Some of History’s Most Exciting Images Transformed Into Living Color

When you think of iconic images in history, the chances are good that you probably think of photos like Joe Rosenthal's image of American troops raising the flag on Iwo Jima (shown above) or Malcolm Browne's photo of a monk setting himself on fire in Vietnam or Marilyn Monroe's famous pose over a subway grate. Learn more about when were cameras invented on our website PhotographyTalk.com.

These images - and many more - captured moments that are emblazoned in our collective memory.

But these images were also originally captured in black and white.

“Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.” Photographed on February 19th, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal, courtesy of Associated Press.

Now, these photos are presented in living color in a new book Retrographic (now available on Amazon) a labor of love by 38-year-old author and journalist Michael D. Carroll of Birmingham, England.

By carefully selecting some of the most striking images ever taken, Carroll's Retrographic takes you on a visual tour of the past, time capsules collected together for the first time and in living color.

This is the story of how this incredible book came to be.

The Motivation Behind Retrographic

The purpose of the book is to present historical images - and history itself - in a way that's accessible to the widest possible audience.

Presenting these images in color and in the context of the stories behind the moments captured on camera allows people young and old to experience history like never before. You can also view another post about photo timeline here.

The brainchild of Michael D. Carroll, Retrographic came about as he researched stories from the past. During his research, he happened upon an online community of image colorizers - some amateur and some professional - who brought new life to even the most famous black and white images.

Video by Retrographic/ Carpet Bombing Culture

These colorists show the utmost respect for the original images as well as the photographers who captured them. Additionally, they demonstrate sympathy for the subjects in the images.

Beyond that, these colorizers spent countless hours dedicated to researching the authentic colors that the original photographers would have likely seen when the moment occurred.

In that regard, Retrographic is a team effort to bring history to life in a new and colorful way. That includes not just the words of Carroll but the tireless work of the colorizers - spearheaded by Doug Banks via the Facebook page Colorizing History.

Selecting the Images

Not in our name: the anti-war image is born in the moment this badly burned girl cries out in pain. “Napalm Girl” Phan Thi Kim Phuc. Photographed by Nick Ut outside Trang Bang Village, Vietnam, June 8th, 1972, courtesy of the Associated Press (AP).

Naturally, Carroll and the team of colorizers couldn't incorporate every image that spoke to them into the book. Otherwise, it would have been an anthology of thousands of images.

Instead, the focus was turned to well-known and iconic images (120 of them in total) that have the power to capture people's attention and speak directly to them by virtue of what's already known about the event in the photograph. Also, check when was photography invented.

Over a period of years, Carroll curated a collection of images about important historical themes that still influence us to this day.

That includes images of the First and Second World Wars, women's rights, the Civil Rights movement, colonialism and indigenous peoples, popular culture, and the rise of fascism and communism, icons of the 1950s and 1960s, and Hollywood, just to name a few.

Photographed by Nick Ut outside Trang Bang Village, Vietnam, June 8th, 1972, courtesy of the Associated Press (AP). Colorized by Matt Loughrey.

Of course, it's not just a matter of grabbing these photos off the internet.

Instead, Carroll spent about half his time putting the book together over a 12-month period simply getting permission to use the images.

Not wanting to infringe on any copyrights, Carroll and his team had to ensure that all the original images were either in the public domain or used with permission. 

As Carroll notes, "Images like these are important as they make up a huge part of our psychological impression of the past, even if we are not necessarily aware of the exact circumstances under which they were taken."

Colorizing a Photo Changes Its Dynamic

THE FAB-PAW: Two very different worlds collide - just as they are about to become global mega-stars. “The day Ali met the Beatles” from left to right Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Cassius Clay. Photographed on February 18th, 1964 at Miami Beach, Florida, USA, courtesy of the Associated Press (AP).

Colorizing a photo isn't just a simple process of painting color onto them in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Instead, image colorizers have a strong connection to the original photo because they spend days on end working on getting every last detail of the image correct for the color version.

