Lost Skeleton
Well-known member
Some time ago, Joe requested I write about the black-and-white world of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography as it relates to military artifacts. Though it is easy to draw conclusions regarding the color of something based on perceptions of the gray scale, the process is highly assumptive and can be surprisingly inaccurate. It might be helpful to begin with an example.
Examining this studio portrait of an Ulan, specifically the medal on his chest, one might infer the ribbon to be a dark color, perhaps a green or navy blue. In reality, the color is yellow.
Surprised? The medal is the 1897 Erinnerungs-Medaille, commemorating the centenary of Wilhelm I’s birth. Now, examine the collar Litzen. The subject served in 2. Garde-Ulanen Regiment. Despite its dark appearance, the Litzen is also medium yellow. The medal is gilt, the buttons and epaulette trim are brass, and, being metallic, reflect more light than they absorb (the only reason they appear bright). What, then, accounts for the dark registration? The answer lies in the photographic emulsion.
Since its introduction in the nineteenth century, celluloid film was orthochromatic. By definition, orthochromatic film is sensitive to all visible light except red. Orthochromatic film can therefore be handled in red light in the darkroom but does not produce black-and-white tones that correspond very closely to the colors seen by the eye. Consequently, the photographic record of Imperial Germany exists entirely within an orthochromatic spectrum.
By the late 1920s, orthochromatic film had largely been replaced by panchromatic film, which is sensitive to all colors of the visible spectrum. The following approximates the differences between the two emulsions.
Returning to period photographs, below is another example of yellow, this time coupled with another problem color, blue:
The subject is a Husar from Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17. Were it not for his proudly rolling up the Überzug to display a telltale Totenkopf, we might regard his Feldzeichen as anything but yellow with a blue center. In fact, medium to pale blue is virtually invisible to orthochromatic film, often resembling white.
For those with only a nodding acquaintance to early cinema, the makeup worn by comedian Stan Laurel in this frame enlargement from The Lucky Dog (1917) may seem unnecessarily exaggerated. However, the mascara serves a purpose. Without it, Laurel’s blue eyes would lack sufficient contrast and appear “colorless.” Once again, orthochromatic film is the culprit.
This studio portrait from Bonnie Scotland (1935) taken with panchromatic stock reveals a more accurate eye color.
This is reason why the Orden Pour le Mérite, aka the Blue Max, takes on a ghostly appearance in Sanke cards of the period. The following is a portrait of Felix Graf von Luckner.
The primary colors for pigments are red, blue, and yellow. The primary additive colors for light are red, green, and blue; the primary subtractive colors (which give the primary additive colors when subtracted from white light) are magenta, cyan, and yellow. As demonstrated above, cyan and yellow do not photograph accurately with orthochromatic film since magenta is nonexistent. Throw out the three primaries, and the only hope of determining color with any degree of fidelity is through extrapolation.
The problem is an acute one for aviation scholars of German lozenge pattern camouflage. Without surviving examples of factory printed linen, it is virtually impossible to divine the combination or repetitive nature of colors used. The same can be said of camouflaged Stahlhelme. Though an AKO may tell us what the regulation colors were, how would ochre photograph?
Ribbon bars are, perhaps, the least problematic to analyze. Ribbons were worn with specific priority left to right, and, in the case of medal bars, ribbon colors can be identified by the medal itself. However, priority changed with each kingdom (whereby Preußen awards ceased to be preeminent). In the following photograph of Leutnant Max Ritter von Mulzer (a Bavarian) we have:
Militär. Max-Josephs-Orden (Ritterkreuz), blue-white-black ribbon
Militär-Verdienstorden, white-blue-white ribbon
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klaße, black-white-black ribbon
Königl. Hausorden v. Hohenzollern, black-white-black ribbon
Hanseatenkreuz v. Hamburg, white-red-white ribbon
Lippesche Kriegs-Verdienstkreuz, white, red, yellow ribbon
The task remains far from an easy one as the reprint quality of most photographs is generally poor; virtually nothing can be inferred from them.
