Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => Resources => Resources - 20th Century => Topic started by: barbarian on 15 August 2013, 03:06:54 PM

Title: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: barbarian on 15 August 2013, 03:06:54 PM
Two sites :
http://fototelegraf.ru/?p=133324
http://fototelegraf.ru/?p=13401
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: ronan on 15 August 2013, 03:28:22 PM
Splendid !  8)
I noticed no one is smiling on the pics..
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: mollinary on 15 August 2013, 06:44:20 PM
Those are truly astonishing - I have seen nothing even distantly approaching that quality for that period.  Thank you for posting.

Mollinary
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 15 August 2013, 07:12:06 PM
Astonishing indeed....
I'd almost go so far as to say... too good for that era ? :-\ :-\ :-\
Cheers - Phil.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Ithoriel on 15 August 2013, 07:18:17 PM
... but good enough to remind me I have some Pendraken resin to get painting :)
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Steve J on 15 August 2013, 07:56:10 PM
Very useful indeed.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 15 August 2013, 08:14:38 PM
Well....

I've done a quick bit of investigating.....And it would appear these were taken by a pioneer of colour photography named Sergei Prokudin Gorskii.
Apparently these images have been enhanced thanks to modern technology....But are probably very true to life.....So they are a wonderful glimpse of times gone by.

Cheers - Phil.

Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Hertsblue on 16 August 2013, 08:30:46 AM
Outstanding images. Shame there's no translation.  :(
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Shedman on 16 August 2013, 09:39:03 AM
Excellent pictures

When I was doing my 10mm RJW project I found that googling in Cyrillic brought up loads more sites than using English. I used google translate to convert searches from English to Russian
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Fenton on 16 August 2013, 09:49:08 AM
Quote from: Shedman on 16 August 2013, 09:39:03 AM
Excellent pictures

When I was doing my 10mm RJW project I found that googling in Cyrillic brought up loads more sites than using English. I used google translate to convert searches from English to Russian

Good idea Hadn't thought of that
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: barbarian on 16 August 2013, 10:08:01 AM
If you google translate the pages, you can have info on the locations, and on the photographer.

He used 4 plates.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Leon on 16 August 2013, 04:34:42 PM
Quote from: Shedman on 16 August 2013, 09:39:03 AM
When I was doing my 10mm RJW project I found that googling in Cyrillic brought up loads more sites than using English. I used google translate to convert searches from English to Russian

That's a cracking idea.

Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Leman on 16 August 2013, 08:22:30 PM
Amazing photos and extremely useful for painting buildings. Another era that has gone with the wind.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: ronan on 17 August 2013, 06:03:05 AM
Quote from: Dour Puritan on 16 August 2013, 08:22:30 PM
(...). Another era that has gone with the wind.

yes. But even if I'm half Ukrainian ( and half Breton), I would not like to live in this time in these places.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 17 August 2013, 09:59:14 AM
I have just GOT to do some more investigating into these piccies...To suss out exactly how the photo's were done....and how much is down to digital enhancement.
Did the photographer use just one lens on the camera ?....How long did the people or landscape have to stay in  exactly the same position, if the chap was swapping plates ?...And for how long ?
Mind boggling to someone who used to think he knew lots about photography.

Cheers - Phil.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Hertsblue on 17 August 2013, 10:19:15 AM
Quote from: ronan on 17 August 2013, 06:03:05 AM
yes. But even if I'm half Ukrainian ( and half Breton), I would not like to live in this time in these places.

No, indeed. I suspect all those sunny places would be deep under snow come winter.  :(
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: ronan on 17 August 2013, 10:43:19 AM
Quote from: Techno on 17 August 2013, 09:59:14 AM
I have just GOT to do some more investigating into these piccies...To suss out exactly how the photo's were done....and how much is down to digital enhancement.
Did the photographer use just one lens on the camera ?....How long did the people or landscape have to stay in  exactly the same position, if the chap was swapping plates ?...And for how long ?
Mind boggling to someone who used to think he knew lots about photography.

Cheers - Phil.

That would be interesting.. keep us informed, please !
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Fenton on 17 August 2013, 10:49:56 AM
I know some of the french colour photos I have seen from the same period were done using 3 filters and 3 lens with red green and yellow, when combined this made the colour image

Found this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 17 August 2013, 12:10:09 PM
That's the man Fenton !

Ronan.....Yep...I will. ;)
It's driving me slightly round the bend trying to work out film speeds, exposure times, etc, etc......and the method 'SPG' had to actually employ to get these images. ;)
My 'gut' feeling is that what we're seeing, have had to be 'digitally enhanced' by a fair old amount.
Cheers - Phil


Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Fenton on 17 August 2013, 12:48:15 PM
I read on one of the sites tht they were mostly 3 second exposures
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Albie Bach on 17 August 2013, 01:11:20 PM
Fantastic pictures. Thanks for posting.
There's a load of info about the process in the link below, including a section on digital color rendering and a comparison with the original images towards the at the bottom of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky)

Cheers, Colin

EDIT - corrected word order
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 17 August 2013, 07:34:46 PM
I have problems with some of those images, unless they've really gone to town with the enhancement.

3 (or 4).....three second exposures.....plus the time to switch the plates around. (OK that bit's pretty quick with practice)....Lets say around 10 seconds absolute minimum ?
Clouds and water wouldn't be very sharp in an exposure of that sort of length.
More investigating to do ! ;) :)
Fascinating though.
Cheers - Phil.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Fenton on 17 August 2013, 07:48:08 PM
I found this info on how he did it

He accomplished this with a clever camera of his own design, which took three black and white photos of a scene in rapid sequence, each though a differently colored filter. His photographic plates were long and slender, capturing all three images onto the same plate, resulting in three monochrome images which each had certain color information filtered out.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: ronan on 17 August 2013, 07:57:37 PM
Quote from: Techno on 17 August 2013, 07:34:46 PM
Clouds and water wouldn't be very sharp in an exposure of that sort of length.

Nor the people.
Look at some ACW photos, for example.
But Fenton probably found the answer.
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 18 August 2013, 07:25:34 AM
Now it's starting to make a bit of sense !
Well found F

Looking at the one particular image on the wik-ip page which shows the 3 'negatives' and the finished 'result', I think it shows a bit more clearly what the undigitized (Is that a word ? :-\) composite image would have looked like.....So I imagine there has been a fair bit of tweaking.....Which has been done awesomely well.
Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Fenton on 18 August 2013, 07:29:20 AM
If you look at some of the French WW1 pic in colour they are quite sharp as well...Graham who really invented photography said such a proceedure was possible in 1855 but equipment available wasn't good enough at that time


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochrome_Lumi%C3%A8re
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Leman on 18 August 2013, 08:44:51 PM
I think the French pictures were done with potato starch or something like that. The zouaves look superb!
Title: Re: Russian color photos circa 1910
Post by: Techno on 18 August 2013, 09:06:57 PM
Fascinating !!
Cheers - Phil.