematograph Company Ltd.)

|

Great Britain

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

Kinemacolor was an additive process operated with alternating red and green filters that were applied to the shutter in front of the camera and in front of the projector. With at least 32 fps the frame rate was double the minimal frame rate of 16 fps. Time parallax with small differences between the red and green record resulted in color fringes that became visible when objects or scenes were moving.

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Kinemacolor projector used for David Cleveland's and Brian Pritchard's reconstruction. Credit: Brian Pritchard.

13 Images in 3 Galleries

Dufay / Dioptichrome Plate (sometimes incorrectly referenced as Dioptochrome)

1908

|

Louis Dufay (Société Anonyme des Plaques et Produits Dufay)

Additive 2-4 color: line screen plate (réseau), still photography and early experiments with film

(see detail page on Dufaycolor)

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Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press,
Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.
Source: Ede, François (1994): Jour de fête ou la couleur retrouvée. Cahiers du Cinéma: Paris.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 71.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 73.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 31.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 48.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 69.

8 Images

Berthon

1908

|

Rodolphe Berthon

Additive 3 color: Lenticular screen

“R. Berthon patented the use of a lens diaphragm with three apertures, covered respectively with red, green and blue-violet filters, and a sensitive surface on a support, the other side of which was impressed with hemi-spherical, transparent, ...

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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.
Credit: Illustration by Sarah Steinbacher, Multimedia & E-Learning-Services, University of Zurich. Source: Ede, François (1994): Jour de fête ou la couleur retrouvée. Cahiers du Cinéma: Paris.
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.
Source: Heymer, Gerd (1933): Auflösungsvermögen und Farbwiedergabe in der Farbrasterphotographie. In: Veröffentlichungen des wissenschaftlichen Zentral-Laboratoriums der photographischen Abteilung Agfa, 3, 1933, pp. 188-207.

4 Images

Ulysse

1908

|

Pierre Ulysse

|

France

Two, three or four color color additive process: multiple lenses

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 ...

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Thames Colour Screen

1908

|

Clare Livingston Finlay (Thames Colour Plate Company of London)

Additive 3 color: regular mosaic screen (circles), separate system, still photography

“Thames Colour products originated from a 1906 patent by Clare Livingston Finlay (d. 1936) and were introduced commercially in England by the Thames Colour Plate Company of London in 1908 (Fig. 2.10). Color screens were obtained by repeatedly ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 30.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 63.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 69.

3 Images

Procédé Colombier

1908

|

F. de Colombier

Subtractive 3 color: Tri-pack

“M. F. de Colombier appears to have been the first to suggest the application of this system to cinematography, and like so many French patents it is a little indefinite in phraseology. Three films were employed representing the same view and ...

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Caille

1907

|

Edmond-Charles-Guislain Caille

|

France

Additive three-color: line screen, still photography and film

Process for still photography in which light is filtered through a screen or transparent plate covered in lines or dots in the primary colors orange, green and violet. For the positive, the process relies on a support material which includes an ...

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Dye coupling

1907

|

Benno von Homolka (Farbwerke Hoechst)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

“One of the most elegant solutions to the problem of forming a colored image, lies in the utilization of the products formed by the action of the developer upon the latent image. By this means there is formed a dye image whose intensity follows ...

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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. 161.

1 Image

Autochrome

1907

|

Auguste and Louis Lumière

Additive 3 color: mosaic screen, still photography and film

“The Autochrome process was the first fully practical single-plate colour process to reach the photographic public. It was easy to use. The plate was loaded into a conventional holder, glass to the front. The exposure was made through a yellow ...

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Photomicrograph (50x) of an Autochrome mosaic screen. Credit: Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film.
Source: Lavédrine, Bertrand (2009): Photographs of the Past. Process and Preservation. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.
Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
Source: Holme, Charles (1908): Colour Photography, and Other Recent Developments of the Art of the Camera. London, Paris, New York.: Offices of The Studio.
Source: Holme, Charles (1908): Colour Photography, and Other Recent Developments of the Art of the Camera. London, Paris, New York.: Offices of The Studio.
Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 70.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 26.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 65.
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 27.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 235.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 64.

16 Images

Uto Paper 1906–1911, after 1911 Utocolor Paper, after 1912 Utocolor-Rapid-Paper

1906

|

John Henry Smith, Waldemar Merckens (Utocolor Company)

Subtractive 3 color: dye destruction process, bleach-out, still photography

“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

Traube / Diachromie

1906

|

Arthur Traube

Subtractive 3 color: mordant toning, still photography and film

“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 ...

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Predecessor of Kinemacolor

1906

|

George Albert Smith

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

“Then we come upon the name of George Albert Smith, F.R.A.S., of Laboratory Lodge, Roman Crescent, Southwick, Brighton, who in E.P. 26,671, of 1906, patented the method which eventually was commercialized as Kinemacolor. In this patent he ...

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Tinting by application of varnish

1905

|

no record of inventor available

Applied colors: Tinting

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.

1 Image

Ozobrome 1905–ca. 1910, after 1913 renamed Raydex

1905

|

Thomas Manly

Subtractive 3 color: pigment process, still photography

“In 1905 Thomas Manly (d. 1932) of London introduced the Ozobrome process, which was a modification of his earlier Ozotype, patented in 1898. The process was based on a carbon printing method proposed in 1873 by Auguste Marion (1835–1917) and ...

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 100.

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