100 year old colour photographs - Amazing, but ...

[freeranger]

I think the BBC journalist who wrote the caption for slide number 5 in this series from The Prokudi Gorskii Collection must be about 16 years old:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-17449958

[randolph45]

Amazing photos

[nikon_sam]

It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints.

Wow...now I know what I'm doing wrong...
Guess I'll stick to B&W...

[mfunnell]

Originally Posted by The BBC in all it's Glory

It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints.

I'm glad we have the BBC to tell us that! I might have thought otherwise if I'd relied on my personal observations.

Good photos, though. What a pity no sharp version of them they could be printed ('til now)

...Mike

[FrozenInTime]

Those early techniques will become very relevant again on May 10th when Leica introduces a color wheel accessory for the new M10 B&W camera

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by freeranger

I think the BBC journalist who wrote the caption for slide number 5 in this series from The Prokudi Gorskii Collection must be about 16 years old:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-17449958

It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints.

Ha!. I would have thought that the writer of the caption is 16 years old. I remember having "sharp" colo(u)r prints back in the 1980s! Sure, there were some pretty "unsharp" shots, but those were from the so-called "non-35mm" cameras such as the Disc and 110 cameras.

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by FrozenInTime

Those early techniques will become very relevant again on May 10th when Leica introduces a color wheel accessory for the new M10 B&W camera

Of course, this is all about Leica!

[maggieo]

I think there's been a misunderstanding of "It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints." I believe the writer was referring specifically to the photographs in the set, each of which were made on three separate glass plates (not unlike, I would guess, the three-strip Technicolor motion picture process) and it was only with the advent of digital scanners and layering that the previously separate monochrome glass plates could be combined to make what we would think of as a conventional color photograph.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by maggieo

I think there's been a misunderstanding of "It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints." I believe the writer was referring specifically to the photographs in the set, each of which were made on three separate glass plates (not unlike, I would guess, the three-strip Technicolor motion picture process) and it was only with the advent of digital scanners and layering that the previously separate monochrome glass plates could be combined to make what we would think of as a conventional color photograph.

That's certainly the way it reads to me.

[FrozenInTime]

The originals plates were intended for projection.
I guess contemorary autochromes could have been made but probably never were.

The never before possible quote seems to have been lifted from here http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dellaert/aligned/

[lynnb]

Thanks for the reminder! I've seen these before.. larger size pictures (and some higher-res) were featured in Boston.com in August 2010:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...ntury_ago.html
- worth a look!

[mfunnell]

Originally Posted by maggieo

I believe the writer was referring specifically to the photographs in the set

That may be so, in which case a "directly from these plates" (or similar) might have been nice.

...Mike

[VinceC]

From the context the caption writer very clearly is refering only to these specific images, not photography as a whoile.

[Mr_Flibble]

I really like Prokudin-Gorskii's work:

The Empire that was Russia

[Spicy]

Originally Posted by lynnb

Thanks for the reminder! I've seen these before.. larger size pictures (and some higher-res) were featured in Boston.com in August 2010:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...ntury_ago.html
- worth a look!

Yeah, this was a much better collection (many more shots, higher res, etc)

I recall it being posted here a while back (couple months?).

Very impressive stuff indeed.

[john_s]

There was an article about the print making from these sets of negatives in Photo Techniques a few years ago. Apparently the registration was not good enough for printing so the images had to be "stretched" a little relative to one another (digitally) to get reasonable registration. Not always possible if there was some movement in the scene between the three exposures.

[Gabriel M.A.]

He took his pictures on large glass plates. Each image was caught three times - with red, blue and green filters. Projected together, the triple image appeared in full colour. It was only after the advent of digital photography, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints.

I guess the writer could have been less ambiguous:

He took his pictures on large glass plates. Each image was caught three times - with red, blue and green filters. Projected together, the triple image appeared in full colour. It was only after the advent of digital post-processing, however, that it became possible to create sharp colour prints from these plates.

"The advent of digital photography" immediately recalls "digital photography", not the oft-neglected aspect by the masses, "digital post-processing". Given that this is an article for...oh, never mind

[benlees]

Originally Posted by lynnb

Thanks for the reminder! I've seen these before.. larger size pictures (and some higher-res) were featured in Boston.com in August 2010:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...ntury_ago.html
- worth a look!

Thanks for posting the link. I knew I had seen those before but couldn't remember where or when!

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by john_s

There was an article about the print making from these sets of negatives in Photo Techniques a few years ago. Apparently the registration was not good enough for printing so the images had to be "stretched" a little relative to one another (digitally) to get reasonable registration. Not always possible if there was some movement in the scene between the three exposures.

That certainly explains the "fringing" effect seen on some of the shots. I'm actually surprised that the shot with the children came out reasonably well. I can't imagine the patience of both the photographer and subjects with this setup! This more or less shows why most photographic advances become accepted as general once they are applied to sports.

[starless]

These look better than a lot of digital pictures I've seen 100 years later.

[whitecat]

Fantastic links, thanks.

[Sparrow]

Digital eh? ... that settles it then, glass-plates are dead

[j j]

I heard on RFF that glass plates are not dead.

[John Lawrence]

Originally Posted by freeranger

I think the BBC journalist who wrote the caption for slide number 5 in this series from The Prokudi Gorskii Collection must be about 16 years old:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-17449958

Everyone at the BBC is 16 years old.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/me...s-2182233.html

John

[zwarte_kat]

Thanks for this link, I found it really interesting. Also the boston.com one. Amazing pictures! They make me want to try large format :0