Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/09/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 5:47 PM -0400 9/24/09, Mark Rabiner wrote: >> At 4:30 PM +0100 9/24/09, Neil Beddoe wrote: >>> Somebody asked me once whether anyone would print black and white if >>> colour photography had been invented first. I don't know but I >>> think it would be a lot less common. >>> > > >People don't realize though how long color photography has been with us. >We had the Daguerreotype and the Talbot paper print coming out days apart >right across the English channel from each other and a week and a half later >some guy was doing it in color with potato starch. Didn't catch on real fast >but it was there! > >"1861: The first known permanent color photograph is taken by James Clerk >Maxwell" > >He also (from Scotland) was heavy into Electromagnetism. Which only makes >sense its right next to potato starch color on the electro magnetic spigot. >No doubt going on to invent the Maxwell cassette tape which I copied my copy >of Abbey Road onto in 1969 when I moved into the Freshman dormitory in Des >Moines. >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography > > >1839 - 1861 = -22 years of no color just black and white >1839 - 2009 = -170 of photo in the world >170 / 22 = 7.7 >Basically we've had color since day one >Or day 7.7 > > But until very recently it has always been much more difficult, more expensive and often impermanent. So not practiced as much. It really wasn't that long ago when National Geographic subtitled articles with the number of colour photos included. A lot of magazines in the 60's were still B&W and newspapers until the 90's. News was generally B&W, and we learned to see news that way. Then again, news was often presented in B&W fashion, but that's another topic :-). -- * Henning J. Wulff /|\ Wulff Photography & Design /###\ mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com