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While listening to and peripherally participating in recent threads that concerned the interpretation of color in WW1 vintage black & white photographs, some thoughts concerning B&W photography in general crossed my mind.
Maybe I’m mellowing with age (Tuesday I hit the big five-oh), but I would like to solicit ideas here and keep it objective and non-confrontational.
Forgetting for a minute the differences between panchromatic and orthochromatic film, my premise is this:
(1) The only way to establish color on a (WW1 vintage) B&W photograph is if there is a known reference color in the photograph.
(2) It is impossible to establish color by comparing two black & white pictures unless it is known with certainity that the negatives came from the same roll of film.
My reasoning goes like this:
Density of a B&W negative is extremely dependent on developing time, temperature and strength of developer. Underdevelop the film (by say 15 seconds on a 5 minute process), and the negative will be thick and print light. Similarly overdevelop and the thin negative will print dark. Have the temperature high, and the development accelerates; at lower temperature more development time is necessary. And if the developer is not replenished as it is used and discarded when saturated, there will be additional negative impact (allright – grant me one bad pun).
It cannot be assumed that any two rolls were processed under the same controlled conditions. Realize that this goes for both the processing of the negative AND the print.
How well controlled was the processing of the first during the Great War? Certainly if film was processed in the field, all these variables can be called into question. If the undeveloped film was saved for processing on leave or at a major depot, there was likely better control, but how much more?
Is this valid conjecture? Or am I out in left field on this one?
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