Color images from B&W film...

[warden]

I was thinking the same thing. When the registration is 100% accurate, and the filtration and light are good, it seems like this process generates a more realistic reproduction of colours. Perhaps "realistic" is not exactly the right word - because the photos retain their distinctive character even if the colours are not faithful.

I wouldn’t describe them as realistic either, but I think they’re lovely, and I can’t put my finger on the reason. But this type of color seems to be unique to this kind of processing as far as I can tell. Somehow I’m getting a nostalgic feeling even though the images are fresh.

 

[Helge]

I wouldn’t describe them as realistic either, but I think they’re lovely, and I can’t put my finger on the reason. But this type of color seems to be unique to this kind of processing as far as I can tell. Somehow I’m getting a nostalgic feeling even though the images are fresh.

The vibe reminds me very much of the early tricolor plate photos. There is something very pleasant and agreeable about the tonality. Painterly almost. And realistic on the other hand is not completely wrong.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

One might argue there's some sort of resolution enhancing 'foveon effect' achieved by layering multiple exposures. Colors derived from an RGB separation are a better fit for digital displays which is also why the post-processing is so simple. Dropping the blue layer onto the R&G and seeing the color pop into the image is very cool.


Kentmere 100, Xtol 1+1
R29, G61, B47B

Apart from colorizing and aligning the exposures, I had to squelch the final magenta levels on this roll presumably due to some imbalance in the original exposures.

 

[BHuij]

I've played with the process and enjoyed it, but have yet to shoot any photos with the trichrome process that were "keepers."

In case anyone else is using small, 49mm diameter SLR lenses like my Olympus OM ones, I designed and 3D printed a system that lets me magnetically swap between R, G, and B filters for trichrome work. Makes the whole thing a lot faster and more convenient, IMO.

Quick-Change Magnetic Lens Filter System (49mm) by BHuij

I just got into Trichrome photography, where you take multiple photos of the same subject using black & white film and red, blue, and green filters, and combine them into a final color image. Unscrewing and re-screwing filters so frequently got old fast. I wanted to be able to switch them out...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Makes the whole thing a lot faster and more convenient, IMO.

Quick-Change Magnetic Lens Filter System (49mm) by BHuij

I just got into Trichrome photography, where you take multiple photos of the same subject using black & white film and red, blue, and green filters, and combine them into a final color image. Unscrewing and re-screwing filters so frequently got old fast. I wanted to be able to switch them out...

www.thingiverse.com

Despite the limitations & 'defects' from having to take 3 discrete exposures, fiddling with the filters is really what will make or break one's enjoyment of photographing trichromes. I'm using 52mm filters and I think I'll embed them into a cardboard holder to help streamline the process a bit outside of a studio setting. In the meantime there's plenty of cursed photos to be taken...

Fuji HR-U 4x5
O16 as RED
G61 as GREEN
Unfiltered UV LED as BLUE

 

[dourbalistar]

This is beautiful!

Thank you, @Molli! It looks like you're off to a great start, too. You got some really nice blue tones and hues, vibrant but not garish.

 

[Molli]

Thank you, @Molli! It looks like you're off to a great start, too. You got some really nice blue tones and hues, vibrant but not garish.

Thank you. I was rather amazed at how well they turned out. The advantage of photographing a few of my bookcases is that I'm acutely aware of the colours of the book covers. The walls here are actually that colour and entirely dependent on time of day/artificial light colour temperature as to whether they appear soft creamed butter or lemon gelato (brilliant if you'd like to give your sitter that lovely jaundiced look!) The three books giving off so much of the blue - particularly in the first photo - are all variations of royal and navy blue and, being behind glass, there's the reflection of a sea green armchair also adding to the colour. So, overall, quite accurate and no tweaking involved other than aligning the layers and dropping each file into the right channel.
That was such a relief because I'm rarely happy with scanned C41 negatives and would rather spend my time in the darkroom, so I'm 99% black and white film.

Having said all of that, I very much admire the results you're getting out in the world. While I like Velvia used judiciously, being blasted with saturated colours can become rather wearing on a 24/7 basis. Your landscapes are subtle and quiet and very easy to enjoy and I might even leave the house myself to see what I can see and capture using the trichrome process.

 

[Andrew Keedle]

Whilst it's possible to make "technically perfect" trichrome images I don't get excited about that anymore. It's a lot of pain for little value (other than the achievement) unless you do it with a format that it's hard to find colour film (like ULF). My approach these days is to try and abuse the features of the process. Me personally I love the colours that are generated by movement over longer exposures. Clouds and water and vegetation are my favourite subjects.

RSS 6x17
Ilford HP5

 

[Andrew Keedle]

First attempt at an Infra Red Trichrome. No the UK weather has caught up with the seasons I had to wait a few weeks to get a useably sunny lunch time to try an capture some IR rays

Holga Pan 120
Ilford SFX
720, Green, Blue

 

[FotoD]

What filters should one use if you want to make a tricolor RA4 print? RGB on the camera and CMY on the enlarger? Or the same filters on both camera and enlarger?

 

[Andrew Keedle]

What filters should one use if you want to make a tricolor RA4 print? RGB on the camera and CMY on the enlarger? Or the same filters on both camera and enlarger?

