Approximating the Autochrome

[kevin_kemner]

Okay, I'm spending the holidays in the Great White North where my parents live rather the much more enjoyable southwest desert and have been burning with the following question: Does anyone have a technique they would like to share to expose transparency film to approximate the color range and saturation of the old autochrome or agfacolor process? This is what happens when 36" of snow on the ground has you reading every old photography book on the shelves.

 

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Thanks and Happy 2001

[wilhelm]

For the muted colors, try duplicating film directly in the camera. I

don't know how you're gonna get that beautiful grainy effect,

though. The DF is very slow, so you'll have to work out your own

EI. Start with ISO 8.

[kevin_kemner]

Thanks Bill,

 

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I'm more interested in the tonal range than the grain although it

might be possible to sandwich a layer of b&w negative film and a

layer of duplicating film. This would be pretty close to how an

autochrome was constructed. If I recall correctly the autochrome

process reversed the negative so I would have to do the same to the

b&w negative. This all be held together in a glass sandwich for

viewing.

[pete_andrews]

Sandwiching two sheets of film is a non-starter. Unexposed film is

practically opaque, and the underlying film would get hardly any

exposure. What light did get through would be diffused and give a very

soft image.<br>I think the way to go would be to experiment with E6

processing, perhaps reducing the time in both the first and second

developer, and increasing the exposure to compensate. Starting, of

course, with one of the gentler films like

Ektachrome<br>You could always add the grain mask

with a separately exposed piece of B&W film.<p>Unfortunately, the

trend in colour film today is for saturation, saturation, and yet more

saturation. (Fuji, you and badly adjusted television sets are entirely

to blame).