James Clerk Maxwell

color-tartan-ribbon_1376_990x742

The tartan ribbon photo, the first permanent color photograph.

The first permanent color photograph was taking in 1861 by physicist James Clerk Maxwell who used what is known as the ‘color separation’ method, shooting three separate black and white photos using three filters: red, green, and blue. He then projected the three images registered with their corresponding filters overlapping them to create a color image.

0_photographers_maxwell_j_c_red_green_blue_2ca12a-1

blendspace.com