Modern Lippmann Photography

[Andy Perrin]

Since film and wet plate have been coming up a lot lately, have you all seen Lippmann photos? They are made by interference of light, like butterfly wing colors, by nanopatterning an emulsion on a glass plate in contact with a mirror.

 

https://www.alternativephotography.com/lippmann-colour-photography/

[microbat52]

So cool, its kinda like a hologram.

[Andy Perrin]

Yeah, close relative of holograms.

[Doug A]

Didn't realize color photography was available that early. Neat process.

 

Thanks for sharing,

Doug A

[photoni]

Since film and wet plate have been coming up a lot lately, have you all seen Lippmann photos? They are made by interference of light, like butterfly wing colors, by nanopatterning an emulsion on a glass plate in contact with a mirror.

 

https://www.alternat...ur-photography/

 

Thanks Andy, I did not know this method.

I don't quite understand how it works.

I should ask Mr. J.Lane if it can be applied to his plates https://www.pictoriographica.com/ ... but I don't think so !!!

The 25 asa plates are not very sensitive to red.

The 2 asa plates are orthochromatic like the wet collodion; sensitive to green, blue and UV .

.

The first color photograph I knew is "Autochrome Lumière" https://en.wikipedia...me_Lumi%C3%A8re

I have seen in a museum of the plates, they are amazing.

[dabateman]

This recent paper I remember reading tried to explain this:

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e2008819118

 

[Andy Perrin]

oops, I should have read David’s link before I replied. Apparently first link has some issues with the explanation, so see the new paper.

[Fandyus]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but the images on the website look rather normal, how is this different from the photography we commonly use now?

[dabateman]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but the images on the website look rather normal, how is this different from the photography we commonly use now?

 

If your read the paper I linked to all your questions might be answered.

 

But possible short answer is today we record 3 colors, blue, green and red.

 

This technique recorded 24 to 64 different colors. Really the first multispectral camera in visible light.

[Andy Perrin]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but the images on the website look rather normal, how is this different from the photography we commonly use now?

This is also rather deceptive because the photos change dramatically with angle like a dichroic filter or a hologram. Take a look at the movies in the paper David linked, and also bear in mind that you are viewing something with 24+ color channels through a device with 3…a lot of information is being left out!

[Andrea B.]

Quite a fascinating bit of photograpy history. Thanks for this link.

[OlDoinyo]

This is unlike all other color techniques in that it works by trying to reconstruct a replica of the spectrum of the original light coming off each point in the subject. As it is an analogue technique, there are no discrete channels in this process, and it makes no assumptions about how the viewer's visual system works: the color reproduction would look as accurate to a cat or dog as it would to human viewers! As I recall, the technique was discovered by accident. As the images cannot be duplicated or reproduced, it proved impractical in the long run compared to 3-channel systems.