Amateur Photographer – 17 March 2026 – Amateur Photographer

They were also major pioneers of colour photography. In 1907 two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, introduced the Autochrome, and with it revolutionised colour photography at a stroke. There had been methods before of producing a colour image, but it was a complicated process involving three exposures through different filters. The Autochrome’s big advantage was that its specially-prepared plates needed only a single exposure in any suitable camera.

Put simply, Autochromes were made by coating a photographic glass plate with minute grains of potato starch, dyed red, green and violet with a monochrome emulsion coated over them. The plates were placed into a camera with the potato starch layer facing the lens, so that light passed through the particles to reach the emulsion.

The plates were developed normally to make positive monochrome images to be viewed against a suitable light source. The coloured potato starch grains, being too small to be individually identified, coalesced so that the filtered monochrome image was seen in full colour. The Lumière brothers went on to apply similar technology to flexible films called Filmcolor and Lumicolor. In 1909, French inventor Louis Dufay improved on the Autochrome’s technology by coating a glass plate with a more regular- shaped grid consisting of pairs of lines coloured magenta and green at right angles to a pattern of cyan and yellow lines.

With the plate developed to make a positive image, a coloured picture appeared when viewed through the grid. Dufay called these images Dioptichromes. He later journeyed to Britain where he obtained backing to transfer his process from rigid glass plates to flexible film. The result was Dufaycolor, the first truly popular colour film, available as 35mm and 120 roll film in 1935. The funny French Who says the French don’t have a sense of humour? This picture appeared on the front cover of a magazine called Le Rire (The Laugh), in August 1895.

A caption below the picture translated as: ‘Does it amuse you to take a snapshot of this fat man taking a bath?’ ‘Idiot. Can’t you see it’s the President!’ The camera being held, some might say somewhat suggestively, by the fashionable young lady was a Stereo Photosphère, an all-metal stereo plate camera made in 1888.

Autochromes like this one, taken as late as the 1920s, revolutionised colour photography as far back as 1907 The August 1895 cover of Le Rire magazine A rare Dioptichrome, whose technology led the way to Dufaycolor, the first popular colour film ‘The best camera is the one that’s always with you’ is one of the most famous adages in photography, which is why we’ve put together this packed, 132-page guide on getting the best possible shots from your smartphone.

For most of us, our phone is always there in our pocket or bag, but not everyone makes the most of the increasingly powerful capabilities of modern smartphone cameras.

Passionate about photography since 1884 Tuesday 17 March 2026 Plus Kodak Charmera keychain camera • Catherine Opie • Brassaï • Phil Penman Vive la différence John Wade explores the quirky, innovative world of French cameras A sense of calm Taking a more mindful approach to photography is good for your mental health, says Paul Sanders Oppo Find X9 Pro New-generation Hasselblad camera delivers great results TESTED Shooting stars Steve Read on his life as a celebrity photographer KELSEY media £4.50 Treasured.

Bring your stories to life with a beautiful CEWE PHOTOBOOK. cewe.co.uk 7 days The benefits of creative pursuits to our mental health are beyond dispute and we know that many people who are drawn to pick up a camera do so for therapeutic reasons. This week Paul Sanders discusses how adopting a slower and more contemplative approach to photography has helped him recover from trauma and restore a sense of well-being that he had lost.

In complete contrast we talk to Steve Read about his fast-paced jet-setting life capturing rock and pop stars on both sides of the Atlantic. Our review of the Oppo Find X9 Pro smartphone is a good example of how mobile brands are continuing to close the gap with cameras when it comes to image quality. Finally John Wade explores the quirky and surprisingly prolific output of the once thriving French camera industry. Au revoir! Nigel Atherton, Editor THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Welcome Inside this week’s issue 3 7 days 6 Viewpoint 8 Books and exhibitions 12 Steve Read 20 Paul Sanders 24 APOY Open round: Best of the Rest 26 French cameras 33 Oppo Find X9 Pro review 36 Kodak Charmera 37 Tech talk 38 Enter your travel photos!

39 Inbox 40 We asked you… 42 It’s good to share 45 Special AP subscription offer! 46 Reader portfolio 51 Best Buys 66 Final analysis 20 12 46 33 26 TRACY CALDER Tracy interviews Paul Sanders who shares how mindful photography helped him cope MATTY GRAHAM AP regular Matty interviews top celebrity portrait photographer Steve Read JOHN WADE Our camera history expert looks at cameras from France, the country that invented photography JESSICA MILLER Dep Online Editor Jessica reviews the Oppo Find X9 Pro smartphone and delivers her verdict ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Andy tries out the Kodak Charmera keychain camera that has become a craze AMY DAVIES Features Editor On page 8, Amy highlights a Catherine Opie exhibition and a new Brassaï book MAIN COVER PICTURE © PAUL SANDERS.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: c3fc2f683bf6e5a9
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 19,661,822 bytes (18.751 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9783791391670, 9782080491152, 9783961717248
• Pages: 69
• Language: English (en)

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