Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-06-10
COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
Limitations of the Art at Present-Of
Importance Commercially.

! human lace Ill It's 'oioi p
Color photography is pretty success
| fully applied in d commercial way to
| the reproduction of painting and OF
lifeless objects generally. 1t has even
been applied with some success to the
reproduction of living flowers.
A Persian rug may be photographed
| by the thrcc-color process and a pic
| ture that reproduces very closely the
| colors of the original may be obtained.
| Many of the pictures, however. which
! the public supposes to have been made
directly from the object by means of
color photography have been made in
another fashion.
Time is the great problem in COM
mcrcial color photography. The quick
| lens that gives you in an instantaneous
exposure the image of landscape
| with waving trees and moving animals
| cannot be applied to color photOg-
| raphy. 1t has been found again and
again in phOtOgraphinG flowers by the
three color process that the subtle
changes in the delicate structure of
the blossom that takes place during
the relatively long operation result in
great damage to the reproduced pic
turc.
Even the human face cannot be sue
ccssfully photographed because of the
| change that every face undcrgocs with
| slight disturbances to circulation, with
| slight involuntary movements and the
like. The best that can be done with
outdoor scenes and the human face is
| to photograph them, paint the photo
| graph as nearly as may be in colors of
the scene or the face, rephotOgraph the
| painted pictures by the processes of
color photography and then print it by
means of pigments that conform as
closely as possible to the three prim-
airy cOlors used.
Even the photographinE of interiors
| in which no living object appears may
| be embarrassed by changes in the
subject produced by alterations in the
arrangement of light and shade con-
| scqucnt upon lapse of time. The jar
| caused by Il passing vehicle, vibrations
produced by the movement Of persons
| about the room where the work goes
| on, anything that tends to make the
| slightest change in the aspect of the
| object to be photographed, may
seriously interfere with the result.
The Photographic lens takes note of
and the sensitive plate records changes
that not the kccncst human eye could
| detect.
In spite of all the difficulties color
photography, which has been com
mercially possible for less than twenty
years, has within the last ten years
grown to be commercially important.
1t was necessary that with the de-
vclopmcnt of color photography there
| should be an improvement in color
printing. Not many years ago
illustrators waited with painful APP
prchension for the appearance of the
magazines in which their pictures
We're to be reproduced in colors
Hamilton Gibson's book on mush-
rooms gave the publishers the utmost
concern by reason of the difficulty of
| reproducing the illustrations in colors
| 1t is not an old book, but the same
thing could be done now with much
greater certainty and perhaps one
| tenth Of the trouble.
The illustrators still complain that
! their pictures in colorS never reach the
| magazine readers with quite the truth
of the original, but even the artists
own that such work has been trans
formed within few years. Already
| several European and American con-
| Germs are competing in the application
! of color photography and color print
| ing to the reproduction of famous
paintings
| Every gallery in Europe that will
permit the reproduction of its paint
| inGs is visited by the agents of the
color photography concerns, and the
| pictures reproduced are sold over
Europe and America. Some galleries
are unwilling to grant favors to the
| photographers, and many Old World
masterpieces are so placed that it is
| practically impossible to make salts
factory Photographic copies of them.
| The difficulties of the process, even
where Curators are willing to permit
copies to be made. interfere with the
| work. Professional copyists make
something out Of the troubles Of the
color photographers, for a skilled
! c"pylSt can paint 4 fair copy Of Il
masterpiece and the picture thus made
can be taken to a place where il may
be Photographed under the best possi-
bic conditions.
| American homes in the Middle West
| dIt Noiklllg out 81 the chrome stage
ana INTO the color photography
| Copies Of masterpieces from old World
galleries, painted in the colors of tho
| original. or nearly 50, appeal to tho
people for whom Il CoIorlcss photo
graph of the same picture would have
no charm.
Travelling Americans with money to
| spend sometimes pay pretty good
prices to the cOpyists for copies in oil
Of famous paintings. hut color photog-
raphy is bringing old World MASTER
pieces into the homes of Americans
VINO do not travel abroad or who arc
not rich enough to be the customers of
| the copyistS Meanwhile the rcpro
auctions by means of color photog-
raphy arc far from cheap.
| Sahara Growino Driver