indaco1
October 5th, 2008, 11:57 PM
I've already posted these pictures in the Italian forum (see http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=710684), but I think they are so amazing that's worth to show them to you, also.
At the beginning of the 20th century, somebody invented tecniques to produce color pictures that today, thanks digital processing allow to make a trip in the past, almost like a time machine.
One tecnique, called autochrome, was invented by Lumiere brothers and had a little of success (still much less than the other Lumiere invention...), so that is possible to find many pictures from all the world.
In a certain sense autochrome was based on dithering and pixels made of colored starch grains... More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochrome
But the most extraordinary tecnique was invented by a Russian, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. His tecnique, in modern terms, was based on the separation of color channels, taking a separate picture for any primary color.
In a certain sense it was similar to the approach of the modern Tecnhnicolor, but he take the single pictures in sequece instead of using a beam splitter to separate colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokudin-Gorskii
Between 1905 and 1915 Prokudin-Gorskii made a lot of color photograps of the russian empire just before the Russian Revolution, and also some from Italy during a travel.
He escaped in the west in 1918 taking some thousands of 3 color frames glass plates. He was not able to produce color prints in a pratical way and nobody else used this technique, after him.
After many years the glass plates have been purchased by the US Library of Congress where they have been scanned very recently, in 2001.
So the rediscover of these extraordinary pictures is a very recent matter, it's happening now.
Thanks modern tecniques, eg. using Photoshop, is very easy to process the pictures. Restoration and correction of distortions (that are different for any color channel) is less simple, but some are doing it.
And these are some examples of results. I repeat that they are REAL color photograps taken between 1905 and 1915:
Images from the travel in Italy:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00193.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00194.jpg
Lugano, Italian-speaking canton Ticino of Switzerland:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00215.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00220.jpg
Russian empire before revolution:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01181.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00341.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00455.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00548.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01739.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01863.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00246.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00052.jpg
All this images are from this site, by a graphic designer that probably had the best results in Prokudin-Gorskii pictures restoration:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/index.htm
Follow the link, all the pictures are beautiful, and I can't post all of them.
You can find much more stuff on the Library of Congress site.
Explanation of the tecnique to recorver pictures:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html
You can search the entire collection, they are online:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/prokquery.html
And some pictures from the LOC site:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8086.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87_8066__01861_.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87_7009__01476_.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8062.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-7047.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-4240.jpg
In the data base we found other pictures from the travel in Italy, not much restored:
Milan Cathedral
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/21600/21647v.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20212v.jpg
Venice
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20217v.jpg
We recognized this as a Monastry in Fiesole, very close to Florence:
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20213v.jpg
Capri
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20218v.jpg
As there are pictures from Fiesole and Capri maybe he also have been in Rome and Florence, doing a pretty "classic" tour in Italy.
Maybe he also made pictures of other European nations crossed during the travel... but I've not been able to find any of them. Maybe they have been lost during the escape from Russia or, hopefully, they still have to be scanned.
You can search the LOC data base and even attempt a restoration by yourself...
In the Italian forum thread we also posted many authocromes and other high quality pictures. As this post is long enough, I just post a couple of links:
Autochrome collection by George Eastman (the founder of Kodak), on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157606226772243/
You can find many ancient color pictures from the US, here.
Collection of color pictures by WWI
http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-color.html
Many extraordinary shots here, also.
Most of the autochromes are a little dark and opaque compared to Prokudin-Gorskii pictures, but some also are very good and vivid. Maybe a good restoration can improve them a lot, because after all the informations are stored on them even if colors are distorted and flattened perhaps they can be corrected.
At the beginning of the 20th century, somebody invented tecniques to produce color pictures that today, thanks digital processing allow to make a trip in the past, almost like a time machine.
One tecnique, called autochrome, was invented by Lumiere brothers and had a little of success (still much less than the other Lumiere invention...), so that is possible to find many pictures from all the world.
In a certain sense autochrome was based on dithering and pixels made of colored starch grains... More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochrome
But the most extraordinary tecnique was invented by a Russian, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. His tecnique, in modern terms, was based on the separation of color channels, taking a separate picture for any primary color.
In a certain sense it was similar to the approach of the modern Tecnhnicolor, but he take the single pictures in sequece instead of using a beam splitter to separate colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokudin-Gorskii
Between 1905 and 1915 Prokudin-Gorskii made a lot of color photograps of the russian empire just before the Russian Revolution, and also some from Italy during a travel.
He escaped in the west in 1918 taking some thousands of 3 color frames glass plates. He was not able to produce color prints in a pratical way and nobody else used this technique, after him.
After many years the glass plates have been purchased by the US Library of Congress where they have been scanned very recently, in 2001.
So the rediscover of these extraordinary pictures is a very recent matter, it's happening now.
Thanks modern tecniques, eg. using Photoshop, is very easy to process the pictures. Restoration and correction of distortions (that are different for any color channel) is less simple, but some are doing it.
And these are some examples of results. I repeat that they are REAL color photograps taken between 1905 and 1915:
Images from the travel in Italy:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00193.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00194.jpg
Lugano, Italian-speaking canton Ticino of Switzerland:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00215.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00220.jpg
Russian empire before revolution:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01181.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00341.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00455.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00548.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01739.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/01863.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00246.jpg
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/images/00052.jpg
All this images are from this site, by a graphic designer that probably had the best results in Prokudin-Gorskii pictures restoration:
http://www.gridenko.com/pg1/index.htm
Follow the link, all the pictures are beautiful, and I can't post all of them.
You can find much more stuff on the Library of Congress site.
Explanation of the tecnique to recorver pictures:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html
You can search the entire collection, they are online:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/prokquery.html
And some pictures from the LOC site:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8086.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87_8066__01861_.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87_7009__01476_.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-8062.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-7047.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/images/p87-4240.jpg
In the data base we found other pictures from the travel in Italy, not much restored:
Milan Cathedral
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/21600/21647v.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20212v.jpg
Venice
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20217v.jpg
We recognized this as a Monastry in Fiesole, very close to Florence:
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20213v.jpg
Capri
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/20200/20218v.jpg
As there are pictures from Fiesole and Capri maybe he also have been in Rome and Florence, doing a pretty "classic" tour in Italy.
Maybe he also made pictures of other European nations crossed during the travel... but I've not been able to find any of them. Maybe they have been lost during the escape from Russia or, hopefully, they still have to be scanned.
You can search the LOC data base and even attempt a restoration by yourself...
In the Italian forum thread we also posted many authocromes and other high quality pictures. As this post is long enough, I just post a couple of links:
Autochrome collection by George Eastman (the founder of Kodak), on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157606226772243/
You can find many ancient color pictures from the US, here.
Collection of color pictures by WWI
http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-color.html
Many extraordinary shots here, also.
Most of the autochromes are a little dark and opaque compared to Prokudin-Gorskii pictures, but some also are very good and vivid. Maybe a good restoration can improve them a lot, because after all the informations are stored on them even if colors are distorted and flattened perhaps they can be corrected.