Colour photography

1. Read and translate the text. What is the main idea of the text?

2. Find unknown terms and words in the text and give their translations?

Colour photography was explored for the first time in the middle1800s. Early experiments in colour could not fix the photograph and prevent the colour from fading. The first permanent colour photo was taken in 1861 by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

One of the early methods of taking colour photos was to use three cameras. Each camera would had a colour filter in front of the lens. This technique provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a colour image in a darkroom or a processing plant.

The first colour plate, Autochrome, invented by the French Lumiere brothers, reached the market in 1907. Most modern colour films, except Kodachrome, are based on the Agfacolour Neue technology. Instant colour film was introduced by Polaroid in 1963.

Colour photography may form images as a positive transparency, intended for as a slide projector or as colour negatives, intended for use in creating positive colour enlargements on specially coated paper. The latter is now the most common for film (non-digital) colour photography owing to the introduction of automated photo printing equipment.

Each colour can be defined by three essential qualities. The first is hue, which is the name of the colour, like blue or yellow. It gives the specific wavelength that is dominant in the colour source. The second quality is saturation, or chroma, which indicates the apparent vividness or purity of a hue. The spectrum shows perfectly saturated hues. The narrower the band of wavelengths is, the purer the colour is. Strong, vivid hues are referred to as saturated colours. Almost all colours we see are desaturated by a wider band of other wavelengths. When different wavelengths are present, the hue is said to be weaker or desaturated.

The third quality of colour is luminance or brightness. Luminance deals with the appearance of lightness or darkness in a colour. These terms are relative to the viewing conditions. They try to define colour as it is seen in individual situations. These terms can be applied to colour description in any situation. Take as an example the specific hue, red, which has the longest wavelength of visible light. Mix it with a great deal of white light and it produces pink, which is desaturated red. Now paint this colour on a building that is half in sunlight and half in shadow. Each side of the building would have the same hue and saturation, but each side would have a different luminance. If a beam of sunlight strikes an object and makes a "hot spot" then that area is said to be desaturated since the colour has been diluted with a large amount of white light. White is a hue with no saturation, but has a high luminance. Black contains no saturation and a very small amount of luminance.

Learning these three basic concepts will help the photographer to translate better what has been seen by the eye into what has been recorded by the photographic materials. It also provides a common vocabulary of terms that we can employ in accurately discussing our work with others.

3. Answer the questions:

1. When was the first permanent colour photo taken?

2. What was one of the early methods of taking colour photos?

3. Who invented the first colour plate?

4. What kind of images is used in a slide projector?

5. What are the three basic concepts of colour?

4. Ask your groupmates to find answers in the text.

5. Speak about colour photography .

5. Discuss the content of the text in the form of a dialogue.