In 1861, photographer Thomas Sutton produced a color photograph of a tartan ribbon at the request of physicist James Clerk Maxwell, made as three separate monochrome exposures shot through red, green and blue filters and recombined by projection. It demonstrated in practice the three-color principle Maxwell had proposed in 1855, decades before a true single-exposure color process such as the Lumiere Autochrome reached the market.
Facts
Milestone Year WhenPhotographer Thomas Sutton produced the image, a tartan ribbon, at physicist James Clerk Maxwell's request, as three separate monochrome exposures taken through red, green and blue filters and recombined by projection, demonstrating the three-color principle Maxwell had proposed in 1855. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationThree-color processes sectionQuote, Three-color processes section
The first color photograph made according to Maxwell's prescription, a set of three monochrome 'color separations', was taken by Thomas Sutton in 1861 for use in illustrating a lecture on color by Maxwell.
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