Large Scale Central

Early 20th Century Color Photography

Model Photography
#1

This isn’t exactly model train photography, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

"That’s part of what makes the work of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky so fascinating. In the early 1900s, he developed a color photography technique.

Prokudin-Gorsky’s technique involved three exposures. Each exposure could take several seconds or more. The images were combined in a special process.

In 1909, Prokudin-Gorsky started work on his life’s project. He traveled Russia extensively for 10 years. He captured thousands of images documenting life in Russia.

Among his accomplishments is the only color photograph of Leo Tolstoy."

http://quazen.com/arts/photography/the-incredible-century-old-color-photography-of-prokudin-gorsky/

#2

Fascinating… the color and clarity are amazing.

#3

There is a train picture. The man was certainly leaps and bounds ahead of the other photographers of his day. Ralph

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/PG.jpg)

#4

Looks to be a broad gauge?

#5

The quality is amazing. What an artist!

#6

5 foot gauge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gauge

#7

Dear All,

Sharpness, vividness, etc…

My guess, the b/w process at the time gave sharp, long lasting images. That’s all these are… b/w photos (negatives) shot through color filters.

The color you are seeing looks fresh… because it is fresh !

The color is added by a proper filter, projected through the b/w image, then combined with the other 2 color projections to give the full color effect on a print or monitor display.

It’s possible that he used slightly different focus points for the three different color filters, (different wavelengths focus differently), but at the distances he shot, it may not have made a difference. (Note different focal pointer on old cameras for infra-red film use.)

Having his subjects sit/stand perfectly still through the whole process was probably more on his mind (for image sharpness) than minuscule focus changes.

Sure beats the bleached out color slide images my Dad took when we were growing up.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

#8
Joe Satnik said:
Sure beats the bleached out color slide images my Dad took when we were growing up.
I guess your dad didn't use Kodachrome, did he? Mine, either.
#9

The Library of congress maintains a much larger collection of Prokudin-Gorsky’s prints here http://memory.loc.gov/pp/prokhtml/prokabt.html

Joe

#10

Thank you, Joe. Over 2600 pictures. I found a few train pictures in the first 10-15 pages. There are more, I’m sure. I checked and republishing the pictures here is permited. Ralph

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/20246r.jpg)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/20338r.jpg)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/20458r.jpg)

#11

Don’t you wish old Gorsky had done some railfanning in the US? He could have settled much debate about colors of locomotives, cars and lettering that wage today because only B&W photographs exist.

Quite an interesting technique. I love the old magic lantern with three projection lenses.

#12

Very cool! Our first “scanner” back in the 80s was black and white video camera with green, red, and blue filters on a wheel in front of the lens, mounted on a light table. Never would have thought to do that with black and white film. It is a shame that his experimentations weren’t more widely known at the time.

Later,

K

#13

Thanks David, great article. I didn’t know such a thing existed. Very interesting.