Is Hand Coloring an Alternative Process?

[chip j]

If so, I will post my questions about it there.

 

[chip j]

Well, 25 views and no answers, so here goes. Can anyone post some links to viewing great hand colored photos? Got any tips for hand coloring? Thanks

 

[removed account4]

eddie, here on photrio is awfully good at hand coloring
https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/users/eddie.7343/

 

[nmp]

Well, 25 views and no answers, so here goes. Can anyone post some links to viewing great hand colored photos? Got any tips for hand coloring? Thanks

My absolute favorite is Brigitte Carnochan:

https://www.brigittecarnochan.com/

 

[eddie]

My absolute favorite is Brigitte Carnochan:

https://www.brigittecarnochan.com/

Wow. I was unaware of her work. Thanks for the introduction.

 

[eddie]

Well, 25 views and no answers, so here goes. Can anyone post some links to viewing great hand colored photos? Got any tips for hand coloring? Thanks

I think it's easiest to start with colored pencil, on matte or semi-matte paper. Oils take a little longer to master.

 

[Ian Grant]

I think it's easiest to start with colored pencil, on matte or semi-matte paper. Oils take a little longer to master.

I took an entirely different approach and use a range of toners and then colour re-touching dyes, I also used "Dye couplers". This was the approach the late Bob Carlos Clarke used a lot for his Exhibition & Book "Dark Summer" which is now a collectors item but many images are online and worth a look.

This link to Colourform is an early (1949) commercial use of Dye coupler as toners, the scanned booklet is one I own came in a 1949 British Journal Photographic Almanac I bought. Tetenal made a kit much later. I mixed my own developer and couplers. These approaches are quite different to the more common US way of working but very quick and simple.

Ian

 

[pentaxuser]

I took an entirely different approach and use a range of toners and then colour re-touching dyes, I also used "Dye couplers".
Ian

Ian, I had bookmarked this before and it is well worth a read and bookmark by anyone interested in colouring. What you achieved here is quite remarkable and would, I imagine, be very difficult to achieve by the normal pencils/oils approach unless you were very skilled in pencils/oils.

pentaxuser

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian, I had bookmarked this before and it is well worth a read and bookmark by anyone interested in colouring. What you achieved here is quite remarkable and would, I imagine, be very difficult to achieve by the normal pencils/oils approach unless you were very skilled in pencils/oils.

pentaxuser

Yes it's a very much more versatile set of techniques, essentially there's three. First the normal toning, then there can be dye coupled toning, and third there's the dye colouring using retouching dyes.

Books (1970's and earlier) suggested using masking fluid to do the selective toning but I found it better without, selectively bleaching freehand, However I did a lot of retouching and composite images, cut out work, etc, commercially so could work very quickly, plus I did a lot of research into toners. I guess I was doing this at the same time as Bob Carlos Clarke was evolving his own methods while doing an MA at The Royal College of Art. I met him after a talk around 1986 and we very briefly discussed Dye couplers.

Should have added Bob Carlos Clarke's firts two books are also worth a look at, the first was The Illustrated Delta of Venus, a selection of Anais Nin's stories and some of his photo's better is Obsessions still quite expeimental

Ian

 

[dwross]

My vote is for photo dyes. Most control and versatility. I'm currently rediscovering how much fun it is, especially on handmade paper (not just silver gelatin, but all the alt processes on watercolor paper). All you need are the dyes and a good small brush. Here's a little info from my old website. It does natter on for several pages. http://dwrphotos.com/Support/HandcoloringDyes/handcoloring.htm

 

[Ian Grant]

My vote is for photo dyes. Most control and versatility. I'm currently rediscovering how much fun it is, especially on handmade paper (not just silver gelatin, but all the alt processes on watercolor paper). All you need are the dyes and a good small brush. Here's a little info from my old website. It does natter on for several pages. http://dwrphotos.com/Support/HandcoloringDyes/handcoloring.htm

One major advantage we've not mention is there's no tell-tale marks on the print surface meaning it can be far a more subtle and effective way of hand colouring.

Ian

 

[DDTJRAC]

I have a collection of hand colored / hand tinted photos and RPPC's in my archive. They are buried in a storage locker and can't get to them right now. But here is one masterpiece.

 

[tezzasmall]

Thanks for all of the links guys, as I have an interest in this subject as well.

Busy right now but I look forward to reading and looking at later.

Terry S