History

Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 introduced dye transfer in its Process 3, introduced in the feature film The Viking

The Viking (1928 film)

The Viking was the first feature-length Technicolor film that featured a soundtrack, and the first film made in Technicolor's Process 3.-Production background:...

(1928), which was produced by the Technicolor Corporation and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

. Techicolor's two previous systems were an additive color

Additive color

An additive color model involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colors. Combining one of these additive primary colors with another in equal amounts produces the...

 process and a poorly-received subtractive color

Subtractive color

A subtractive color model explains the mixing of paints, dyes, inks, and natural colorants to create a full range of colors, each caused by subtracting some wavelengths of light and reflecting the others...

 process, the latter requiring two prints cemented together back-to-back. Process 3 used an imbibition

Imbibition

'Imbibition' is defined as the displacement of one fluid by another immiscible fluid. This process is controlled and affected by a variety of factors...

 process borrowed from the earlier Handschiegl color process

Handschiegl Color Process

The Handschiegl color process produced motion picture film prints with color artificially added to selected areas of the image. Aniline dyes were applied to a black-and-white print using gelatin imbibition matrices.-History of the process:...

, originally created in 1916 for Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

's feature film Joan the Woman

Joan the Woman

Joan the Woman is a 1916 silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc.It was the first film to use the Handschiegl Color Process for certain scenes...

(1917). Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 further refined the imbibition dye transfer process in its Process 4, introduced in 1932, which employed three simultaneously filmed negatives.

In the 1940s, this process was popularized by the Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

, and is sometimes referred to by such generic names as "wash-off relief printing" and "dye imbibition" printing. The process requires making three printing matrices (one for each subtractive primary color) which absorb dye in proportion to the density of a gelatin relief image. Successive placement of the dyed film matrices, one at a time, "transfers" each primary dye by physical contact from the matrix to a mordant

Mordant

A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric or tissue. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. The term mordant comes from the Latin...

ed, gelatin-coated paper

Coated paper

Coated paper is paper which has been coated by a compound to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness or reduced ink absorbency. Kaolinite or calcium carbonate are used to coat paper for high quality printing used in packaging industry and in magazines...

.

Status today

In 1994, Eastman Kodak stopped making all materials for this process. The dyes used in the process are very spectrally pure compared to normal coupler-induced photographic dyes, with the exception of the Kodak cyan. The dyes have excellent light and dark fastness. The dye transfer process possesses a larger color gamut and tonal scale than any other process, including inkjet. Another important characteristic of dye transfer is that it allows the practitioner the highest degree of photographic control compared to any other photochemical color print process.

External links

• Dye Transfer: The Ultimate Color Print by Ctein
• Dye Transfer Printing at the Eliot Porter Collection Guide website of the Amon Carter Museum
• Dye Transfer Website Printing for Fine Art Photography