Russia: Incredible Color Pictures From A Century Ago

It's really incredible how these pictures looks like they almost could've been taken yesterday, but they're really a hundred years old. I believe this is the same color technique NASA spacecraft use. Hope you'll enjoy these extraordinary pictures which were taken between 1909 and 1912.

In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun.

Source: Russia in color, a century ago

Self-portrait on the Karolitskhali River, ca. 1910. Prokudin-Gorskii in suit and hat, seated on rock beside the Karolitskhali River, in the Caucasus Mountains near the seaport of Batumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/632153998e7f.jpg[/atsimg]

A chapel sits on the site where the city of Belozersk was founded in ancient times, photographed in 1909.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/faaa9ba851ef.jpg[/atsimg]

General view of the Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk in 1911.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6c313160400f.jpg[/atsimg]

These images have been scaled down, would recommend to check out the source URL.

[edit on 23/8/10 by Droogie]

Great post and find Droogie!

Amazing pictures! They hit home for me because many of them look a lot like the region that I live in, in terms of the mountains and trees.

S&F with thanks for posting!!!

Absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing.

Wow! Some eye opening images you've come across here Droogie!!

However, this is my favourite of them all.

Can you believe they're from 1910? Just 100 years ago...



Thanks for sharing them!

S&F

[edit on 23-8-2010 by Rising Against]

I'm glad you appreciate them! It's some astonishing pictures, and I really do have a hard time to fathom that these are over a hundred years old. And I have to say they show some real strikingly vivid and beautiful scenery.

Beautiful.

...now if only NASA would now do this to their Moon photos...

Wow!
That cathedral must have been quite a sight!
It's so vibrant and colorful... magnificent!
Thanks for sharing.

reply to post by Droogie


Russia technology was ahead of our time when it came to photographs Nice find. What a different time this was.

if you read the page very slowly it looks like this guy made some sort of clip viewer (like the old kind people use to have to bor you with there vacation photos.(((((((allowing them to later be recombined and >>projected with>>>>>>> filtered lanterns

Not only the colours in those pictures are amazing, but the fact that they are in such good condition after 100 years. Someone must've kept them somewhere safe and protected. I had no idea colour pictures were even possible at this time. Thanks a lot for sharing!

The quality of those photographs is insane, a century ago and I would swear they were taken with a camera no older than 2-4 years.

It makes me wonder how this technology didn't permeate any other countries, anyone ever seen any WW1 or 2 pics? sepia toned Black and white spring to mind?

Hell, I've got pictures of me from When I was a child (late 80's) and I would argue that the quality in those pictures bests my own easily.

Incredible.

EMM

Those pictures are amazing ! Almost looks like they were taken today

It´s almost hard to believe they are a hunderd years old, perhaps it´s the color, we are used to see that kind of old pictures in black and white

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow
Beautiful.

...now if only NASA would now do this to their Moon photos...

The funny thing is. The method for making these colour images is exactly what NASA and other space agencies do.

You take three B&W images that were photographed through three different filters (red, green and blue in the case of these photos) and put them together to get your colour image. NASA does the exact same thing, except they tend to use more infrared and ultraviolet filters.

Here is a site that talks about these 100 year old colour photos and how they were photographed and assembled.

P.S. If you want colour images from LRO, look for images from the wide angle camera (WAC) Here's one: lroc.sese.asu.edu...

Great pictures, I love looking at history especially when its good color like that.
S&F

Absolutely stunning, looks like they were taken today, such clear, crisp pictures, I like the idea of old and new architecture. Just beautiful.

Regards, Naeem

He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images.

I know people who did the something like this. Get some black and white images, then just paint the image on the computer. It looks then like it was taken so.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


You mention some interesting points, which deepens the appreciation for these pictures. It's fascinating how they are preserved so well, and I wasn't aware of such high quality pictures being available even in the 30's or 40's. That's due to my own ignorance though.

It's fun to marvel at something like this, and it really gives a whole new aspect on how the world looked back then.

Originally posted by Droogie
You mention some interesting points, which deepens the appreciation for these pictures. It's fascinating how they are preserved so well, and I wasn't aware of such high quality pictures being available even in the 30's or 40's. That's due to my own ignorance though.

Well, "true" color photography was definitely around in the 1930s -- just look at the amazing sharp and vibrant colors in movies such as Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz -- both made in 1939. Those movies were different than these images; those movies were made using color film.

As noted, this photographer used a different method rather than using "color film" -- the OP's pictures were taken using black-and-white film. The photographer took 3 black-and-white pictures through 3 different filters, then combined those black-and-white pictures (projected through color lenses) to make an "approximate" true color picture.



[edit on 8/23/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

Absolutely fantastic images. The colours and detail in some of them could make you think they were taken with a modern camera.

S&F for these pics.

S&F!

And a bump!

Awesome find!