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Chromogenic print
A chromogenic print, also known as a C-print or C-type print, a silver halide print, or a dye coupler print, is a photographic print made from a color negative, transparency or digital image, and developed using a chromogenic process. They are composed of three layers of gelatin, each containing an emulsion of silver halide, which is used as a light-sensitive material, and a different dye coupler of subtractive color which together, when developed, form a full-color image.
Developing color by using oxidized developers was first suggested by German chemist Benno Homolka who, in 1907, successfully developed insoluble indigo-blue and red dyes on a latent image by oxidizing indoxyl and thio-indoxyl respectively. He additionally noted these developers could create beautiful photographic effects.
The potential of oxidized developers in a color photographic process however, was first realized by another German chemist, Rudolf Fischer [de], who, in 1912, filed a patent describing a chromogenic process to develop both positives and negatives using indoxyl, and thio-indoxyl-based color developers as dye couplers in a light-sensitive silver halide emulsion. The following year he filed a patent listing various color developers and dye couplers, which have historically been used in Agfachrome and are still in use today in Fujichrome Velvia and Provia, and Ektachrome. In spite of this, Fischer never created a successful color print due to his inability to prevent the dye couplers from moving between the emulsion layers.
This first solution to this problem was found by Agfa workers Gustav Wilmanns and Wilhelm Schneider, who created a print made of three layers of gelatin containing subtractive color dye couplers made of long hydrocarbon chains, and carboxylic or sulfonic acid. This turned the dye couplers into micelles which can easily be scattered in the gelatin while loosely tethering to it.:698 Agfa patented both the developer for this print and its photographic process, and promptly developed and released in 1936 Agfacolor Neu, the first chromogenic print, which was a color print film that could be developed using a transparency.:698 Agfa developed a chromogenic negative film by 1939, which could be developed directly on a companion paper to the film, although this film was never commercialized.
Kodak too worked to solve the issue of the dye couplers movement, and found a different solution. They used ionic insoluble carbon chains which were shorter than Agfa's for their dye couplers, which were suspended within droplets of water in the gelatin layers of the print. In 1942, Kodak released Kodacolor, the first published chromogenic color print film that could be developed from a negative. It became the cheaper and simpler to develop counterpart to the alternatives at the time, and could be used in the simplest of cameras.
Due to their simple development process and their cheap price, chromogenic printing became wildly popular in amateur photography, and by the 1960s it overtook black and white printing in the amateur photofinishing market.
In 1955, Kodak introduced a chromogenic paper named "Type C", which was the first color negative paper Kodak sold to other labs and individual photographers. Although the paper's name was changed to "Kodak Ektacolor Paper" in 1958, the terminology "Type-C Print" persisted, and has become a popular term for chromogenic prints made from negatives still in use today, with the name "Type-R Print" becoming its reversal film counterpart.
Notwithstanding the success of chromogenic prints in the amateur and professional market, it wasn't considered a medium for fine-art photography up to the 1970s. The pioneers in the use of chromogenic prints and in the use of color photography as a whole in fine-art were photographers such as Ernst Haas, which was profiled by the Museum of Modern Art in its first exhibition of color photography in 1962.:257 Other pioneering fine-art color photographers who printed their photographs on chromogenic prints include William Eggleston:251 and Stephen Shore. Their works, and those of many others, caused chromogenic prints to become the preferred medium for contemporary photography by the 1990s.
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Chromogenic print
A chromogenic print, also known as a C-print or C-type print, a silver halide print, or a dye coupler print, is a photographic print made from a color negative, transparency or digital image, and developed using a chromogenic process. They are composed of three layers of gelatin, each containing an emulsion of silver halide, which is used as a light-sensitive material, and a different dye coupler of subtractive color which together, when developed, form a full-color image.
Developing color by using oxidized developers was first suggested by German chemist Benno Homolka who, in 1907, successfully developed insoluble indigo-blue and red dyes on a latent image by oxidizing indoxyl and thio-indoxyl respectively. He additionally noted these developers could create beautiful photographic effects.
The potential of oxidized developers in a color photographic process however, was first realized by another German chemist, Rudolf Fischer [de], who, in 1912, filed a patent describing a chromogenic process to develop both positives and negatives using indoxyl, and thio-indoxyl-based color developers as dye couplers in a light-sensitive silver halide emulsion. The following year he filed a patent listing various color developers and dye couplers, which have historically been used in Agfachrome and are still in use today in Fujichrome Velvia and Provia, and Ektachrome. In spite of this, Fischer never created a successful color print due to his inability to prevent the dye couplers from moving between the emulsion layers.
This first solution to this problem was found by Agfa workers Gustav Wilmanns and Wilhelm Schneider, who created a print made of three layers of gelatin containing subtractive color dye couplers made of long hydrocarbon chains, and carboxylic or sulfonic acid. This turned the dye couplers into micelles which can easily be scattered in the gelatin while loosely tethering to it.:698 Agfa patented both the developer for this print and its photographic process, and promptly developed and released in 1936 Agfacolor Neu, the first chromogenic print, which was a color print film that could be developed using a transparency.:698 Agfa developed a chromogenic negative film by 1939, which could be developed directly on a companion paper to the film, although this film was never commercialized.
Kodak too worked to solve the issue of the dye couplers movement, and found a different solution. They used ionic insoluble carbon chains which were shorter than Agfa's for their dye couplers, which were suspended within droplets of water in the gelatin layers of the print. In 1942, Kodak released Kodacolor, the first published chromogenic color print film that could be developed from a negative. It became the cheaper and simpler to develop counterpart to the alternatives at the time, and could be used in the simplest of cameras.
Due to their simple development process and their cheap price, chromogenic printing became wildly popular in amateur photography, and by the 1960s it overtook black and white printing in the amateur photofinishing market.
In 1955, Kodak introduced a chromogenic paper named "Type C", which was the first color negative paper Kodak sold to other labs and individual photographers. Although the paper's name was changed to "Kodak Ektacolor Paper" in 1958, the terminology "Type-C Print" persisted, and has become a popular term for chromogenic prints made from negatives still in use today, with the name "Type-R Print" becoming its reversal film counterpart.
Notwithstanding the success of chromogenic prints in the amateur and professional market, it wasn't considered a medium for fine-art photography up to the 1970s. The pioneers in the use of chromogenic prints and in the use of color photography as a whole in fine-art were photographers such as Ernst Haas, which was profiled by the Museum of Modern Art in its first exhibition of color photography in 1962.:257 Other pioneering fine-art color photographers who printed their photographs on chromogenic prints include William Eggleston:251 and Stephen Shore. Their works, and those of many others, caused chromogenic prints to become the preferred medium for contemporary photography by the 1990s.