Trichromatic Photography

[C_Remington]

Anyone try this?

Hard to believe.

[Dan Fromm]

You just don't know where to look.

http://trichromie.free.fr/trichromie/index.php?

[Greg Blank]

I've done it, with tricolor filters, Ilford Delta and Photoshop.


Anyone try this?

Hard to believe.

[jonreid]

There is a previous and rather extensive thread on the subject in this forum.

[sanking]

Trichrome, or three-color photography, has a very long history, going back to the first color print on paper by Louis Ducos Du Hauron, who used a form of the tri-color carbon process. One of the seminal works on the subject, E. J. Wall's History of Three-Colour Photography, a tome of some 750 pages, was published as early as 1925.

Three-color photography is widely practiced today by alternative printers with gum, casein and other processes.

With a set of color separation filters, usually #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue, one can make excellent color separation negatives on many panchromatic films. Scanning the negatives and combining the color layers in Photoshop can give results better than making color negatives or transparencies. I posted a brief description of this process some years ago on this forum. There may be a faster way to do this in PS, but it worked for me. File is attached.

Sandy

[Regular Rod]

Anyone try this?

Hard to believe.

My pal Steve has recently made this using a digital monochrome camera

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_barnett/9252184660/

In the comments there is an explanation of the process.

RR

[Drew Wiley]

Some of the first studio digital systems were tricolor, namely the Sinar Epolux, which used a rotating three filter turret in front of the lens. Parts of the system might
be useful to someone experimenting today, since they practically garbage otherwise. The old Technicolor beamsplitter concept was more elegant, but obviously
horrendously cumbersome. Those cine cameras still exist, stored somewhere in China along with all the film dyes. For studio still life work, one could simply use a
solid stat camera with a pin-registered vac back, along with three primary sep filters. I've seen a lot of old dye transfer work done this way. Prior to this, tricolor
shots were used for lantern slides, using three aligned carbon arc projectors. Not long ago I saw a number of 5x7 tricolor negs of Hollywood celebs from the 30's
thru early 50's, presumably for carbro prints. Unfortunately they were on acetate film base so no longer in register. But via scanning and PS realignment, once again it is possible to print them. Some of those old Devin and Curtis tricolor cameras come up for sale from time to time, for someone who wants a reburbishing
challenge, to say the least.

[C_Remington]

I understand this can be printed with gum bichomate too. Can't find anything.

[sanking]

I understand this can be printed with gum bichomate too. Can't find anything.

Absolutely. There are many alternative printers who do three-color gum, and three-color with other colloids. And some do three color combining gum and cyanotype. See, for example, this article by my friend Sam Wang. http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/3CG/3cg.html

A similar article is in Barnier's Coming into Focus.

Chris Anderson, a student of Sam and author of a new book on alternative printing processes, is a master of three-color printing with gum and cassein. http://www.christinazanderson.com/

Sandy

[Drew Wiley]

All kinds of these processes, including gum, can either transpire via color separations made from color film, or separations directly from the scene or subject in front
of the camera by means of three (or more) successive exposures using black and white film. The advantage of the latter approach is the greater linearity of black
and white film, and potentially greater color accuracy. The disadvantage is that nothing can move during the whole process. Tricolor cameras which instantly split
the image via beamsplitters or pellicles solve this problem, but have issues of their own. Since the blue tricolor filter is generally quite a bit more dense than the red
and green, a nice way of doing it nowadays is to use TMY400 for the blue separation, and TMX100 for the red and green.

[C_Remington]

What's the gum process?

Shoot three images, each with R, then G, then Blue filter..
Print R negative on R colored gum, then G negative on G colored gum, etc?

Lots of info on digital process only.

[Bob Salomon]

When CBS introduced their color TV system it was using a tricolor filter wheel placed in front of the tube. For some reason the NBC system won the race.

[Jim Jones]

Lou Charno was doing expensive dye transfer portraits with a tri-color camera in Kansas City until the mid or late 1980s when Kodak discontinued the glass plates she was using: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dyetransfer/message/1120.

[photoevangelist]

I did it with some 35mm Kodak color separation movie film in my M6 with R G B filters and combined them in Photoshop. It's fun, but I've been getting deeper into large format (as mentioned can be used with any B&W pan films and any format as well). I should do some more. There are some quirky results when things move during the course of time.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8314027742_350dbe095a_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lee_smathers/8314027742/)
Trichromy Test #21 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lee_smathers/8314027742/) by Lee Smathers (http://www.flickr.com/people/lee_smathers/), on Flickr

Check out the yellow ghost on the left:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8218/8313993698_e7a7196d60_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lee_smathers/8313993698/)
Trichromy Test #14 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lee_smathers/8313993698/) by Lee Smathers (http://www.flickr.com/people/lee_smathers/), on Flickr

[Drew Wiley]

Ideally you don't choose just any pan film. The curves have to match the whole distance, regardless of the significant variables how they respond to different hard
filters and potentially also different amounts of development per matched contrast too. In traditional methodology, long straight line films like Super XX and Kodak
Color Sep film were used. Today TMax films are highly compliant to such usage. Other types of film might require significant retooling in PS to get the curves matched. Simple in principle, but takes a lot of experimenting and preferably a densitometer to do accurately. Then you still have to potentially tweak or mask
the results to match the idiosyncrasies of the tricolor print medium, depending on what you're trying to achieve.

[sanking]

What's the gum process?

Shoot three images, each with R, then G, then Blue filter..
Print R negative on R colored gum, then G negative on G colored gum, etc?

Lots of info on digital process only.

This article by C. Anderson provides a nice summary of the color gum process.

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/gum-bichromates/19th-century-gum-bichromate-process

Sandy

[Wayne]

There is a previous and rather extensive thread on the subject in this forum.

Where.

[sanking]

Where.

Perhaps this one.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?48583-Color-photography-with-black-and-white-film&highlight=tri-color

Sandy

[Wayne]

Must be. Thanks.



Perhaps this one.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?48583-Color-photography-with-black-and-white-film&highlight=tri-color

Sandy