"ACW photos colourized" Topic

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Mildly interesting to me. I didn't know that Leonardo Dicaprio fought in the ACW but there he is right in the middle of Porter's staff.

Another interesting thing that is on that page is the mistake that the ACW was the first war photographed. I don't know why that mistake is still being repeated. We learned it in school, actually, which might go a long way to explain it. I always thought it was just because my 9th grade history teacher was crap.

These are very well done and seem more real than ever somehow.

Excellent pics.

Those are very fine.

The colour seems to bring more of the people out in photo to me.

Awesome! Love it! I'd like to see them all done this way!

It's the portrait shots that are the most striking.
Thanks, PS.

Very cool – the one with the three rebs really pops!

A great find.
Thanks for sharing;
Joe

Wow Amazing ! Burnside is very impressive.

Very interesting, thanks!

The article erroneously states that color photography didn't start until the 1930's. Color film was being used during the 1st World War, and hundreds of pictures exist and have recently been put online.

these aren't colorized or redone images, but pictures made with actual color film.

worldwaronecolorphotos.com

Cool link. The color does make the people seem so real. Out of curiosity what was the first war to be photographed?

The Crimean War was photographed fairly well 10 years before the ACW nearly. The first war to have any pictures taken during it was the Mexican-American War.

Pictors Studio, thanks again for the link and for teaching me something new :)

FWIW,

Here is a link to an entry (which features other links) of images of Napoleon's veterans wearing their unit's uniform. These were likely taken on 5 May (or thereabout) 1858. These men actually fought with napoleon's army and the links within the article take you to all 12 images and descriptive content.

Amazing to be able to gaze upon the image of a soldier who served with Napoleon, some 200 years ago.

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@ TKindred
I've seen these before but they're worth seeing again.
Even aged, there's something about these old devils that tells you not to mess with them.
Thanks.

I suppose the ACW was the first American war photographed. As every US schoolboy knows, what happened in other countries can't be very important.

The colors are, of course, only guesses, not always correct. For instance, in the portrait of Captain Cunningham, the sash over his shoulder was almost certainly crimson, not yellowish/buff. Only generals were supposed to wear buff sashes.

Excellent photos, thread, discussion etc.

Can't help thinking though that I am very happy with the photos in black and white. the Colour doesn't really add much to the pathos of the images espeically those three reb prisoners by the fence. The attitude and southerness is there regardless, pride and confidence in who they were.

The French who served with Napoleon are great images. Hopefully someone has a photo of a legionary who served with Varus….obviously later in his life when he was retired but still had his uniform.

I think the color adds a lot… The color made different details pop out… for instance the Lt. to the left of Col Childs is not wearing visible a shirt under his vest… and there is something about the color that makes them men in the image seem more like people and less like artifacts… allows me to relate to them more, I could see myself or people I know posing for a group photo like they did 150 years ago…

A real interesting set of colour pictures is the following:

"The photographs of Russian chemist and photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, show Russia on the eve of World War I and the coming of the revolution. From 1909-1912 and again in 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii travelled across the Russian Empire, documenting life, landscapes and the work of Russain people. His images were to be a photographic survey of the time. He travelled in a special train car transformed into a dark room to process his special process of creating color images……………

His technique was to take 3 pictures from the same spot & camera setting but with different filters each time. You then could recreate a full colour picture (This is essentially the same method as used in any colour picture method or in your digital camera). One nice thing is some of the pictures show military uniforms from 1900, which in the backwoods hadn't changed much over time. You can google his name or just "old russian colour pictures"

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I would love to see a book of colorized Civil War photographs! These really look fantastic!

You know, they don't really do anything for me. My eyes can just tell they are colorized B&W photos. Maybe in another 10 or 20 years when the technology improves. But right now, I'm not impressed.

Yes, not quite as bad as Ted Turner's colorized versions of old B&W movies, but still easy to tell.

"I didn't know that Leonardo Dicaprio fought in the ACW but there he is"

…and smoking a pipe! Reminds me of an old Twilight Zone (or some such) show about an ancient Egyptian who achieved immortality through magic/alchemy – he was found out because he kept showing up in old photos.

Anyway, I recall a hue and cry about Ted Turner's "sacrilege" and "vandalism" when he colorized B&W films. I suppose the same could be said of these pix. But regardless whether one likes them, I don't see the harm as long as the original prints aren't altered. No, they don't look like modern color photos but the added contrast does "pop" a lot of the detail that can be overlooked in B&W.

I prefer the colorized photo to be shown with the original photo. I agree that some detail is enhanced with the colorization. Seeing the new colorized photos has also really made me aware of how much I enjoy these old images.

No need to get feathers ruffled. From the article:

the Civil War was one of the first wars to be photographed

So no, they didn't say the ACW was the first.

The portraits of Burnside, Sherman and Lee are quite amazing.