COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 129, 24 February 1908, Page 10

COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

. kvor since the introduction of tho nrt it has been tho dream of, photographers to discover some way. of photographing in natural colours, and for many years people all over tho world havo been experimenting with that end in view. .Messrs. Lmniero, tho eminent French photographic manufacturers, havo been conducting these experiments for fourteen years, and during last year thejr discovered tho long-sought secret. Their process only goes as far'as making a picture on glass;, the problem of printing it off on paper lias yet to bo solved, but. the coloured transparencies aro wonderfully interesting. Miss Elizabeth Greenwood showed a Dominion representative, on Saturday two pictures that she has taken on the hew plates, believed to bo the first so far taken in Wellington by this process. . Miss Greenwood tried first a portrait group with a colour scheme of blue and green. Thobluo frock of 0110 girl has come out very brilliantly, but the other, a green one, is not so successful, though tho colour comes out well in the shadows and in- the velvet baud. Two. ribbons, one of purplo and one of mauve,_ aro wonderfully good. In each caso.the hair.is.in.shadow,;but,tho ? s JL^ ln^s iv'ara scciivT Tho' was'^insufficiently' exposed, only 30 seconds having been allowed, and therefore_ the pigments are not sufficiently blended; and the blue siiows with the pink in the flesh tint. '

' The second picture,' which is more success-; fill, 'is a still-life study of sunflowers and mauve and purple Michaelmas dairies, and a long exposure of 3J minutes has brought out the colour and tho shadows most truthfully.' Every detail of this has come out perfectly, and every shade. ' If anything, the.colours are more brilliant-on. the" plate" than in actuality, with the brilliance of a picture seen in the ground glass of the' camera. Miss Greenwood, says that tlie autochrome process, as this is called,, presents no ! difficulties that need daunt ■ amateur s photographers ]vho work carefully arid intelligently. That ! is to say, there is nothing'daunting in the primary. stages. No doubt as one went on, one would find it possible to do work that would require exceeding care and skill. The plate is exposed With the glazed surface towards tlie lens, and a special soreen is used. • Tho relatively 'low srwxi «F' the autochrome plates will make it difficult to apply tlie 'process to portraiture, Uiough it may, noted that it is hoped it will lie possible to tak'e_ instantaneous photographs in colours by this process. : ■The ' principle is .that the colours come through a.. screen : finely powdered with starch pigmented- -.with .the three primary colours. The picture is 'thrown through this oil to a specially; sensitized 'plate,. which has afterwards to be developed in .the dark,', as it is equally sensitive to all light. Frilling is-a great troublri, and to prevent this the edge of the plate has to bo painted with varnish. Under-exposure, it is interesting to note, gives very brilliant 1 colours with' a lack of detail in the shadows, while overexposure cuts-off detailin the delicate colours. "i