The Vitachrome Diffusionlite System and its Application

The “Diffusionlite system,” the term applied to this form of illumination, was discovered more or less accidentally after repeated efforts to get away from the use of expensive condensers or diffusers during a long period of years of constructing large projecting and enlarging cameras. It was found that by using a mirror at the front of the lamp and projecting all the light upon an electrolytically treated aluminum surface the result was excellent. The light reflected from the myriads of microscopic brilliant facets formed a beam of illumination that was uniform, well distributed, and without perceptible “spot” or “center” or figuration, yet remarkable in its brilliancy and penetration. The resulting enlargements were more beautiful than any we had produced before. This led us to seek a means of employing the same principle for studio lighting. An object could then be photographed with a perfectly diffused light without having to interpose glass or silk screens and thus lose considerable brilliancy.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1936-01

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J01291