Colour negative film and C-41
1942 (Kodacolor); 1972 (C-41 process)
Film that gives a colour negative to print from, so anyone could get colour prints back from the lab. With the standard C-41 process, it became how most people shot colour.
How it began
Early colour films were slides, to be projected. In 1942 Kodak launched Kodacolor, a negative film from which colour prints could be made on paper. In 1972 Kodacolor II brought the C-41 process, which every maker adopted.
How it works
The film has dye couplers in three layers, as in Agfacolor, but processing stops at a negative: colours and tones reversed. An orange mask built into the film corrects for impurities in the dyes. Printing on colour paper reverses it again into a positive.
Why it mattered
Negatives were forgiving of exposure mistakes, and prints suited albums and wallets. Cheap processing in minilabs made colour the normal way to photograph from the 1970s, and colour negative film sold by the billion.
Limits and what replaced it
Prints from negatives depend on the lab’s colour correction, and the film cannot be viewed directly. Digital cameras replaced it in the 2000s, but it remains the most popular film today.
Today
Still made by Kodak and Fujifilm and processed in C-41 everywhere film is developed; most film shot today is colour negative.