Jack Fulton (jfulton@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Sat, 20 Feb 1999 07:46:45 -0700
The Lippmann process used mercury Ö most
dangerous and one should not work with it. If you
can imagine the surface of a photograph as a
topographic map, there are hills and valleys. Due
the angle of refraction when you shined a light
directly upon it, the shiny mercury would
refract certain portions of the color spectrum
thereby exhibiting the colors of the scene. As I
understand it, it is most difficult to create and
equally difficult to view correctly. According to
the books, the coating of mercury was behind the
emulsion. He developed transparent and apparently
grainless emulsions. In other words, clear relief
images.
Professor Lippmann did take some views of the
French landscape in the early 1890's and received
the Nobel Prize in 1908 for producing the 1st
color photographic plate.
I had not known of the prize to Lippmann as Mr.
Ducos du Hauron had developed color in the mid
1860's, receiving a French patent for his
invention/discovery, and another for his 3D device
called the anaglyph Ö and the Lumiere Brothers had
produced the Autochrome in (as I remember) 1906.
Lippman also developed the construction of the 1st
lenticular materials Ö most likely through
research done by Fresnel who developed the use of
glass
to produce overlapping beams of light which
created interference patterns where they
overlapped. These lenses are still used in
lighthouses.
Interestingly enough, the lenticular material is
being produced today in very fine lined materials.
I am producing my first 3D image using 7 - 10 sets
of stereo
photographs taken parallel to the object. These
are scanned and placed into proprietary software
and digitally printed to produce a somewhat odd
looking
image which, when the lenticular material is
placed over it, turns into a full three
dimensional image. Our hope is to produce one that
is approximately
16x20 inches in size.
This method of the Lippmann process has been
adapted by Dr. Tung Jeong @ Lake Forest College
north of Chicago to work with the holographic
process. Dr. Jeong creates marvelous small (no
larger than say 4X6 inch) full 3 dimensional full
color images of such objects as jewelry and
Faberge eggs. Something
about the flat glass plates w/fine emulsion and
the laser beam's coherent light has made this
possible. However, today, sadly, these plates are
not
longer being manufactured and perhaps holography
as a practice may be passing on like the afore
mentioned Woodburytype.
They are experimenting with polymer plates which
have not reached the accuracy in terms of color of
the photographic plates.
jack
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