Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-22
IN COLOR
ADVANCE TOWARD THE MECCA
OF THE CAMERA.
There Is q Great Difference Between
Colored Photographs and Photo
graphs in Color.

The casual observer. unfamiliar With
Photographic matters. doubtless imag.
ines that photography In color Is quito
an old-established fact. He sees In the
shop windows and railway carriages pio-
lures IN color which, even to his ine1-
perienced eye. possess the usual attributes
OF photography. The skies and water are,
1t Is true. moro delicious blue and the
foliage a more vivid green than he re-
membered ever seeing In nature. but this.
he may think. was a matter OF careful
selection OF time and place.
The pictures. however, arc ~colored
Photographs" and no Photographs In
color: often very beautiful. but not the
real thing.
And still the mecca Of the camera users
Is photography In color. Nothing prob
ably closes the career Of the amateur 80
decisively as the limitation OF mis- camera
to black and white work. The excellence
Of the material and the trouble-savins
appliances put on the market In recent
times have made photography SO oasy
that. unless the worker specialized. his
interest soon wanes. It was different in
early days. when the photographer had
to senEtize his own plates and hunt
through his larder for his chemicals"
His failures only made him the more
determined to get success.
Silver Film.
It was not long after the discovery Of
the sensitiveness of certain compounds to
the action Of light before the scientific
mind began to work out possibilities for
color selection. But the silver film, which
Is still the backbone OF the Photographic
image, refused and still refuses to do
more than become darkened by light ac-
ton.
Various methods were introduced for
intercepting the colors by light filters to
secure separate color results, which by
super-position would give the colors OF
the scene or object. But these demanded
such care and skill that they never Sc
cured popular favor.
Some two and a half years ago great
excitement was occasioned in the photo
graphic world by the introduction of the
autochrome plate, which undoubtedly
did, by exposure in the camera, give a
Photographic transparency on glass in
color. But while giving to Messrs. Lu-
miere of Lyons the fullest credit for over
coming the difficulties of its production. 1t
was seen that the process had been sug-
gested by an American named McDonogh
some years before, who, however. had
failed to make it a commercial article.
When the enthusiasm of its appearance
had somewhat subsidized il had 10 be ad-
mitted that the plate was not free from
certain drawbacks. 1t was slow; II was
SO dense that 1t could not be used in
lanterns of ordinary lighting power; and
only one result could be obtained from
one exposure.
British Experiments.
In the meantime two Englishmen.
Messrs. c. l.. Finley and o. S. Dawson.
were quietly carrying out experimental
work on quite different lines, and their re-
searches have now eliminated in a color
plate which they have periodically chris
tened the Thames" color plate.
While II is true that science knows no
IT was only to be expected
that British photographers were delighted
to find that the Homegrown article had
clearly beaten the French plate on the
three main points. 1t was SO rapid that
work was possible; it was
SO clean and clear that lanterns Of small
power could use it; and from
one exposure any number of results in
color could be obtained in a simple and
familiar manner.
The Thames plate relies for its EN-
cheney on the we'll known principle that
the light Of the sun is not white, but a
tumble OF colors, which can be combined
into three colors only, viz, red. green and
blue, which are termed the primary col
ors.
The action of the Thames color plate is
extremely simple. 1t can perhaps be ex-
planned by an amusing illustrations:
Suppose two painters were about To
copy on glass group of flowers. One
artist, following the usual plan, first
sketched in the position of the flowers,
and then painted in the colors of the
group. His companion, however, adopted
a different method. He first covered his
glass with small dabs of the three pri-
mary coiors in regular sequence and
order so that no two similar patches ad-
Joined each other. and having sketched in
the positions. he blacked out the colors
he did not want, that is. for red flowers
tI.o ay1d m
the blue flowers she BACKED out the red
and green. Where a color was composed
of two colors, as, for instance, yellow
(which is made by red and green) he only
BACKED out one color. viz, the blue FOR
the delicate shades he only partly BACKED
out the color, leaving a bit Of it to show:
for the shadows he BACKED out all or
most of them.