# Incredible Color Photographs from 1915



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Linky.



> At first glance, the photograph above may look like something you'd see in a modern issue of National Geographic, but it was actually taken by Russian photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1915. That's right, the "process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different colored filter."
> 
> By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene.


Kewl.


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

Superb images. I wonder if these were from his original prints or if his original negs were used to create these on modern colour materials.


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## KC4 (Feb 2, 2009)

Those _are_ cool, thanks FeXL.


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## Guest (Feb 24, 2011)

That's pretty amazing, talk about innovation! I wonder how much retouching/reprocessing was done at scan time. Either way still super impressive. Talk about being ahead of the curve


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## Jurego (Feb 23, 2011)

I love seeing color photos from this time period. It's a real mind bend, because (for some reason) whenever you think of the past, it's all in black and white.


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

I pursued this a bit more. I'm still not sure exactly what images we're looking at, whether slides from the originals (of which some apparently are extant today) or prints made from the original glass negs (of which the Library of Congress apparently purchased a number of).

Prokudin-Gorsky was financed by Tsar Nicholas II & had special permits granted him to traverse the vastness of the USSR, including a train car converted to a darkroom.

OK, some further digging nets this:



> Prokudin-Gorsky captured thousands of images of which nearly all have survived. Many of the plates are in very good condition and in 2004 the Library of Congress commissioned many of these plates to be digitally enhanced to produce a final high quality image.


Apparently there has been some automation done with computers & software:



> Using computer-vision technology to automate the registration process, one can now for the first time view almost the entire collection of the Prokudin-Gorskii photographs in color. The color images on these pages were obtained by automatically registering these three pictures to obtain a color image of each scene. The computer program to do this was written in MATLAB by Frank Dellaert using computer-vision technology commonly used in 'mosaicking'. By clicking the links on this page you can view thumbnails of the almost 2000 images purchased by the Library of Congress, and each thumbnail is linked to a larger version of the corresponding color image.


Also a bit more history & more images with descriptions here, here (part 1) and here (part 2). 

The image of Leo Tolstoy is simply captivating. 

The image of Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara, in his blue attire, is stunning.

Just...wow...


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## kps (May 4, 2003)

Very cool. Saw this a while ago but couldn't remember where until you posted the Boston.com link and then it clicked.

The technique seems like the basis for the old dye transfer prints which no one can do anymore since Kodak stopped manufacturing the materials needed. True colours from that process, but that's no more.


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## Amiga2000HD (Jan 23, 2007)

kps said:


> Very cool. Saw this a while ago but couldn't remember where until you posted the Boston.com link and then it clicked.
> 
> The technique seems like the basis for the old dye transfer prints which no one can do anymore since Kodak stopped manufacturing the materials needed. True colours from that process, but that's no more.


Yeah, when I read the description of the process, the first thing that jumped out in my mind was how similar it is to the way the three colour Technicolor process worked to capture full colour movies even though this process came earlier than Technicolor's full colour process.


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## JCCanuck (Apr 17, 2005)

*Wow!*

I just can't stop looking at the photos and checking out the numerous links. It is literally like time travel. Thanks for the info.


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