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In his studies of color vision, Maxwell showed, by using a rotating disk with which he could alter the proportions, that any visible hue or gray tone could be made by mixing only three pure colors of light – red, green and blue – in proportions that would stimulate the three types of cells to the same degrees under particular lighting conditions. The three-color method, which is the foundation of virtually all practical color processes whether chemical or electronic, was first suggested in an 1855 paper on color vision by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. It may be the oldest surviving color portrait photograph. This collotype print was sent in 1895 to Elbridge T. History Three-color processes Portrait of painter Albert Bierstadt, made by his brother Edward Bierstadt.
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Color photography has been the dominant form of photography since the 1970s, with monochrome photography mostly relegated to niche markets such as art photography. The foundation of all practical color processes, the three-color method was first suggested in an 1855 paper by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, with the first color photograph produced by Thomas Sutton for a Maxwell lecture in 1861. Their colors are not dependent on the actual colors of the objects photographed and may be inaccurate. Monochrome images which have been " colorized" by tinting selected areas by hand or mechanically or with the aid of a computer are "colored photographs", not "color photographs". The recorded information is then used to reproduce the original colors by mixing various proportions of red, green and blue light ( RGB color, used by video displays, digital projectors and some historical photographic processes), or by using dyes or pigments to remove various proportions of the red, green and blue which are present in white light ( CMY color, used for prints on paper and transparencies on film). This is usually done by analyzing the spectrum of colors into three channels of information, one dominated by red, another by green and the third by blue, in imitation of the way the normal human eye senses color. In color photography, electronic sensors or light-sensitive chemicals record color information at the time of exposure.
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By contrast, black-and-white or gray- monochrome photography records only a single channel of luminance (brightness) and uses media capable only of showing shades of gray. The subject is a colored ribbon, usually described as a tartan ribbon.Ĭolor photography is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. The first color photograph made by the three-color method suggested by James Clerk Maxwell in 1855, taken in 1861 by Thomas Sutton. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) JSTOR ( July 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Color photography" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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