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The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries
Images of Edinburgh
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Autochrome
Autochrome
Autochrome
About the image medium
Name
Autochrome
Notes
The first commercially successful colour photographic process, published by the Lumière brothers in 1904 and in use until the 1930s. An autochrome was a coloured, transparent image on glass, similar to a slide. The technique involved coating the surface of the plates with sticky potato starch grains dyed in red, green and blue and with a silver gelatin emulsion. On exposure in the camera, the grains acted as a three-colour screen. The exposed plates were then subjected to a reversal development process, producing a positive image. The finished photograph was in the form of a glass transparency made up of microscopic colour filters. This was the most practicable and popular of the early colour processes, even though the plates were expensive and required comparatively long exposures.
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