Re: Restoration of the tri-color camera. An update.

Ed Stander wrote:
>
> Thanks, Allan -
> The prints show exactly what I tried to write - the colors are much more
> vibrant than anything possible with a layered substrate (such as
> colorfilm). Almost makes it worthwhile carting around a 20 pound tri-color
> camera... Best - Ed

These images are indeed beautiful, but I don't understand the reference
to "prints" above. These negatives were intended to be seen in RGB
color, according to the information on the site, by projecting them
using a lantern projector that had three turrets to project the three
negatives. (What I hope someone can explain to me is that if it was the
negatives that were projected, how the image could have been seen in
positive color?) What the library of congress has is not prints, but
glass plate negatives. To re-create the images, the triparte negatives
were scanned and composited into one image and then the composite image
underwent significant Photoshop adjustment "to create the proper
contrast, appropriate highlight and shadow detail, and optimal color
balance." The result is the vibrant images you see on these pages. At no
point do I see any reference to prints being made from these images, but
perhaps I'm just missing something obvious. (It wouldn't be the first
time).

But I don't see how what they did here is any different from any
adjustment of any color picture you might scan, except for the added
difficulty of registering the negatives when the three negatives were
composited as color layers into one image. Or how even if they had
adjusted the individual negatives rather than the whole image, how that
would be different from adjusting the color channels of a color image
that was scanned the usual way.

Katharine Thayer
Received on Sun Mar 20 09:45:42 2005