Early Photographic Processes

Colour Photography

From 19th Century

In Edinburgh

Mid 19th Century

The Edinburgh scientist, James Clerk Maxwell gave the first demonstration of colour photography to the Royal Institution in London in 1861 - the year that Edinburgh Photographic Society was founded.

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His demonstration was based on a specification outlined in a paper that he presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1855.

Late 19th Century

Despite the relatively slow take-up of colour photography, the subject was discussed in the photographic journals from the nineteenth century onwards. 

The Edinburgh photographic dealer, A H Baird wrote an article, Photography in Colour, in his journal Photographic Chat in which he criticised the press for their ill-informed articles on colour photography.

He described three methods of colour photography that were then available.

Lippmann's Method - This required a special photographic plate to be backed with mercury, so that light falling on it would be reflected to produce 'stationery waves' from which a coloured image could be produced.  A H Baird considered Lippmann's method to be very creditable and ingenious, but it was not a very practical method to use.

Joly's Method - Several versions of this method were available, all based on a stippling approach, where the image was made up of individual dots of the three primary colours.  A H Baird found that the results from all these method were inferior, and had 'a certain woolliness'.

F E Ives' Method - This involved printing images in each of the three colours one above another to create a colour transparency or, as had been demonstrated by the Lumiere Company at the RPS Exhibition that had just closed in London, a colour print.

This method was based on theories put forward by Professor Clarke Maxwell in 1861!

A H Baird considered Ives' method to be practical and said it was one that 'stands pre-eminently first as regards the beauty and exact truth to nature of the obtained by it'.

He reported that 'The Lumiere N A Company are now supplying through photographic dealers, and at the very moderate price of 25s, a set of materials comprising screens, dyes, sensitiser, tissues, and so on, permitting any owner of a camera to put this most interesting and useful process to an actual test'.

[Photographic Chat:  November 1902, pp. 8-10]

Late 20th Century

In the 1950s, most amateur photogaphers were still working in black and white.  A few had begun to use colour slide film.

Edinburgh Photographic Society created a colour darkroom in 1967, but processing colour prints involved many more stages than processing black and white, so only a few members then created their own colour prints.

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, colour photography became more affordable and popular with amateur photogaphers.