Autochrome
Description
“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 filter which corrected for the excessive blue sensitivity of the emulsion. A normal exposure for a landscape in summer, by midday sun, was one to two seconds at f/8, while a typical portrait exposure in a well lit studio would be ten to thirty seconds at f/5. The exposed plate was developed to a negative, and after a rinse the silver formed was bleached in an acid potassium permanganate solution. After another rinse the plate was redeveloped in the light to produce a positive. Fixing and washing completed the operation, although the dried plate was usually varnished for protection.
The Autochrome plate could record both saturated and subtle colours with fidelity, and since the screen and the image were combined, there were no registration problems. Nonetheless, it had drawbacks. The exposure times were long, and the processed plates were very dense, transmitting only 7½% of the light reaching them. Although the starch grain filters were microscopically small – about four million to the square inch (620,000 to the square cm) – their random distribution meant that inevitably there would be clumping – groups of grains of the same colour. Probability theory predicted that in a square inch (6.5 square cm) there would be thirty-three clumps of twelve grains or more. In practice about fifty of such clumps were present in each square inch, and were visible to the naked eye. A further drawback was the cost.
[…]
The Autochrome plates remained on the market until the 1930s.”
(Coe, Brian (1978): Colour Photography. The First Hundred Years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant, pp. 52-53.)
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Photomicrograph (50x) of an Autochrome mosaic screen. Credit: Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film.
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Source: Lavédrine, Bertrand (2009): Photographs of the Past. Process and Preservation. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.
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Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
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Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
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Source: Holme, Charles (1908): Colour Photography, and Other Recent Developments of the Art of the Camera. London, Paris, New York.: Offices of The Studio.
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Source: Holme, Charles (1908): Colour Photography, and Other Recent Developments of the Art of the Camera. London, Paris, New York.: Offices of The Studio.
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Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
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Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
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Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
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Credit: Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln. http://www.klosterarchiv.ch/earchiv_liste.php?Objektyp_physisch=Glasautochrom&start=1
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 70.
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 26.
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 65.
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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 27.
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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. 235.
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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. 64.
Secondary Sources
Alt, Dirk (2011): “Der Farbfilm marschiert!” Frühe Farbfilmverfahren und NS-Propaganda 1933-1945. München: Belleville, on p. 39. (in German) View Quote
Bertrand Lavédrine; Gandolfo, Jean-Paul (2009): L’Autochrome Lumière. Paris: Editions du CTHS.
Beyer, Friedemann; Koshofer, Gert; Krüger, Michael (2010): UFA in Farbe. Technik, Politik und Starkult zwischen 1936 und 1945. München: Collection Rolf Heyne, on p. 44 View Quote and on p. 45. (in German) View Quote
Cauda, Ernesto (1938): Il cinema a colori. Quaderno mensile. Roma: Bianco e nero, anno II, nr. 11, on pp. 38–39 View Quote and on pp. 58–59. (in Italian) View Quote
Coe, Brian (1978): Colour Photography. The First Hundred Years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant, pp. 52-53. View Quote
Ede, François (2017): Les recherches sur le cinéma En ‘couleurs naturelles’ chez Pathé avant 1914. In: Stéphanie Salmon and Jacques Malthête (eds.): Recherches et innovations dans l’industrie du cinéma. Les cahiers des ingénieurs Pathé (1906–1927). Paris: Fondation Seydoux Pathé, pp. 211–223, on pp. 214–215. (in French) View Quote
Finger, Ehrhard (1998): Die Pioniere des Wolfener Farbfilms. In: Industrie- und Filmmuseum Wolfen e. V. (ed.), Die Filmfabrik Wolfen. Aus der Geschichte, Heft 2, p. 18. (in German) View Quote
Lavedrine, Bertrand (1998): History and Technology of Colour Photographic Processes. In: Luciano Berriatúa et al.: Tutti i colori del mondo. Il colore nei mass media tra 1900 e 1930. = All the colours of the world. Reggio Emilia: Edizioni Diabasis, pp. 117-119, on p. 118. View Quote
Mees, C. E. Kenneth (1928): The Processes of Color Photography. II. Screen Plate Processes. In: The Journal of Chemical Education, 1928, 5,12, pp. 1577-1582, on p. 1579. View Quote
Mees, C. E. Kenneth (1937): The Development of the Art and Science of Photography in the Twentieth Century. In: Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 28,1, pp. 3–20, on pp. 12–13 View Quote and on p. 17. View Quote
Nowotny, Robert A. (1983): The Way of All Flesh Tones. A History of Color Motion Picture Processes, 1895-1929. New York: Garland Pub., pp. 101-104. View Quote
Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, on pp. 26–27 View Quote, on p. 62 View Quote, on p. 64 View Quote and on p. 71. View Quote
Pierantoni, Ruggero (1998): One Colour for All Seasons. Knowledge, Measures and Myths at the Beginning of Cinema. In: Luciano Berriatúa et al.: Tutti i colori del mondo. Il colore nei mass media tra 1900 e 1930. = All the colours of the world. Reggio Emilia: Edizioni Diabasis, pp. 95-104, on pp. 100-101. View Quote
Pierotti, Federico (2012): La seduzione dello spettro. Storia e cultura del colore nel cinema. Genova: Le Mani-Microart, on p. 87 View Quote and on p. 116. (in Italian) View Quote
Pinel, Vincent (1992): La forêt des techniques. In: Michel Ciment (ed.): Ciné mémoire. Colloque international d’information (7-9 octobre 1991). Paris: Femis, pp. 17–24, on p. 21. (in French) View Quote
Wall, E.J. (1923): The Chances of Color Photography in Motion Pictures. In: American Photography, 17, Mar., pp. 166–170, on p. 166. View Quote
Links
Les photographies Autochromes Lumière 1907–1935 (English version)
Autochrome glass plates in the Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln, Switzerland.
With over 72,000 autochromes, the Musée Albert-Kahn holds the most important collection in the world.
Contemporary Reception
Anonymous (1908): The Use of the Lumière System of Color Photography in Medicine. In: Moving Picture World, 2,5, p. 138. View Quote
Coustet, Ernest (1914): La cinematografia a colori. In: La Tecnica Cinematografica, I,3, ottobre 1914, pp. 71–78 published in Grifo, Marco (2006): Dal film colorato al cinema a colori. In: Michele Canosa, Giulia Carluccio and Federica Villa (eds.): Cinema muto italiano. Tecnica e tecnologia. Volume primo. Roma: Carocci, pp. 173–182, on pp. 181–182. (in Italian) View Quote
Coustet, Ernest (1921): Le cinéma. Paris: Librairie Hachette, on pp. 175-176. (in French) View Quote
Hopwood, Henry Vaux (1915): Color cinematography. In: Henry Vaux Hopwood: Hopwood’s living pictures. Their history, photoproduction, and practical working. With classified lists of British patents and bibliography. London: The Hatton Press, new ed., rev. and enl. by R.B. Foster, pp. 253–273, on pp. 259–260. View Quote
Rondelli, T. (1914): Lo stato attuale della cinematografia a colori. In: La Vita Cinematografica, 32–33, 30 Aug.–7 Sept. 1914, pp. 36, 41–43 published in Grifo, Marco (2006): Dal film colorato al cinema a colori. In: Michele Canosa, Giulia Carluccio and Federica Villa (eds.): Cinema muto italiano. Tecnica e tecnologia. Volume primo. Roma: Carocci, pp. 168–173, on pp. 168–169. (in Italian) View Quote
