Additive colour photography
Fotografía en color por síntesis aditiva
- Date
- 1861 · confidence high
- Place
- London (Royal Institution), England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Clerk Maxwell (with Thomas Sutton)
- People
- 👤 James Clerk Maxwell1831–1879
- Field
- Communication
What it is
The superimposed projection of three photographs of a tartan ribbon, taken through red, green and blue filters, producing the first colour image. It demonstrated the trichromatic theory of vision and established the RGB model.
The plate was not sensitive to red; the experiment worked because the red dye reflected ultraviolet light. Louis Ducos du Hauron and Charles Cros proposed subtractive methods in 1868-69.
What it led to
- Trichromatic theory applied: the Autochrome (1907), Technicolor, colour television
- The RGB model of screens and sensors
- Scientific colorimetry
Built on
- Trichromatic theory of colour vision (Young)1802
- Wet collodion process1851
- Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
- Sensitised collodion
Made possible
- Lippmann plate1891
- Kinemacolor1906
- Lumière Autochrome1903-1907
- Trichromatic field-sequential colour TV system1940
- Lumière Autochrome
- Digital colour sensors