Figure 1.--This cabinent card was taken about 1890 at the Louisville, Kentucky studio of G.F. Martin. The boy wears a doublre breasted jacket with a large white tatted edge collr and a plaid floppy bow. It was being sent to the Standard Portrait Co. in Chicago for enlargement and tinting. Noted on the back is "Hair Red, Eyes Blue, Com Light" 'Com' probably means complexion. There was further writing, but it is covered over by the transmital sticker. This seems rather simple because there was no background and the boy's jacket looks dark, apparely the color shade was unimportant, unless this is what is covered up. Put your cursor on the image to see the back.

We do not know much about the tinting process. The photographer apparently made notes on the back of portraits to be tinted. Some of these notes were very basic. Others may have been more detailed. We are not yet sure about the type of tining used. We note gilding used on dags. This was popular to highlight jewlery. Adding rosy cheeks was also populr. We assumed that water colors were bushed on. Some photographs had only minor color added, such as rosy cheeks. This was the most common type of tinting. Other photographs were so effectively done that they look close to actual color photographs. Tinting of dags was done by the Daugerrretypist. We note note studios working with CDVs and cabinent cards that sent out the work. Some of the color instructins were rather basic. Look at the instructions on the back of the portrait here (figure 1). We note the instructions on the back of a tinted cabinet card which also seem very basic. This of cours would require very extensive hand work as it was a laborious process. The whole process is one we have not yet researched.

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Created: 5:58 AM 9/19/2007
Last updated: 12:15 AM 9/30/2007