The first photos were not in color
When photography was officially introduced in 1839, the most well-known early photographic processes could not capture natural colors. Photos were taken in various shades, usually gray, brown, or another monochrome color. This meant, of course, that the world in those photos did not look exactly as the photographer had seen it.
Especially with portraits, it was a pity that the colors of clothing, jewelry, hair, and skin were not visible. Painters, on the other hand, could certainly capture color, but a photographic portrait offered different advantages. Combining a photo with manual coloring turned out to be an interesting solution.
As early as the 1840s, photographers and artists, sometimes in collaboration, began coloring photos. This became especially popular with portraits, but later it was also applied to landscapes, cityscapes, and other subjects. The coloring of photos eventually became a specialty within photography.
How did photographers actually color their photos?
The coloring of a photo was done by hand, after the image was created and processed. Various materials were used for this, depending on the photographic technique and the surface on which the image was printed. Fine color pigments, watercolor, transparent dyes, and later also oil paint could be used.
It was, of course, important that the color did not cover all photographic details, but that you could still see the photo clearly. Therefore, colors were often applied very subtly and in thin layers. Think of a bit of pink on the cheeks, colored lips, or a gold accent on a piece of jewelry. In photographic prints on paper, larger areas could be colored, such as clothing, backgrounds, or entire landscapes.
In both larger and smaller photos, a small brush and a steady hand were often used. The process required a lot of patience, especially with small portraits and intricate details. Not every photographer did this themselves. Some photo studios worked closely with artists who specialized in coloring photos. The results could vary greatly, from barely visible accents to a photo that almost resembled a painting.
Why did people actually want colored photos?
One of the main reasons was that people wanted their portrait to resemble as closely as possible how they actually looked. With colors, certain features could be represented more clearly, such as the color of clothing, eyes, or hair. Photographers could also emphasize certain parts of an image with color.
A small color accent could, and still can, give a monochrome portrait a completely different appearance. Moreover, colored portraits could be found more attractive and luxurious. However, manually coloring a photo was often labor-intensive and could therefore be offered as an additional service. Some clients opted for just a few subtle accents, while others wanted the entire image colored.
The colors were by no means always an exact representation of reality. When the person coloring the photo did not know what color a garment or other object was, they naturally had to make an estimation. Therefore, a colored historical photo does not automatically show what colors the photographed scene actually had.
From subtle portraits to colorful landscapes
The manual coloring was not limited to simple studio portraits. As photography spread, photos of cities, landscapes, and everyday scenes were also colored. A notable example of this can be found in Japan, where hand-colored photography became an important commercial practice in the second half of the nineteenth century. Especially in Yokohama, photo studios emerged that sold colored photos, primarily to foreign visitors.
Photographers collaborated with artists who had experience with traditional Japanese painting techniques. Photos of Japanese landscapes, temples, streets, and people were carefully colored by them.
A well-known photographer associated with this type of imagery is Felice Beato. The colored photos were often collected in albums and sold as souvenirs at the time. They were not only meant as memories but also influenced how foreigners who had never been to Japan imagined the country.
Some images were also specially staged, meaning they were not always a spontaneous representation of daily life. The combination of photography and painting produced a unique appearance that we still recognize today.
But when did the real color photograph come?
While photographers hand-colored their photos, there was also extensive experimentation with techniques to capture colors directly photographically. As early as the nineteenth century, significant experiments with color photography took place. For example, James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated a method in 1861 that combined three exposures with different color filters. These exposures were made by photographer Thomas Sutton. This was an important step in the development of color photography, but still not a practical solution for the general public.
An important breakthrough came in 1907, when the Lumière brothers launched the Autochrome process, one of the first commercially successful color photographic processes. This allowed photographers to capture colors without having to paint them in afterwards. However, this process was also relatively complicated and had limitations, particularly when photographing in low light.
In the 1930s, more modern color films appeared, including Kodachrome and Agfacolor Neu. Color photography gradually became more accessible and popular. However, the transition did not happen overnight. Black-and-white photography and manual coloring continued to exist for a long time.
Why did photographers continue to color photos?
You would naturally expect that manual coloring would disappear as soon as color photography became accessible, but that did not happen. Early color photography was not always practical or affordable. Moreover, many photo studios were fully equipped for black-and-white photography, where manual coloring was a familiar technique.
Therefore, coloring photos remained a useful way to create colored images. Artists could also exert much more control over the final image and colors with manual coloring. This way, colors could be enhanced or changed, or certain parts could remain uncolored.
Even when color photography became widely available, some photographers consciously continued to work with manually colored images. It was no longer just a solution to a technical problem, but also a creative choice.
Manual coloring in modern photography and music videos
Even in the second half of the twentieth century, when color photography became increasingly common, photographers and artists consciously chose to manually color black-and-white images. A good example of this is the Spanish photographer Ouka Leele, who became known in the 1980s and was closely associated with the cultural movement La Movida Madrileña.
She created staged black-and-white photographs that she then colored herself with watercolor. She often used bright and unnatural colors. Her famous series Peluquería from 1979 is a good example of this. In it, she combined unique portraits with striking colors.
The Czech photographer Jan Saudek also made use of manually colored black-and-white photographs. His often theatrical portraits gained an almost painterly quality due to the added colors.
Another surprising example can be found in the music video Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana from 1993. This video was directed by the Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn. Kurt Cobain, the band's frontman, originally wanted a music video with the characteristic look of Technicolor, but that proved practically unfeasible.
Corbijn and his team therefore came up with a different solution. The music video was filmed in color and then converted to black-and-white. Each individual film frame was then hand-colored. This labor-intensive process took weeks but resulted in the strikingly bright, almost unnatural colors that make the music video so recognizable.
The remarkable thing about all these examples is, of course, that the technique was not used because color photography did not yet exist, but because of the specific visual appearance that the creators wanted to achieve. Even today, you can experiment with color, for example by consciously working with colored light in portrait photography.
Manually coloring photos was once a way to bypass a limitation within photography. Photographers and artists could create images that seemed closer to reality, or precisely create a completely unique appearance.
Even when color photography became widely available, the technique continued to exist as a conscious artistic choice. From historical portraits to Nirvana's music video: manually adding color shows how photography and painting can be combined in different ways.
