[Photography] Amazing colorized glass slides of Japan from 100 years ago

[BillyBadAss]

I found this guys account on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/) where he found boxes full of old color glass slides of Japan from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. The photos are all by Enami Nobukuni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Enami)

The reason these photos are so amazing is the detail of them. Photos I have seen from back in that time period are usually **** and the detail was pretty poor. Also, people didn't really think much about composition, subject matter and planning the shot. This guy seemed to be really ahead of everyone. Anyway, here are some of his shots that stood out to me.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/2819980890_ac543ed006_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/2495357885_23a2d749c1_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3018/2522762363_dfcd6b7b73_o.jpg

[Jackal]

Holly crap those really are amazing. Great find BBA

[SleepyHe4d]

Wtf, I didn't know something like this existed. It's like going back in time.

How the hell did they manage to take color photographs that long ago? I didn't even know they had any way of capturing real life that far back besides painting. :eek:

[Jackal]

The first ever known picture was taken in 1826.

[BillyBadAss]

This guy had a team of people that would paint in the color on the glass slides.

[hal]

Is that... do I see Tom Cruise?

Hehe seriously, those are really cool.

[shadow_dragon]

Amazing stuff

[Manticore]

Very nice.

[Matfei]

That quality is amazing...

Way ahead of its time.

[UBerserker]

Really nice find here.

[Azura]

This one is truly amazing. Straight from a fairy tale.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/2351811408_9e66f12c29_b.jpg

[toniglandyl]

looks amazing for its time

[Big-Al]

look like something out of UT3

[Matfei]

The second one on OP is extremely cinematic.

[Zarniwoop]

Amazing.

[FaT CaM]

Second one looks straight from a movie, amazing. But really? A team of painters coloured the slides this accurately? Thats amazingly cool.

[dub]

Very nice find BBA

[shadow_dragon]

Second one looks straight from a movie, amazing. But really? A team of painters coloured the slides this accurately? Thats amazingly cool.

The first film to be made with color was called A Visit To The Seaside. It was 8 minutes long and made in 1908 so also 100 years old.

Colour photography is older than many think, i imagine it's because the amount of work and/or money involved in achieving it but the above photo's show it at it's finest. I think many professional photographers of today would be hard pushed to capture scenes as well.

I believe there are actually techniques to get colours out of old black and white photographs today aswell.

I wonder if people could pull off as good a job using a black and white(sepia) photograph and photoshop?

[sid]

BBA, the 2nd one and Azura, the one you posted are out of this world. :tup:

[Al]

Wow! Amazing!

[BillyBadAss]

There was a russian photographer I saw on Digg a couple days ago that had photos from the early 1900s in full color. He invented a camera that would take three photos in rapid succession using (I believe) red filter for the first shot, green for the 2nd, and blue for the 3rd. Then when they were put together and shown via projection of the slide the images were in full color. Pretty sweet. I should of posted that too, but I can't find it. :(

[Jacks:SmirkingRevenge]

I should of posted that too, but I can't find it.

Well you better! Or get more of these. Very cool stuff.

This guy really had an eye for photography while it was still so primitive.

[Dark Pulse]

This guy had a team of people that would paint in the color on the glass slides.It looked a bit painted and "flat." Still cool nonetheless.

How about real color photography from around that time, though?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mikhailovich_Prokudin-Gorskii

Some examples of his work, all taken between about 1900-1920 in Russia just before it became Soviet:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Prokudin-Gorskii-09-edit2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Prokudin-Gorskii-12.jpg(That is him in this picture)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Trinity_Monastery_in_Tiumen_%28Prokudin-Gorskii%29.png

[Plasmadaemon]

Feels weird looking at 100+ year old chromatic aberration! Makes you go all philosophical like.

[Kantham]

That is just incredible. I never thought someone managed to deal with such detailed quality pictures back then.
Oh and thanks to Dark Pulse for screenshot tagging 11 MB pictures! Very wise.

[TossMonkey]

Amazing stuff. :tup:

The majesty of the old world is definitely lost to our (frankly hideous) urban scrawl. What a shame indeed.

[Lizard Of Oz]

Awesome stuff BBA.

I know there are people who still do this today. I googled around a bit, but 95% of the stuff I found was about doing it in Photoshop.

[BillyBadAss]

It looked a bit painted and "flat." Still cool nonetheless.

How about real color photography from around that time, though?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mikhailovich_Prokudin-Gorskii

Some examples of his work, all taken between about 1900-1920 in Russia just before it became Soviet:

Ah! That's the guy. I found this website (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/) about his pics and some on Flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/danlin/tags/sergeimikhailovichprokudingorskii/):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/71722813_c8fc99bd57_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/35/71722600_6fcbdb0dc8_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/71722534_c83a45eca4_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/71722562_ab48f670ec_o.jpg

[Jacks:SmirkingRevenge]

Feels weird looking at 100+ year old chromatic aberration! Makes you go all philosophical like.

Just what I was thinking.

It almost seems fake because you're so used to seeing the world in black and white pre1900's. It's like color didn't exist, like everyone walking around in those times saw the same thing :lol:

[Vitamin-Carrot]

That is really cool