I have no idea how you would make an RA4 print of these. You could take the digital file and maybe convert it to CMYK and create digital negatives that you would have to register and print. My plan is try something along those line with some altprocess approaches like multi layer toned cyanotypes or even with Solarfast dyes though

 

[DREW WILEY]

For RA4, you would take tricolor separation negatives specifically exposed and developed, and perhaps masked too, to match the specific paper itself. And you need a precision pin-registered negative carrier and matching film punch to make the three SEQUENTIAL respective exposures. I won't go into the details. This has certainly been done, even on a commercial scale in the past. I have an example stored away somewhere. But it's a lot of work.

In-camera separations are done RGB; the printing is customarily done CMY, although I personally have the ability to print RGB too. The hybrid route would scan the three separations, digitally adjust and align the files, then output the result with an industrial RGB laser printer.

 

[FotoD]

For RA4, you would take tricolor separation negatives specifically exposed and developed, and perhaps masked too, to match the specific paper itself. And you need a precision pin-registered negative carrier and matching film punch to make the three SEQUENTIAL respective exposures. I won't go into the details. This has certainly been done, even on a commercial scale in the past. I have an example stored away somewhere. But it's a lot of work.

In-camera separations are done RGB; the printing is customarily done CMY, although I personally have the ability to print RGB too.

Thanks Drew. I figured RA4 printing should be done with CMY, if you expose the film through RGB filters. But it made my head hurt thinking about it, I'm just used to B&W.

I can see the challenge of getting everything in register with three or more negatives in the enlarger.

 

[StrangestStranger]

For RA4, you would take tricolor separation negatives specifically exposed and developed, and perhaps masked too, to match the specific paper itself. And you need a precision pin-registered negative carrier and matching film punch to make the three SEQUENTIAL respective exposures. I won't go into the details. This has certainly been done, even on a commercial scale in the past. I have an example stored away somewhere. But it's a lot of work.

In-camera separations are done RGB; the printing is customarily done CMY, although I personally have the ability to print RGB too. The hybrid route would scan the three separations, digitally adjust and align the files, then output the result with an industrial RGB laser printer.

The photo shown in this post was created this way. The registration was the hardest part.

Color images from B&W film...

Didn't know where to put this, so its going here. I'm figuring this isn't a new thing, but I found it very interesting. I might like to try it one day, just to say that I did.

www.photrio.com

 

[DREW WILEY]

Due to the prevalence of dye transfer printing as the premium option for several decades, certain commercial enlargers came with pin-registered carriers and matched punches, at least as an option. There were other companies like Condit which offered retrofit kits for common enlargers. But still, each tricolor neg would need to be superimposed over a lightbox equipped in a registration punch for sake of perfect alignment, unless a precision pin registration system were present in the camera back itself, which was in fact the case with big graphics copy cameras potentially useful for still life shots too, but not so practical to do with field cameras.

Still, quite a few people did it that way, although it was far more common to make tricolor separations from a color chrome or transparency instead, which makes the whole registration process fairly easy if you're equipped with a matched punch, pin-registration contact printing frame, and carrier. I have a lot of that kind of equipment. Finding enough time to do sequential tricolor printing is another story. But the same equipment has been heavily used by me for all kinds of advanced printing controls such as masking for Cibachrome and simultaneous RA4 printing, as well as black and white printing sometimes.

 

[Andrew Keedle]

I've been making most of my Trichrome images over that last couple of years with pinhole cameras. I find the add another layer to images and also help with using extended exposure times to capture "Colour from Movement". There were no clouds or wind to take advantage of but I wanted to see how well an Infrared Pinhole Trichrome would come out. Quite nicely it would seem



Chroma Cube 6x6
Rollei Infrared 400
720nm, Green, Blue filters

 

[dourbalistar]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2022.04.18 Roll #304-07085-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[dourbalistar]

Arches National Park, Fiery Furnace Overlook.

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2022.04.18 Roll #304-07091-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Nikor 50mm, Kentmere 100, Parodinal 1+150 50'

 

[BHuij]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


<snip>


2022.04.18 Roll #304-07085-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

Fantastic! Is that Skyline arch? I live in Utah but it's been too many years since I visited Arches. If that is Skyline arch, I remember being there as a little kid and running across a whole bunch of baby rattlesnakes hiding in between some boulders. My parents whisked us out of there very quickly after that discovery

 

[dourbalistar]

Fantastic! Is that Skyline arch? I live in Utah but it's been too many years since I visited Arches. If that is Skyline arch, I remember being there as a little kid and running across a whole bunch of baby rattlesnakes hiding in between some boulders. My parents whisked us out of there very quickly after that discovery

Thank you, @BHuij! That's Double Arch on the left - I'm not sure if the cave feature on the right has a name.

 

[dourbalistar]

Along the Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2023.04.13 Roll #330-08037-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[Anon Ymous]

Along the Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2023.04.13 Roll #330-08037-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

Very nice!

 

[dourbalistar]

Very nice!

Thank you, @Anon Ymous!

 

[dourbalistar]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Kentmere Pan 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes. Three individual black and white frames shot through Tiffen #25 Red, #58 Green, and #47 Blue filters, respectively, then combined using GIMP to create a trichrome color image.


2023.04.09 Roll #327-07991-positive-trichrome.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr