How bad color photography may have been a century ago ?

[Externet]

Judge yourself:

 

----> http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/21/color-photography-from-russian-in-the-early-1900s/544/

 

If you want more, ----> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dellaert/aligned/

[pwagen]

Bad? Those are absolutely amazing!

[studiot]

There were lots of independent pioneers to colour photography ion the early years.

 

Those interested who come to the UK should visit the Fox-Talbot museum at Lacock.

 

Recently the first ever moving pictures were reconstructed by computer and found to be in colour. These we by a Yorkshire man, whose name escapes me at the moment.

 

Interestingly the first TV was also in colour, although the (Baird) system never caught on.

 

But those images in the links are stunning for the date.

 

thanks +1

Edited June 14, 2013 by studiot

[CharonY]

I have seen those before. Absolutely fantastic and many beat the average instagram.

[michel123456]

Hypnotizing. Fantastic. ++++ for Externet.

 

All photos are outside because he needed direct sunlight. The flash seemed not suitable for his color technique.

I suppose he took 4 pictures from 4 cameras at slight intervals of time. The 4 pictures would then be superposed. The exposure time was thus increased (noticeable on the flow of the river). One can notice red and blue objects on some pictures, probably birds coming and leaving. People who moved are blurred and in 4 colours.

Edited June 15, 2013 by michel123456

[Moontanman]

Absolutely awesome, very moving....

[arc]

Thanks Externet, Just beautiful +1. I can't help but imagine what those people saw in just a few short years later. Their whole world turned upside down.

[ewmon]

Very beautiful; color adds such dimension and life.

 

With some of the photos showing separation of colors due to movement, were the different colors taken through the same camera in quick succession*, and how were they ever combined afterwards? What's the name of the process? No wonder everyone is posed, and broad landscapes are eerily devoid of people.

 

(*No, see more comments below.)

 

Imagine the common folk thinking, "He wants to take our photo!" I wonder if they ever received copies of their own photos. I hope so.

 

I'm a little surprised by the log cabins (2, 13, 16, 22, 24, 27 and 32) as I thought they were a central European phenomenon.

 

When I saw the man by the stream (29), I instantly thought it was a self-portrait.

 

Could that be a dog lying on the ground behind the cart (52)?

 

Vladimir commented on the website —

 

Prokudin-Gorskii is an amazing person. He was a very good educated chemistrist, he was the first in Russia who used three sinchronized cameras with RGB filters to tale color pictures. He built this device by himself. He applied to the tzar Nickolas II to travel across Russian empire to take pictures. Nickolas II provided to him the dedicated train car in which he traveled across Russian empire and took more than 3000 pictures. At that time it was unbelievable! After the bolshevic's revolution in 1917 he was able to escape Russia with all his achives. As I know the rest of his life he lived in France. After his death his relatives gifted all his archives to the United States. Now all works of Prokudin-Gorskii are in the library of Congress of the United States.

 

So, the color separation was some sort of synchronization problem?

 

The LOC should return these treasures to Russia and the other countries. We can make copies that are indistinguishable from the originals.

 

Tom also says —

 

Prokudin-Gorskii Collection - Go on line to Prokudin-Gorskii Collection and understand the wonderful work of a friend of mine, Walt Frankhauser, who took the three glass slides taken for each photograph and combined, them using present day computer technology, to produce these wonderful color photos. He now lives near Charlottesville, VA and did this work for the Library of Cngress a some years ago. Modern technology utilized by a creative scientist of today, combined with extraordinary talents of a photographer many years ago have given us these photos, Thanks to the talented work of Frankhauser, google him also!!

Edited June 16, 2013 by ewmon