1978/2021
In 1978 I heard that you could make colour photographs using three black and white negatives. I was doubtful, so I put it to the test. I set a Kodak box camera loaded with black and white film on a table in front of me and propped a red cellophane filter over the lens, then opened the shutter. I made a second exposure using a green filter and third exposure using a blue filter. In the darkroom I exposed the first negative through the red filter, the second negative through the green filter and the third negative through the blue filter. It was a goose bump moment when I saw that first colour print.
I shot a few more rolls with the box camera taped to a tripod, then switched to a 35 mm camera which was more versatile. Later I shot a few rolls with a Rolleicord.
The colour in the original prints seems to be stable. However, the paper has started to turn a little grey. For some time I have wanted to make digital copies but was intimidated by the process. Early this year I finally watched a few instructional videos about using layers in PhotoShop Elements. After a few days I figured out how to turn black and white images into red, green and blue layers and merge them playing with the opacity of the different layers.
Going digital gives more control than you have with darkroom prints. But for some reason the colour in the photograph of Carolyn in the botanical garden is the only one that turned out almost the same as the original. Though it was great to be able to get more shadow detail in the photograph of sunbathers, the sea is reddish. In the photograph of Mrs. Dove on the patio, her face was green. So I tried making the image layers cyan, magenta and yellow. And the skin tone became more natural. Also, where there had been one poodle, there are now two and a faint branch-like pattern appeared on the fence. It is probably the result of a small static electric charge caused by rewinding the film quickly in a dry climate. I could have removed that digitally but decided to leave it.
While I was initially frustrated by the strange colour shifts, after a few days I came to embrace them. Though I suspect there is a way to achieve more realistic colour, I think the unrealistic colours make the images more interesting.
The end result of my efforts is a series of sixteen photographs. The first nine were taken in Alberta and the last seven were taken in British Columbia. About sixty percent were created from red, green and blue layers and about forty percent were created from cyan, magenta and yellow layers. Four of the sixteen had not been made into colour photographs until this year.
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