Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion. The effect is that all of the light shining through is filtered, so that what would be white light becomes light of some color.[1]

Film toning is the process of replacing the silver particles in the emulsion with colored, silver salts, by means of chemicals.[2] Unlike tinting, toning colored the darkest areas, leaving the white areas largely untouched.

Tinting was very popular in the silent film era. By 1920, tinting was used for 80 to 90 percent of all films.[3]

  1. ^ "Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema". silentfilm.org. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  2. ^ Street, Sarah (2019-07-25). Colour Films in Britain: The Negotiation of Innovation 1900-1955. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83871-515-1.
  3. ^ Koszarski, Richard (1994-05-04). An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-08535-0.