I hope there will be some participation in this discussion. Many of you collect period photographs, and it would be interesting to analyze them from the viewpoint of color.
Chas.
Examining this studio portrait of an Ulan, specifically the medal on his chest, one might infer the ribbon to be a dark color, perhaps a green or navy blue. In reality, the color is yellow.
Surprised? The medal is the 1897 Erinnerungs-Medaille, commemorating the centenary of Wilhelm I’s birth. Now, examine the collar Litzen. The subject served in 2. Garde-Ulanen Regiment. Despite its dark appearance, the Litzen is also medium yellow. The medal is gilt, the buttons and epaulette trim are brass, and, being metallic, reflect more light than they absorb (the only reason they appear bright). What, then, accounts for the dark registration? The answer lies in the photographic emulsion.
Since its introduction in the nineteenth century, celluloid film was orthochromatic. By definition, orthochromatic film is sensitive to all visible light except red. Orthochromatic film can therefore be handled in red light in the darkroom but does not produce black-and-white tones that correspond very closely to the colors seen by the eye. Consequently, the photographic record of Imperial Germany exists entirely within an orthochromatic spectrum.
By the late 1920s, orthochromatic film had largely been replaced by panchromatic film, which is sensitive to all colors of the visible spectrum. The following approximates the differences between the two emulsions.
Returning to period photographs, below is another example of yellow, this time coupled with another problem color, blue:
The subject is a Husar from Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17. Were it not for his proudly rolling up the Überzug to display a telltale Totenkopf, we might regard his Feldzeichen as anything but yellow with a blue center. In fact, medium to pale blue is virtually invisible to orthochromatic film, often resembling white.
For those with only a nodding acquaintance to early cinema, the makeup worn by comedian Stan Laurel in this frame enlargement from The Lucky Dog (1917) may seem unnecessarily exaggerated. However, the mascara serves a purpose. Without it, Laurel’s blue eyes would lack sufficient contrast and appear “colorless.” Once again, orthochromatic film is the culprit.
This studio portrait from Bonnie Scotland (1935) taken with panchromatic stock reveals a more accurate eye color.
This is reason why the Orden Pour le Mérite, aka the Blue Max, takes on a ghostly appearance in Sanke cards of the period. The following is a portrait of Felix Graf von Luckner.
The primary colors for pigments are red, blue, and yellow. The primary additive colors for light are red, green, and blue; the primary subtractive colors (which give the primary additive colors when subtracted from white light) are magenta, cyan, and yellow. As demonstrated above, cyan and yellow do not photograph accurately with orthochromatic film since magenta is nonexistent. Throw out the three primaries, and the only hope of determining color with any degree of fidelity is through extrapolation.
The problem is an acute one for aviation scholars of German lozenge pattern camouflage. Without surviving examples of factory printed linen, it is virtually impossible to divine the combination or repetitive nature of colors used. The same can be said of camouflaged Stahlhelme. Though an AKO may tell us what the regulation colors were, how would ochre photograph?
Ribbon bars are, perhaps, the least problematic to analyze. Ribbons were worn with specific priority left to right, and, in the case of medal bars, ribbon colors can be identified by the medal itself. However, priority changed with each kingdom (whereby Preußen awards ceased to be preeminent). In the following photograph of Leutnant Max Ritter von Mulzer (a Bavarian) we have:
Militär. Max-Josephs-Orden (Ritterkreuz), blue-white-black ribbon
Militär-Verdienstorden, white-blue-white ribbon
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klaße, black-white-black ribbon
Königl. Hausorden v. Hohenzollern, black-white-black ribbon
Hanseatenkreuz v. Hamburg, white-red-white ribbon
Lippesche Kriegs-Verdienstkreuz, white, red, yellow ribbon
The task remains far from an easy one as the reprint quality of most photographs is generally poor; virtually nothing can be inferred from them.
I hope there will be some participation in this discussion. Many of you collect period photographs, and it would be interesting to analyze them from the viewpoint of color.
Chas.
