The Beginning of Colour Photography

'Tartan Ribbon' - James Clerk Maxwell
The worlds first permanent colour photograph

In 1861 the first permanent colour photograph was taken by physicist James Clerk Maxwell. He used what is known as the 'colour separation' method, shooting three separate black and white photos using three filters: red, green, and blue. He then projected the three images registered with their corresponding filters overlapping them to create a color image. 

Although this development came prior to the invention of Monochrome roll film, colour in photography was not truly embraced until 1936 when Kodak released Kodachrome; the first multi layered (Integral Tripack) colour film. Prior to this, methods such as ‘colour separation’ and ‘Joly Screen process’ were common for those wishing to take colour photographs, however, Kodachrome made colour photography affordable and available for the public.

 

Multiple colour film variations

Even by the 1950’s the expense of colour film as compared to black-and-white and the difficulty of using it with indoor lighting combined to delay its adoption by amateurs. Black-and-white snapshots were still the norm and even by 1960, colour was much more common but still tended to be reserved for travel photos and special occasions.

In 1963 Polaroid introduced instant colour film and like their contemporary instant black-and-white film, their first colour product was a negative-positive peel-apart process. The negative could not be re-used and was discarded. Interestingly, a problem arose when carelessly discarded, chemical-laden Polaroid negatives, began to accumulate, especially heavily at the prettiest, most photograph-worthy locations. Polaroid founder Edwin Land was horrified and promptly developed the later SX-70 system, which produced no separate negative to discard.

In the 1970’s, colour film prices were coming down, sensitivity had been improved and in most families colour had become the norm for snapshots. Black-and-white film continued to be used by some photographers who preferred it for aesthetic reasons but by 1980, black-and-white film in most formats as well as commercial developing and printing services, had nearly disappeared.

All forms of photography have evolved from monochrome photography. Colour film is black and white film with three layers of emulsion. Each layer has a coloured coupler that makes the resulting black metallic silver deposits in the negative respond to colours in the visible spectrum; red, green and blue. Digital photography employs a silicon sensor that records focused light falling onto it in much the same way that light rays reaching the film expose that portion of the film. So all photography has evolved from the original techniques created to record light rays onto silver halides.