Prizma II

1919

|

William van Doren Kelley (Prizma Company)

|

United States of America

Subtractive 2 color: Toning on double coated film

“In its final form Prizma made use of duplitized positive film. As in previous Prizma systems, the original negatives were alternate frame sequential exposures. The Prizma negative was printed on both sides of the positive film in a special ...

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The two colors visible at a splice. Credit: EYE Film Institute Amsterdam. Film: [Kleurenpracht].
Credit: George Eastman House. Preserved by Carole Fodor, Haghefilm Digitaal fellow and graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Film: A Day with John Burroughs (Prizma, 1919).
Credit: George Eastman House. Preserved by Carole Fodor, Haghefilm Digitaal fellow and graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Film: A Day with John Burroughs (Prizma, 1919).
Credit: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection. Film: The Land of the Great Spirit (1919).
Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.
Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.
Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.

399 Images in 14 Galleries

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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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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Projection light

Theory

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Proposal of a variety of processes of three-color photography

1869

|

Louis Ducos du Hauron

Theory: still photography

“Louis Ducos du Hauron is reported to have become interested in the reproduction of colors by photography in 1859, when he was twentyone years old (Potonniée, 1939). In 1862 he submitted to a friend of his family, M. Lelut, a paper embodying ...

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"Du Hauron invented his Chromographoscope in 1874. It could be used either as a camera or an additive viewer." Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
An early three-color print by Louis Ducros Du Hauron, 1877.

2 Images

Proposal of a variety of processes of three-color photography

1869

|

Charles Cros

Theory

Description of a variety of color processes, even for images in motion by the use of a rotary shutter.

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Raycol

1929

|

Anthony Bernardi (Raycol Ltd.)

Additive 2 color: Beam-splitter, sawn-off lens

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

13 Images in 1 Gallery

Roncarolo

1932

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Emilio Roncarolo

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Italy

Subtractive 2, 3 or 4 color: Beam-splitter and bi-pack, later dye-transfer

The Roncarolo system required a camera capable of recording two panchromatic negatives (which became three or four in subsequent patents) through the use of a beam splitter and red and green filters. The chromatic information registered on the two or ...

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Rota Farbenfilm

1931

Subtractive 2 color: Bi-pack, mordant toning

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Rota Farbenfilm Samples (Kodak Film Samples Collection). Credit: National Science and Media Museum Bradford. Photographs of the Rotacolor Prints by Josephine Diecke, SNSF project Film Colors. Technologies, Cultures, Institutions and Joëlle Kost, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors.

13 Images in 2 Galleries

Rotocolor

1931

|

Harold Muller

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

“The Rotocolor process was an additive system for color cinematography. The process was announced in 1931 by H. Muller. According to an article in Film Daily, April 12, 1931, and The Motion Picture Herald, April 11, 1931, the process consisted of ...

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Rouxcolor 2 color / Cineoptichrome

1932

|

Lucien and Armand Roux

Additive 2 color: Beam-splitter

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

2 Images

Rouxcolor 4 color

1948

Additive 4 color: 4 lenses

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Rouxcolor, four-color, black and white negative and positive, ca. 1948. Credit: Gert Koshofer Collection. Sample No. 83. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger
Credit: Cinémathèque française, conservatoire des techniques, Paris.

7 Images in 1 Gallery

Russian three-color process

1936

|

Pavel Mershin (Mosfilm), Fedor Provorov (NIKFI) and Avenir Min (Leningradskii zavod kino-apparatury, Leningrad Film Factory LenKinAp)

Subtractive three color

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Zaveshchanie/The Testament (7 June 1937). Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.
Zaveshchanie/The Testament (7 June 1937). Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov. Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.
The Miraculous Traffic Light (1938). Credit: courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov
The Wolf and Seven Goat-Kids (1938). Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.
The Fox and the Wolf (1937). Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.
The Fox and the Wolf (1937). Credit: Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.

6 Images

Russian two-color system

1931

|

Nikolai Agokos, Fedor Provorov and Pavel Mershin (Scientific Research Film and Photo Institute NIKFI)

Subtractive two color

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Screenshot from Mayorov, Nikolai (2012): Soviet Colours. Translated by Birgit Beumers. In: Studies in Russian & Soviet Cinema, 6:2, pp. 241–255. doi: 10.1386/srsc.6.2.241_1 Courtesy of Nikolai Mayorov.

