The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
At the next meeting--June 9th--Mr. J. R. Sawyer reopened the discussion
on the above subject by reading a paper and exhibiting examples of his
own experiments, and Mr. Sawyer admitted that he was "bound to confess
that while every effort should be made to discover chemical combinations
which will give the utmost value that can be practicably obtained in the
reproduction (?) of colours, yet that, in all probability, art--and art
not inferior to that of a competent engraver--will be necessary to
assist photography in rendering the very subtle combinations of colour
that present themselves in a fine painting;" and Colonel H. Stuart
Wortley proved that the copy of Turner's "Old Téméraire" was not only
"retouched," but wrongly translated, as the various shades of yellow in
the original picture were represented in the copy as if they had been
all of the same tint. Mr. Sawyer made use of the phrase "reproduction of
colours," but that was an error. He should have said--and undoubtedly
meant--translation of colours, for photography is, unfortunately,
incapable of reproducing colours. Among Mr. Sawyer's examples was a
curious and contradictory evidence that isochromatic plates translated
yellow tints better than ordinary bromide plates, yet wrongly, for
three different shades of yellow were translated as if they had been all
one tint. I had noticed this myself when copying paintings and coloured
prints, but in photographing the natural colours of fruits and flowers
the result was different, and I attributed the mal-translation of
pigment yellows to the amount of white with which they had been mixed by
the painter. Be that as it may, I always obtained the best translation
from natural colours, and a group of flowers which contained a beautiful
sulphur coloured dahlia illustrates and confirms this statement in a
most remarkable and satisfactory manner. It is, therefore, the more to
be regretted that there is any restriction placed upon the individual
experiment and development of this interesting aspect of photography.
This was the year of The International Inventions Exhibition, and the
photographic feature of which was the historical collection exhibited by
some of the members of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and I
think that collection was sufficiently interesting to justify my giving,
in these pages, the entire list as published in the _Photographic
Journal_:--
"We subjoin a full and complete statement of the whole of the exhibits,
with the names of the contributors:--
"Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R.S.--Papyrotype process, executed at the School
of Military Engineering, Chatham.
"W. Andrews--Wet collodion negatives, intensified by the Schlippes salt
method.
"T. and R. Annan--Calotype process (negative and print), taken by D. O.
Hill.
"F. Beasley, jun.--Collodio-albumen negatives.
"W. Bedford--One of Archer's first cameras for collodion process,
stereoscopic arrangement by Archer to fit a larger camera.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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