Title
Photo: St. Andrew's School Chapel Altar, circa 1945
Date
1945
Decade
1940s
Notes
Woody Thomas '47 sent a scan of his photo to Director of Almuni Affairs Chesa Profaci '80 along with a description of the process of taking the color photo. A transcription of the body of the email - which Woody sent Chesa circa 2000 - follows:
Here is a color photograph I took of the altar in about 1945.
In 1943, Kodak introduced Kodacolor roll film for simple amateur cameras. Color film in those days was very slow and could normally be used in simple simple cameras only outdoors in bright sun. Also, very few cameras had either a built in flash or even an attachable flash. Furthermore, because the film was designed to be used in daylight, flashbulbs had to have a blue filter coating on them, which reduced the amount of light produced by the flash. I had a couple of photolamp reflectors and light stands. I bought two huge blue flash bulbs -- they were about the dimensions of a 500 watt incandescent lamp -- and set up the light stands and reflectors with the blue flash bulbs. I set one stand to each side of the altar and raised the reflectors until they were about level with the middle of the reredos and aimed at the altar. Finally, I set the camera on something (I didn't own a tripod in those days) and framed the altar in the crude viewfinder. Then I turned out the lights in the chapel, opened the shutter, set off the flash bulbs, closed the shutter, and turned the chapel lights back on. That was it. Just one shot. In 1952, I had an 8" x 10" enlargement made from the negative. The attached image comes from a scan of that 8" x 10" print (which had, unfortunately, faded considerably in the intervening 55 years). However, through the magic and science of digital imaging, I have managed to produce a pretty good print.
Do you know if there are any other color pictures of the chapel from my
era or before?
Woody
Here is a color photograph I took of the altar in about 1945.
In 1943, Kodak introduced Kodacolor roll film for simple amateur cameras. Color film in those days was very slow and could normally be used in simple simple cameras only outdoors in bright sun. Also, very few cameras had either a built in flash or even an attachable flash. Furthermore, because the film was designed to be used in daylight, flashbulbs had to have a blue filter coating on them, which reduced the amount of light produced by the flash. I had a couple of photolamp reflectors and light stands. I bought two huge blue flash bulbs -- they were about the dimensions of a 500 watt incandescent lamp -- and set up the light stands and reflectors with the blue flash bulbs. I set one stand to each side of the altar and raised the reflectors until they were about level with the middle of the reredos and aimed at the altar. Finally, I set the camera on something (I didn't own a tripod in those days) and framed the altar in the crude viewfinder. Then I turned out the lights in the chapel, opened the shutter, set off the flash bulbs, closed the shutter, and turned the chapel lights back on. That was it. Just one shot. In 1952, I had an 8" x 10" enlargement made from the negative. The attached image comes from a scan of that 8" x 10" print (which had, unfortunately, faded considerably in the intervening 55 years). However, through the magic and science of digital imaging, I have managed to produce a pretty good print.
Do you know if there are any other color pictures of the chapel from my
era or before?
Woody