[SunSeeker]

Check out thes top quality images from the beginning of the last century.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8086.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8086.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/i...77__01069_.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8001.jpg

More available at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

I was impressed



[ 11-20-2001: Message edited by: SunSeeker ]

[funkboy]

Impressive!
I didn't read up on the technique used to make these color prints, but take a look at this picture:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-7001.jpg

What's with that water? That wouldn't be a compilation of the four different waters taken at different times with each separate color for the camera, would it? There's no transparency, which seems a little weird... but hey, maybe Russian water is "different"

[chris v]

Man, those are freakin' awesome! I'm an historical photography buff and I'd not heard of this guy. Are those the earliest existing true color photographs? It seems to me that color wasn't really in widespread use until at least the early forties.

Back to look some more,

CV

[LParrish]

Hi

There was a fantastic article in Pei Mag. (I believe) on the pohotographer
and the procedures used (in Photoshop) to restore them to what yu see today.

LParrish

[MikeM32]

Yeah It's pretty amazing when a person colorizes old photos. But it's incredibly done nonetheless.

You just have to wonder "how" the person who colorizes these "knows" what colors are "correct". I mean it's really interpretational. But nice work anyway.

Mike

[SunSeeker]

No Mike, these weren't colorised.
They are the actual recorded colours.
The process used was to take 3 identical photos without moving the camera. Each one records different density values by using red, green and blue filtration.

The result is 3 black and white negatives for each scene.
These can then be assembled in photoshop simply as red green and blue channels. This is exactly how film today works in actual fact with multiple black and white recording layers sensitive to different frequencies of light (filters are also employed to clip sensitivity to other colours).

The photographers who made images like these would project the images using a 3 projector setup to overlap filtered positives of the originals.

Because the photos linked to above were a fraction of a second apart, movement is recorded with a rainbow effect and shows up in water and smoke. This is known as the tricolour effect or tricolor filter effect.
If you have a reasonable quality manual digital camera you could try this out.

1. Find a scene with a fountain or water flow.
2. Fix the camera on a tripod.
3. Set the exposure to manual
4. Check your exposure is not over as the highlights are generally most important.
5. Take three identical pictures in succession, being careful not to jog the camera (this is important for alignment later).
6. Open the images in photoshop
7. Select 'channels' from the layers palette
8. Select the green channel and delete its content
9. Select the blue channel and delete its content (Don't delete the layer itself)
9. Select the next image and select 'channels' again
10. Select the green channel, select all and copy its contents
11. Close without saving and return to the first image and paste into the empty green channel
12. Repeat with the third image with the blue channel.
Done.

I think those photoshop steps should work, it's a long time since I last tried it and I don't have the opportunity to check right now.
Let me know

Edit: Misinformation regarding colour film due to lack of sleep

[ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: SunSeeker ]

[Demonhood]

even though it isn't real "colorizing", it is still pretty cool.

i think i smell a challenge coming on.....