[PRCo] Slide color

[Bob Rathke]

I started taking slides with ASA10 Kodachome.  Kodachrome slides that I took 
in the 1950's have held their color very well; I don't recall getting any 
gray (colorless) slides on dreary days, but with a whopping speed of 10, I 
probably didn't try to take many Kodachrome-10 photos on overcast days.

When first introduced, Kodachrome II  (ASA25) was in short supply.  It 
wasn't until 1961 that Kodachrome II totally replaced the ASA10 type, and 
was widely available.

So...in 1960, to get slide film with a moderate speed, I switched to 
Ektachrome (ASA32) - but fortunately only for a year until I could get 
Kodachrome II.  By the mid-1960's my 1960-era Ektachome slides experienced a 
drasatic color shirft.  Fortunately, today's computer software can correct 
the color in those old Ektachome slides.

Bob 12/30/06

-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Galt" <galtfd at att.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 12:01 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Tylerdale


> On 29 Dec 2006 at 22:29, Fred Schneider wrote:
>
>> I truly suspect that the colors in that picture are as close as
>> you're going to get to realism and that the red and cream streetcar
>> is the only object on a gray day that had any color other than
>> various intensities of gray.
>>
>
> Like you, Fred, I had plenty of experience with Kodachrome II but none 
> with its
> predecessor.
>
> Seriously, though, I don't think we are looking at a slide. Rather, at a 
> low-
> resolution 120 print that has been touched up - quite expertly! - by a
> colourist. It looks so very much like some of the better of the b&w 
> pictures
> that I used to take as a child. The tinges of in the snow look to be done 
> by a
> human hand, and the tinting isn't as crisp as the photo itself. The 
> yellowish
> cast to the entire picture could possibly come from the camera but could 
> just
> as likely be due to a subtle wash. 1707 may well be the only vivid object 
> in
> the photo. Not that vivid, though, not in this unpromising light.
>
> I can't prove it - just my hunch. As I said, if a tint job, a skilful one.
>
> The colour quality available to the well-heeled photographer as long ago 
> as 6
> decades is seen in the Washington Interurban photos in Bill Volkmer's
> Pittsburgh Area book. A couple of them claim to date from 1944. In any 
> case,
> the Washington city pictures are obviously no later than their stated 
> 1952-3.
> Oh, if only we had a few more like them! Or a few dozen more.
>
> Don Galt
>
>