The Paget Process

Hello sir, I am Bruce LEE. I am from London. I want you to help me by giving me some information about the Paget Process. Also tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of the Paget process.

[Shaleen]

As you have asked about the Paget Process, I am giving you information
about it

Paget process was an early colour photography process patented in Britain in
1912 by G.S. Whitfield.

One of the most outstanding exponents of the Paget process was Australian
photographer Frank Hurley.

The system used two glass plates, one of which was the colour screen plate
while the other was a standard black-and-white negative plate.

The colour screen plate comprised a series of red, green and blue filters, laid
down in a regular pattern of lines to form a réseau, or matrix.

Because the negatives of the time required long exposure times, the colours
in the screen plate were diluted to let more light through to the negative,
resulting in a quicker exposure.

A viewing screen with more intense colour filters was used in combination
with the developed positive to project a composite colour image.

The colour screen plate was usually sold as a separate item to the
panchromatic negatives.

A single colour screen plate could be placed into the camera and used to
expose many negatives in succession.

The resultant negatives looked like standard black-and-white negatives, with
a noticeable crosshatch patterning in areas of strong colour.

Viewing
Transparency positives could be made from the system's panchromatic
negatives by contact printing; these positives were then bound in register
with a colour viewing screen of the same type as used for exposure, to
reproduce the image in colour.

Multiple copies could be printed from each negative, the resultant positives
each being registered with their own colour viewing screens.

If, on the other hand, a black-and-white print was required, the negative was used and the colour viewing screen ignored.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Advantages of the Paget system was that Paget plates were more sensitive than contemporary autochrome plates, allowing exposures of around 1/25
second (four times faster than autochrome), plus it was a negative/positive
process with a separate colour screen which meant that multiple prints were
straightforward to produce.


The chief disadvantages of the system were that the colours were considered unfaithful and pale compared to the rich colours captured by autochrome.