Previous stop: [[Stop Number 3679]] Next stop: [[Stop Number 2041]] ![[3701.jpg]] ## Notes The tricolor process has the charming quality of being slippery. Film photography has the distinct advantage of slipperiness- one must rely on a pre-visioned hunch of what one wishes to photograph before releasing the shutter, choosing the appropriate exposure settings and composition in order to grasp at the desired effect. Digital photography is not so slippery- there is a tight feedback loop and thus a sure footing when one can review an image and evaluate its effectiveness. The [[Tricolor]] process does not have this same advantage. It's taken me years of photographing with this process on film and then additional years trying it with digital to build up anything like an intuition of exactly what this process will turn out like. What often eludes me, though, is any sense of whether or not the effect will be *subtle*, which I think is one of the necessary preconditions for achieving an effective image using this process. This image is not so subtle- it has a [[Disco Barf]] vibe about it which demands too much attention to look past almost anything else. The first time one sees an image like this, it might have the "woah dude, how did you do that?" effect which photographers sometimes vie for in their imagery. In my case, having seen hundreds of such images in my attempts to tame this process, it says little to me. [[Stop Number 1796]] is one stop that had a pleasing and subtle motion to it. The color feels uncanny and is present without speaking too loudly. This image, stop 3701, is wailing and screaming. To give a proper account for the tricolor process, I almost feel that each image must be justified in some way. Yet, the image must also stand on its own in some way. I find it's most helpful to drag the saturation down slowly to a point to understand what might underlie the magic trick of the process. In this case, it's just a tree in front of a parking deck outside a [[Hospital]]. The photograph does not distinguish itself when the color is removed. Is it a failure, then? Perhaps. I've found that one of the things which justify the process is a communication of movement. Outside of motion blur or the obvious freezing of certain understood actions (a sprinter exploding off their blocks) it's challenging to convey motion in still imagery. The tricolor process seems to do it well in certain situations, especially the gradual and barely noticeable shifting of light- whether through the progress of the sun or the changes in reflection. It's that one thing — the slipperiness — which makes this process forever alluring. (Written September 03, 2025 by Nick Seitz) ## Keywords - [[Bricks]] - [[Disco Barf]] - [[Parking Deck]] - [[Tree]] - [[Tricolor]]