The Online Photographer

I meant to post these on Sunday, and I'm sorry I didn't. They're perfect little videos for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

But better late than never. Are you a color lover? Some people rank "5" on the 1-to-5 How Much Do You Like Color scale. Colors move them. They seek out color, love it in photographs and paintings, and have sophisticated taste and discrimination when it comes to color in all its subtle and strong varieties. True lovers of color will appreciate these.

The first, from the always interesting Vox channel, explains how the idea of white marble statues made its way into the modern world, whereas the Greeks and Romans had painted them in colors as bright and strong as they could manage. They didn't get to us from ancient statues directly, but from ancient statues, paint faded, that inspired Renaissance artists—who really did produce unpainted statues, thinking that that was what the ancients did. The video is called "The white lie we've been told about Roman statues." Fascinating. And not even six minutes long.

The second is from Kodak—yes, Kodak. It's a test of a very early motion picture film called Kodachrome, from more than 100 years ago—1922. However, it's very likely not the famous Kodachrome invented by "God and Man"—Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes—that was in production for 74 years. God and Man were probably still in school in 1922. It's no doubt an earlier, all but forgotten film, an entirely different process but also called Kodachrome, invented by John Capstaff around 1913. The video says there's an article on Kodak's "1000 Words" website, but that appears to have gone the way of all things. Maybe somebody can find it archived somewhere.

An early color movie test and a recent YouTube video...together they kind of bookend the making of moving pictures in color, don't they?

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

hugh crawford: "That Kodachrome isn't color film. though. That Kodochrome used black-and-white film and two lenses, or, later, a beam splitter, exposed through red and green filters, creating two frames per exposure, one above another. To make a projection print they would use film with photographic emulsion on both sides and print the even frames on one side of the film and the odd frames on the other. Then the front and back of the film print would be dyed red and green respectively. Obviously three colors would work better—note that there is no blue or yellow in the sample—but film only has two sides. The invention of three-strip Technicolor fixed this by using three rolls of film and printing them using a dye transfer process. See more here."

Mike replies: Thanks for the explanation. The process was also sometimes called "two-color Kodachrome." It's literally almost forgotten today...I almost never see any reference to it.

[Ed. note: Sroyon found the accompanying article: http://web.archive.org/web/20100902035707/http://1000words.kodak.com/post/?ID=2982503 .]

Not THAT Ross Cameron: "Thanks for sharing those Mike. My day needed some brightening up. Always glad to have preconceptions corrected.

"Incidentally, I watched the Kodak one a second time without the music. I much preferred it like that. The music tries to add a dimension that is unnecessary, to my mind."

Kaemu: "A lot of medieval places in my native France have mostly bare white stone walls today, but they once were covered in painted frescoes (and tapestries). The dungeon of the Chateau de Vincennes near Paris had an exhibit (maybe still going on) where you could don augmented reality glasses to see what the bare white walls once looked like. At first, I had a hard time believing/accepting that perspective because I was so used to the unadorned limestone walls. It makes the story about Roman statues much easier to accept...."

Dan: "Similarly, China's terracotta soldiers were painted. There are photos taken of them when first unearthed that show the colors, which rapidly deteriorated after exposure to oxygen. Apparently there are still known tombs in the area that haven't been opened while Chinese archaeologists continue to research how to best preserve the soldiers once the decision is made to excavate them."