WWII Kodachrome 4x5 shots

[bill_bly_ca]

Really cool set of WWII Kodachrome shots...

http://pavelkosenko.wordpress.com/20...5-kodachromes/

[Jonh]

Awesome! I've seen similar pictures, but not these. Thanks!

[Richit]

Thanks Bill, the last shot of the homesteading family there dirt floor shack in New Mexico was interesting and didnt fit with the others, Can some one homestead a property and call it there own in the USA anymore? New mexico became a state in 1912 and this Picture was from 1940.

[Just Plain John Wayne]

WOW Bill, those are Just great, fit's the bill about the women running the work force ot the US in those days

My fathers mother was a riveter in one of those plants somewhere, never was courious about it when I heard that, but now this does kinda pick that couriousity a bit...

Thanks for posting this...

[randude]

Kodachrome is a very interesting subject.

If I am not mistaken, there is only one place on the planet that processed Kodachrome, unlike all other slide and print film we grew up with.

Kodachrome is not available anymore is it Bill? I suppose I could look that up. Just seems I read that somewhere. Digital photography changed photography the the internet changed the way we exchange information. A massive and rapid change.

[bill_bly_ca]

Kodachrome is a very interesting subject.

If I am not mistaken, there is only one place on the planet that processed Kodachrome, unlike all other slide and print film we grew up with.

Kodachrome is not available anymore is it Bill? I suppose I could look that up. Just seems I read that somewhere. Digital photography changed photography the the internet changed the way we exchange information. A massive and rapid change.

Kodachrome can still be purchased but the last place that develops it stopped in Dec 2010. http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/

I never shot a roll, but there is a very accurate simulation for digital in DxO

[randude]

Here is what Wiki says about it...


Kodachrome is a type of color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935^[2]. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and stills photography. Because of its complex processing requirements, the film was sold process-paid until 1954 in the United States where a legal ruling prohibited this. Elsewhere, this arrangement continued. Kodachrome was the subject of a Paul Simon song and a US state park was named after it. For many years it was used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. Because of the uptake of alternative photographic materials, its complex processing and the widespread transition to digital photography, Kodachrome lost its market share, its manufacture was discontinued in 2009 and film processing ended in 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome


I was going to say I have shot with it, but not sure if I have or not after thinking about it. E6 could be processed in a day any place., but Kodachrome had to be sent to San Francisco and put in the que with millions of others. I never even heard of 4x5 Kodachrome before today. It has been awhile but I seem to remember that the contrast range of color print film was 7 stops while slide film was like 3. So print film was naturally twice as forgiving as slide film. Getting photos for your wall was harder too. Slide film was for professionals that provided for newspapers and magazines. In order to sell stock photography in those days you had to have everything in slide form. Everyone had to look at those little slides with a light table and a loupe.

One of my favorite all time songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsDxvAErTU

[Jonh]

"In September 1936 Kodachrome was made available in 35mm... ...with the idea of attracting amateur camera enthusiasts, inadvertently leading to the scarcity of official color images from World War II. The professional photographers and newspaper editors of the day, who used and required 4x5 or larger sheet film, considered the 35mm format a toy for the family snapshot taker. Most color films remained out of sight in storage due to a very limited publications market. Reproduction costs deterred use in all but a few magazines and books for decades. Use in aviation publications lagged sadly.

"The first batches of Kodachrome faded drastically but by 1939 a second, more refined process resulted in stable film images which, the Kodak researchers guessed, would last 15 years. They were wrong. On the whole the developed images have remained unchaged for 50 years, the only exception being those subject to intense humidity or heat. Its ASA 10 film speed was considerably slower than most black and white material but its grainless clarity was near breathtaking...and still is when compared to modern color film. This was rich color film available straight across the drug store counter...

"If this multiple emulsion film was made today, when all slide film is single emulsion, it would cost $50 a roll [to] buy it and another $50 to develop it...and the EPA would fine Kodak out of existence for destroying the environment with its caustic chemicals. Kodachrome came along just in time to be found by these veterans who recorded World War II in such stunning color. It was a marriage made in heaven."

- Jeff Ethell, WWII War Eagles, Global Air War in Original Color. 1995, Widewing Publications

http://www.ww2color.com/search/webap...des/slides.php

[Just Plain John Wayne]

Breath Taking, that is a good word for some of that stuff.