1 Image

Sakuracolor

1946

|

(Konishiroku Photo Industry Co)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, reversal

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Sennett Color

1930

|

(Sennett Laboratories)

Subtractive 2 color: Bi-pack, double coated, toned

“Public showings of the work done at this plant in Hollywood have been given to Los Angeles audiences. The release prints are made on double sided film. Both sides are developed at one time and then toned red on one side and bluegreen on the ...

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Strange Birds (US 1930, Mack Sennett). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph of the nitrate print: Barbara Flueckiger
Magnification. Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: Strange Birds (1930)

18 Images in 1 Gallery

Sensitizing theory

1885

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Hermann Wilhelm Vogel

Color theory

“Dr. H. W. Vogel, the discoverer of colour sensitizers, made three-colour photography possible, and has been the first to recognise the relation between colour sensitiveness of plate and printing colour in the following principle made known in ...

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Silver dye-bleach

1889

|

Raphael E. Liesegang

Subtractive 3 color: Dye-bleach

“Probably the first use of the catalytic property of silver was in 1889, when E. Howard Farmer disclosed the action of a silver image upon strong dichromate solutions (Eng. P. 17773/89). When a plate or film, containing a silver image, is immersed ...

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Sirius

1929

|

Ludwig Horst (Sirius Kleuren Film Maatschappij)

Subtractive 2 color: Beam-splitter, double-coated

“The Dutch Sirius Color process (1929) used a camera with a beamsplitting system behind the lens to expose a single film, the film passing through two gates at right angles to each other. The double-coated print film was dye-toned. The process ...

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Magnification, 20x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann.
Magnification, 10x. Credit: Photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann.
Magnification, 5x. 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.
Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
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, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
Reflection on the Sirius film, front. Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.
Reflection on the Sirius film, back. Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.

142 Images in 4 Galleries

Sistema Cristiani-Mascarini

1934

|

Luigi Cristiani, Giovanni Mascarini

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Italy

Additive four-color: beam splitter and filters, four images on 35mm black and white film.

For this four-color process, the light beam was decomposed into four parts, each of which simultaneously exposed an area equal to one quarter of the 35mm frame of a black and white negative. This was obtained optically by placing a diaphragm and a ...

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Cross-section of the optical system displaying the different lenses, the prism and the four filters. Source: Pierotti, Federico (2016): Un'archeologia del colore nel cinema italiano. Dal Technicolor ad Antonioni. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, p. 71.
35mm black and white film strip with four equal-sized images (left) and 16mm projector with Cristiani-Mascarini optical system. Source: Pierotti, Federico (2016): Un'archeologia del colore nel cinema italiano. Dal Technicolor ad Antonioni. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, p. 71.

2 Images

Sovcolor negative film type B

1945

|

(Agfa Wolfen GDR, from 1948 GUKP, USSR)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, daylight

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Skleněné varhany (Stěklanna je garmonika, Andrej Chržanovskij, USSR 1968). Credit: Národní filmový archiv / National Film Archive, Prague. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger

15 Images in 3 Galleries

Sovcolor negative type G

1945

|

(Agfa Wolfen GDR, from 1948 GUKP, USSR)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, Tungsten

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Spectracolor (= British version of Ufacolor)

1932

Subtractive 2 color: Bi-pack, mordant toning

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Spicer-Dufay

1925

|

Louis Dufay, T. Thorne Baker and Charles Bonamico (Spicer-Dufay)

Additive 3 color: Line screen (réseau), 35 mm reversal

For a description of Spicer-Dufay see detail page on Dufaycolor)

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Magnification 20x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann. 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.
Magnification 10x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann. 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.
Magnification 5x. Credit: photomicrograph by Silvana Konermann. 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.
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.
Source: Coe, Brian (1981): The History of Movie Photography. Westfield, N.J.: Eastview Editions.
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.
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.

78 Images in 2 Galleries

Splendicolor

1928

|

(Splendicolor)

Subtractive 3 color: Beam-splitter, double-coated film, bichromated gelatin, Pinatype

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Super Anscochrome Daylight, type 225

1957

|

(Ansco Division of General Aniline and Film Corporation)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, reversal, 16mm

See Anscochrome and Super Anscochrome Tungsten, type 226.

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Super Anscochrome Tungsten, type 226

1958

|

(Ansco Division of General Aniline and Film Corporation)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, reversal, 16mm

See Anscochrome and Super Anscochrome Daylight, type 225.

