Color Photos from 1910!

[scotpens]

I see a red door and I want it painted black.

They almost look like 2 color processing.

The color is much richer and encompasses the full spectrum, unlike 2-color systems. I'd say the photos look more like the 3-strip Technicolor that was used from 1934 to 1954. Which is understandable, considering the process is basically the same.

 

[Squiggy]

In light, black is the absence of light and white is all colors of the spectrum at once.

In print, black is all colors at once.

 

[Maurice]

In light, black is the absence of light and white is all colors of the spectrum at once.

In print, black is all colors at once.

More specifically, there's additive color (light) and subtractive color (reflective color, based on what light wavelengths are absorbed by an object or pigment). Additive color starts with black (no light) and the combination of three primary colors of light result in white. Subtractive color starts with white (the full spectrum of light is reflected from the object or pigment), and colors in the object or pigment subtract wavelengths from the light, so what you see are what wavelengths are not absorbed. Black results there when all the color wavelengths are absorbed/subtracted.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Fascinating, Explorer. Thanks for posting these.

 

[scotpens]

. . . In print, black is all colors at once.

Well, not quite.

Theoretically, if you mix equal amounts of cyan, yellow and magenta ink (the subtractive primary colors), you should get pure black. But you don’t; you get a muddy grayish brown. That’s because the pigments used in inks, dyes and paints are imperfect reflectors. For example, a perfect yellow pigment would reflect 100 percent of light in the yellow range and absorb 100 percent of all other wavelengths of light. But there is no such thing, for yellow or any other color.

That’s why black ink is used in addition to cyan, magenta and yellow in 4-color (CMYK) printing, to accurately reproduce color images. (K stands for black to avoid confusion with blue.)