Colour

this information is presented by
Lloyd Godman in
Association with School of Art
Otago Polytechnic and Johnathans Camera & Video

All images and Text

Lloyd Godman

THE NATURE OF COLOUR FILM

In the early days of colour photography it was common to make these records with separate exposures, process and dye the images, and then recombine them to give a full colour picture. Today we can achieve this with one exposure thanks to extremely accurate, sensitive, multi - layer emulsion coatings.

The green areas of the subject were only allowed to pass through the green filter and record on this emulsion by darkening the silver. Red and blue did not pass through the filter and did not record on this emulsion.	Move over image to view roll over image
The blue areas of the subject were only allowed to pass through the Blue filter and record on this emulsion by darkening the silver. Red and green did not pass through the filter and did not record on this emulsion.	Move over image to view roll over image
The red areas of the subject were only allowed to pass through the red filter and record on this emulsion by darkening the silver. Green and blue did not pass through the filter and did not record on this emulsion.	Move over image to view roll over image
As red and green make yellow, the Yellow areas of the subject were allowed to pass through both the green and red filters and record on these emulsions by darkening the silver.	Move over image to view roll over image
The white areas of the subject were only allowed to pass through the three filters and record on this emulsion by darkening the silver on all emulsions, while the black areas were not allowed to pass through any filters and recorded on all three emulsions as a transparent image.	Move over image to view roll over image

For some artists, the principle is still used today with processes like colour photo-silkscreen and colour Gum Bichromate.