Photo Interactive: The Civil War, Now in Living Color
How one author adds actual blues and grays to historic photographs
- By Ryan R. Reed
- Smithsonian.com, February 22, 2013
(Courtesy of Prints & Photographs, Library of Congress)
Talk about the application of photographs during the Civil War? What was the process?
They used various media to do it. Everything from ink to pastels to color crayons, anything that would impart some level of color to it. Usually the medium that was the most transparent [like watercolor] was the most effective, because they allowed the detail of the black-and-white photos underneath to actually show through.
From very early on, there was always an aim to try and colorize photographs to make them more real. The only option was to do some sort of hand colorizing. If you look at some of these old photos many of them are not very good but there are a few of them that are absolutely rather remarkable. When you realize the relatively small palette that these people had to deal with and the fact they had to do this all by hand it must have been an absolutely strenuous task to undertake at that time.
Comments (7)
There is no blood because the body had been moved and setup up for photographing. This is the same soldier that is portrayed in the Confederate Sniper Devil Den photo.
Posted by Christopher on April 29,2013 | 11:53 AM
Fantastic job! They look like they could have been taken yesterday. Really brings the period to life.
Posted by Jim Bonnett on March 2,2013 | 12:11 PM
I totally agree with Ms. Hummel.
Posted by Terry Brasko on February 27,2013 | 08:04 AM
As a civil war enthusiast and professional artist, I'm immensely disappointed with these- and with the fact that the Smithsonian is highlighting the work. I appreciate the philosophy behind the colorized photos and the amount of work that must have gone into this book, but the efforts are regrettable by industry standards. Colorizing black and white photos is a tedious process, yes, but it requires an intimate knowledge of the subtlety of color that Guntzelman clearly isn't employing. There's no account for light temperature, for colour variation in any of the subjects- you can't just jump into Photoshop and set a green layer to "color" and expect those trees to look realistic. Real colour is far more subtle than what he's achieved, and these just end up looking like poor Victorian colorizations than anything like true, colour photography. Love the idea and I ABSOLUTELY commend the author for his efforts, but I feel like a man with cinematography and difecting credits should have a better eye for something beyond local color. -Claire Hummel
Posted by Claire Hummel on February 25,2013 | 05:21 PM
Truly amazing! Thank you.
Posted by Mari on February 24,2013 | 09:50 PM
Absolutely incredible...
Posted by Kathy P on February 24,2013 | 11:34 AM
as a history and civil war fan, these are just great for a true feeling of the war and the people of that time frame, would be excited to see more and think would help us get a better idea of the scope and depth of the battlefields,people and clothes of this era's great man and woman
Posted by john griffith on February 22,2013 | 03:12 PM