150-year-old Advanced Photo Manipulation

This is an excellent thread. I didn't know photo manipulation went that far back. It is kind of disconcerting to think that every photo I look at can be manipulated to fit someone's agenda. I recently saw video of a woman using a cell phone in a film from 1928 here is the link technolog.msnbc.msn.com...
It did make me wonder.....

Originally posted by Classicsoul
This is an excellent thread. I didn't know photo manipulation went that far back. It is kind of disconcerting to think that every photo I look at can be manipulated to fit someone's agenda.

I agree, my favourite thread so far, thanks to the OP for posting this! It *is* disconcerting.

This is why I have trouble believing ghosts are found in pictures and that orbs are supernatural.

very cool nice post
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Great topic. I especially love the photo of Grant. The head comes from what is now a very, very famous photo of Grant and would probably be almost obvious to any modern Civil War buff or historian that something was wrong with the photo of him mounted on the horse. But I can imagine that in the day, when few probably even knew photo manipulation was possible that the picture would be taken at face value.

It should also be noted that many of Mathew Brady's legendary photographs of Civil War battlefields were to some degree often set up. He was known to have moved objects and bodies and placed them to improve composition - not strictly photo manipulation, but perhaps a slight manipulation of the truth.

Originally posted by LifeInDeath
It should also be noted that many of Mathew Brady's legendary photographs of Civil War battlefields were to some degree often set up. He was known to have moved objects and bodies and placed them to improve composition - not strictly photo manipulation, but perhaps a slight manipulation of the truth.

Indeed, in Fenton's "Valley of the Shadow of Death", he moved the cannonballs to get a lot more into the frame, thus making it look much more dramatic than it actually was.

archives.evergreen.edu...

Gustave Le Gray in the 1850s and 60s would take the sky from one shot and the foreground from another to make a more pleasing picture...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9fbe08025d65.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by otie1
really makes you wonder what kind of technology was available 100+ years ago that the majority of people dont even know of.

I believe they were called “scissors”. Surprised they haven’t caught on more widely…

I never new photo manipulation went back that far i had seen on fact or faked that it was done in the early 1900's but 150 years ago who knew. great post; very interesting

Back in the early 70's I worked as a darkroom technician in a major Boston photo lab. It was a great job, and helped me get through school. The owners father was from the then Soviet Union and was employed as an artist. The photo manipulation that this man could do was nothing more than amazing. He would get jobs to take people in and out of photo's or touch up really old photos and remove defects.

The work was usually done on a very high resolution copy of the original and when the work was complete, it would be photographed again with a huge copy camera.

I would then take these negatives into the darkroom and using vignette techniques on a Chromega enlarger, make them even better than the originals. It was quite amazing and I will never forget how talented this man was. It took a lot of very expensive photographic equipment to pull this off then. If he could see today, how it was being done digitally, he would be so impressed.

Originally posted by JoshNorton

Originally posted by otie1
really makes you wonder what kind of technology was available 100+ years ago that the majority of people dont even know of.

I believe they were called “scissors”. Surprised they haven’t caught on more widely…

Those same scissors worked well in the days when movies were edited that way. Hence, the term "on the cutting room floor".

Originally posted by JoshNorton

Originally posted by otie1
really makes you wonder what kind of technology was available 100+ years ago that the majority of people dont even know of.

I believe they were called “scissors”. Surprised they haven’t caught on more widely…

Those same scissors worked well in the days when movies were edited that way. Hence, the term "on the cutting room floor".

This is most interesting. I was also aware that photo manipulation is as old as photography, but it was nice to see some examples.

Thanks for this information.

J

Seeing this antique photo manipulation quickly brought the unforgettable images concerning the incident of the Charlie Chaplin "Time Traveler" to mind. Seeing abnormalities in antique footage and photographs can be quite alarming, particularly when it suggests some incongruity with our perception of technology and how it has advanced through time. I remember seeing the ATS thread awhile back speaking of Time Travel being impossible. Still, it is really interesting (or entertaining at the least) to analyze antique media with an open mind regarding what they knew about technology and the universe.

Here's the guy breaking down that footage from Chaplin's film "The Circus" featuring the woman talking on her "cell phone", if anyone wants a quick link to see it again. Seeing the abnormalities in these photos just brought it to mind.

Very interesting! Thanks for posting them.

wanted to add this ....another beautiful LIE.. from NASA ..

The Secrets Behind the Most Famous Earth Image of All Time