early colour photography

[Mike Willis]

Hi all,

It's been a while...I've kept up following the forum and now that soccer is over for another year, time to dust of the workbench and get something happening!

I came across a collection of photos I found very striking. Hoping they are of some interest to members here...

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/0 ... y_ago.html

Cheers,

Mike

[Lowtone]

Very colorful

http://www.gabrielveyre-collection.org/salle_05/
Photographs of Gabriel Veyre, in Morocco.

[Klaas Robers]

Impressive, the colour photographs of 100 year ago. Even the children that we see have grown old and died already years ago.

It is seen and explained that the photos were taken frame sequential on glass black and white negatives, one picture through a red piece of glass, one through a green glass and one blue. These negative will have been recovered, scanned in and some hours of photoshopping does the rest. Marvellous colours have been recovered. We see that all water in rivers and lakes are waveless because of the long exposure times and coloured because waves will not stand still for minutes. The photographed people are all at rest, no action could be taken.

But now I wonder how this man that made the photographs, displayed and judged his results. I can't believe that he only took the pictures, he should have had some way of projecting or looking at his colourfull photographs. Otherwise you won't take the effort as to make so many pictures this cumbersome way. Anybody that has an idea about this?

[Lowtone]

maybe with coloured filters in front of the picture.

[dominicbeesley]

I'd guessed three side-by-side projectors at a fair distance from the screen, after all no expense spared if the Tsar is paying....

Dom

[Klaas Robers]

The webside indeed says something of projecting the three pictures. That will say:
1. make positive slides of the negatives, contact printing I think, so large glass slides,
2. make three projectors for these large slides, not so easy, large lenses are needed,
3. carefull allignment of the projectors is needed,
4. in some way the key stone distortion should have been compensated,
5. carefull allignment of the slides is needed for each picture, to get correct registration.

I fear that no easy watching has been possible until the time of computers and Photoshop. Almost just like Nipkow disc TV has been waiting for ultra bright LEDs, servo technology and CD-R.