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Supercinecolor / Natural Color

1951

|

(Cinecolor Corporation)

Subtractive 3 color: Color separation, duplitized film, third layer added

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Svema CO-T-22 D

1974

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema CO-T-90 L

1972

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema DS-1

1947

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema DS-2

1956

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema DS-3

1960

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema DS-4

1962

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema DS-5M

1963

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-1

1946

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-2

1956

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-3

1960

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-5M

1963

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-6M

1970

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-7

1974

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Svema LN-8

1975

|

(Svema, Shostka Chemical Plant)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Szczepanik

1924

|

Jan Szczepanik (Emil Busch AG)

Additive 3 color: Moving lenses

“The process of J. Szczepanik in 1925 was impracticable. He used a non-intermittent camera having a chain of eighteen lenses moving together with the film behind a collimating lens, three pictures being simultaneously exposed.” (Klein, ...

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Taihang Color

1980

|

(1. Film Factory, Paoting, Hopei)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Talkicolor

1917

|

Percy James Pearce; Dr Anthony Bernardi (Talkicolor Ltd.)

Additive 2 color: Alternately stained

“Two-colour additive process Talkicolor was developed by Percy James Pearce along with Dr Anthony Bernardi who was also involved in the development of Raycol. The process was funded mainly by the author Elinor Glyn through her company Elinor ...

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Knowing Men (GB 1930, Elinor Glyn), negative. Credit: Courtesy of BFI National Archive. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.

3 Images in 1 Gallery

Technic-Colour

1925

|

(Technic-Colour)

Subtractive 2 color: Beam-splitter, duplitized

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Technichrome

1948

|

(Technicolor)

Subtractive 2 color: Dye transfer, 2 color bi-pack, 3 color printing

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Technichrome, three-color print of bi-pack negatives, 1948. Credit: Gert Koshofer Collection. Sample No. 89. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger

4 Images in 1 Gallery

Technicolor Monopack / Kodachrome Professional Type 5267 / Eastman Monopack 7267

1940

|

(Technicolor / Kodak Eastman)

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

During the 1940s Kodachrome was used as camera material for films that were blown up to 35mm Technicolor projection prints. Technicolor used this technology from 1942 until the mid-1950s when Eastman Kodak introduced the Eastmancolor ...

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Technicolor No. I

1916

|

Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock and William Burton Westcott (Technicolor)

Additive 2 color: Beam-splitter

During the capturing of the film a beam-splitter in combination with filters in the camera divided the incoming light into a red and a green separation negative on black-and-white stock. When projected in the cinema the two images were combined simultaneously by additive mixture through corresponding red and green filters into one picture consisting of red and green colored light. The reduction of the whole color range to two colors (and their additive combinations) was necessary because of the complex optical arrangement.

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The beam-splitter prism. Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.

6 Images in 1 Gallery

Technicolor No. II

1922

|

(Technicolor)

Subtractive 2 color: 2 toned films cemented

The first subtractive 2 color process introduced by Technicolor captured the incoming light through a beam splitter with red and green filters also. However, in contrast to the first Technicolor process, the two b/w images were recorded on one negative strip. This was achieved by the pull-down of two frames simultaneously, a process that required the double speed in the camera. These two frames were arranged in pairs, whereby the green record was inverted up-side down (see image).

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The Phantom of the Opera (USA 1925, Rupert Julian). Credit: UCLA Film & Television Archive. Photographs of the nitrate print by Barbara Flueckiger.
Credit: Images courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Source: Coe, Brian (1981): The History of Movie Photography. Westfield, N.J.: Eastview Editions.
Apparently test pieces, these clippings may well be the oldest surviving samples of the process in existence. Ruedel (2009: 55). Credit: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection. Source: Ruedel, Ulrich (2009): The Technicolor Notebooks at the George Eastman House. In: Film History, Volume 21, Number 1, 2009, pp. 47-60.
Apparently test pieces, these clippings may well be the oldest surviving samples of the process in existence. Ruedel (2009: 55); color reconstruction of the images shown above. Credit: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection. Source: Ruedel, Ulrich (2009): The Technicolor Notebooks at the George Eastman House. In: Film History, Volume 21, Number 1, 2009, pp. 47-60.
Apparently test pieces, these clippings may well be the oldest surviving samples of the process in existence. Ruedel (2009: 55). Credit: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection. Source: Ruedel, Ulrich (2009): The Technicolor Notebooks at the George Eastman House. In: Film History, Volume 21, Number 1, 2009, pp. 47-60.
Arrangement of the two records on the camera negative. Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress.
Film: Stage Struck (USA 1925, Allan Dwan). Credit: Nitrate Frame Collection. George Eastman House Moving Image Collection. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Nitrate Frame Collection. George Eastman House Moving Image Collection. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Film: Irene (USA 1926, Alfred E. Green). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.

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