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Better PhotograPhy

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Photograph by:

Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron

Image Source:

Wikimedia Commons

march 2015

Creating Colour in Photography

D

uring the mid-1800s, there was still a lot left to understand about the nature of

light. Despite the limited technology of the time, French inventor Louis Arthur

Ducos du Hauron came up with a colour photography process. He proposed

that by photographing a scene thrice through red, blue and green filters

and superimposing the camera negatives on a sheet, it would produce the

scene in colour. He applied for a patent on this process and was granted one in 1869.

Coincidentally, another French inventor Charles Cros independently published similar

findings in a scientific journal, but du Hauron patented his processes first.

The image above is one of du Hauron’s many experiments with this process. Here, he used

three photograms to make a colour print of the flowers, stems and leaves. He placed the

flowers, stems and leaves on a photographic paper and exposed it to light to create an image.

Unfortunately, du Hauron’s process was never fully employed by photographers, because

of how complicated it was to produce images. Thus, he did not make any profit from his

findings. However, he was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour (Ordre national

de la Légion d’honneur) in 1912 and he received a pension from the Government.