The BrainFood Show

Inventing Color in a World That was Black and White


Listen Later

When we think of the past prior to the 1960s or so, we tend to picture it in black and white. Much of the visual media of this period - including still photographs to films to television - was rendered in shades of grey, making relatively recent history seem that much more distant and alien. But colour photography did exist in the first half of the 20th Century; just think of classic films like The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. But if this technology existed, why wasn’t it more common? And who first figured out how to capture the world in full living colour? Well, prepare to go from sepia to technicolour like Dorothy as we dive into the fascinating - and surprisingly long - history of colour photography.

Throughout the black-and-white photography era, people added colour to photographs and film by hand-tinting them with paint and ink. However, the development of true colour photography required a scientific understanding of how humans perceive colour. In 1850, German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz developed the trichromatic theory of vision, which postulated that the human eye contained three different kinds of light receptors - today known as cone cells - each sensitive to one of three colours: red, blue, and green. In 1861, English photographer Thomas Sutton, working with Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, applied Helmholtz’s theories to create history’s first colour photograph. Sutton took three separate photographs of a tartan ribbon through a red, blue, and green filter, then converted these photographs into slides and projected them back through their respective filters, the three slides combining to create a full colour photograph. Though this image could not be fixed on a physical medium, Maxwell’s demonstration nonetheless pioneered the additive colour process, which would form the basis of colour photography for the next few decades.
Shortly after Sutton’s experiment, French physicist...
Author: Gilles Messier
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Caden Nielsen
Host: Simon Whistler


Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The BrainFood ShowBy Cloud10

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

1,370 ratings


More shows like The BrainFood Show

View all
Lore by Aaron Mahnke

Lore

44,999 Listeners

Astonishing Legends by Astonishing Legends Productions

Astonishing Legends

9,494 Listeners

Skeptoid by Brian Dunning

Skeptoid

2,666 Listeners

Last Podcast On The Left by The Last Podcast Network

Last Podcast On The Left

51,319 Listeners

Myths and Legends by Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser, Nextpod

Myths and Legends

23,489 Listeners

Our Fake History by PodcastOne

Our Fake History

3,482 Listeners

Revisionist History by Pushkin Industries

Revisionist History

58,974 Listeners

Help Me Be Me by Cloud10

Help Me Be Me

1,814 Listeners

Dark Histories by Ben Cutmore

Dark Histories

1,878 Listeners

MURDERISH by Cloud10

MURDERISH

3,440 Listeners

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum by Dan Carlin

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Addendum

8,312 Listeners

Behind the Bastards by Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

Behind the Bastards

15,684 Listeners

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities by iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild

Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

8,401 Listeners

Enneagram & Coffee by Cloud10

Enneagram & Coffee

1,049 Listeners

Advantage Connors by Cloud10

Advantage Connors

191 Listeners

The Casual Criminalist by Cloud10

The Casual Criminalist

2,745 Listeners

Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast by Cloud10

Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast

2,275 Listeners

Hungry for Conversation with Natalie Puche by Cloud10

Hungry for Conversation with Natalie Puche

1,668 Listeners

Forever Young by Cloud10

Forever Young

54 Listeners

History of Everything by Stakuyi

History of Everything

711 Listeners

The Codependent Podcast by Cloud10

The Codependent Podcast

930 Listeners

Decoding The Unknown by Cloud10

Decoding The Unknown

928 Listeners

Scorched Justice by Cloud10

Scorched Justice

414 Listeners

Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime by Cloud10

Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime

314 Listeners

Raising and Rising by Cloud10

Raising and Rising

20 Listeners

CHRISTORY with Chris Manzo by Cloud10

CHRISTORY with Chris Manzo

96 Listeners

Funny Energy by Cloud10

Funny Energy

73 Listeners

Untangling Toys by Cloud10 and Clamor

Untangling Toys

20 Listeners

Are You There Pod? It's Me, Dad by Cloud10

Are You There Pod? It's Me, Dad

21 Listeners

Fantasy Foes by Cloud10 and The Starting 5

Fantasy Foes

15 Listeners

The Moderns by Cloud10

The Moderns

0 Listeners

The Bad Good Parent by Cloud10

The Bad Good Parent

20 Listeners

The Reality Informant by Cloud10

The Reality Informant

20 Listeners

Warfronts by Cloud10

Warfronts

50 Listeners