It's a huge investment of time and requires incredible attention to detail. That connection helps colorizers create a bridge to the past with their color versions. After all, our eyes evolved to see color, so adding color to these iconic images helps people better understand what they might have seen themselves had they been there in that moment when the photo was taken. Learn more about evolution of photography on our website PhotographyTalk.com.

Photographed on February 18th, 1964 at Miami Beach, Florida, USA, courtesy of the Associated Press (AP). Colorized by Matt Loughrey.

And though some people say that colorizing an iconic photo removes some of its original emotional connection, Carroll has a rebuttal:

"There is a tendency for people of the present to look back at history in black and white, which can be highly aesthetic in that black and white makes the subject look pleasing to many people. However, black and white can make the viewer feel detached from the subject. We hope that adding color breathes life into historical images and reconnects people to those who went before and helps us to understand and empathize with them."

Colorizing is a Long and Technical Process

Non-violent protest is taken to its most extreme level by this monk who burned himself to death. “Vietnam Monk Protest” Thic Quang Duc. Photographed by Malcolm Browne in Saigon, Vietnam on June 11th, 1963, image courtesy of the Associated Press (AP).

The process of colorizing an image begins with selecting the desired image and then researching what colors would be authentic to an image of that time period.

Adding the colors usually occurs in Photoshop, and is carried out much like a traditional artist might paint on a canvas.

Though it sounds simple enough on the surface, consider this: colorizers must find the correct colors that match the daylight, the season, the location, and the history of the moment as well.

Photographed by Malcolm Browne in Saigon, Vietnam on June 11th, 1963, image courtesy of the Associated Press (AP). Colorized by Matt Loughrey.

Once in Photoshop, colorizers paint colors onto the digital black and white image.

Colors are added on different layers, typically starting with the skin of the subjects, then the foreground, and then working to the background.

The depth of field of the image is a critical consideration in the process, given that colorization can help magnify the composition of the image.

Watergate: The leader of the free world is forced to resign amid the most notorious political controversy in history. “Richard Nixon Farewell." Photographed by Bob Daugherty outside the White House, Washington, DC, on August 9th, 1974.

In terms of the best images to work with, many colorists like glass plate images from the first part of the 20th Century because of the large size of the glass and the long exposures required to get the shot. That resulted in highly detailed images with excellent depth of field.

Interestingly, image colorists report that skin tones of people in the images they colorize have very little difference regarding the Photoshop color setting.

For example, a man with fair, white skin will have his skin painted using much the same color as a woman with dark, black skin.

The original tone of the black and white images make their skin look different in the subsequent color photo. In that regard, "skin tone" rather than "skin color" is a more accurate description of the different appearance of skin.

Photographed by Bob Daugherty outside the White House, Washington, DC, on August 9th, 1974. Colorized by Matt Loughrey.

When choosing colors for other features, like the eyes, it can be a straightforward or difficult process.

For example, when colorizing the photo of Rasputin, the Mad Monk of the Romanov Tsar's Court, it's known that his eyes were blue, so choosing the appropriate color is a no-brainer.

However, there is a need to match the colors in the light that was available in the scene in which the image was taken, so additional time would be needed to ensure they had the correct tone.

A gust of wind allows us to view Hollywood’s most celebrated actress in her most iconic pose. “Marilyn Monroe poses over the updraft of New York subway grating while in character for the filming of "The Seven Year Itch" in Manhattan on September 15, 1954.” Photographed by Matty Zimmerman.

On the other hand, if colorization is being done on an image of a World War II Sherman Tank of the British Eighth Army when it was deployed in North Africa in 1941, researchers would have to consult regimental records to identify the precise colors of the insignia on the tank because each insignia means something different.

Photographed by Matty Zimmerman. Colorized by Matt Loughrey.

Some colorists like Tom Marshall of Photografix take an approach much like a historian, spending most of his time looking into historical documents and interviewing people that were there when the photo was taken.

Other colorists like Matt Loughrey of MyColorfulPast use a digital approach - he created an algorithm which reads the tonality of the colors in the original image and creates a color pallet that can be used as a guide. For example, if his algorithm was used to analyze a black and white photo of a sports car, it could verify which color the car would have originally been.

To say that the process of colorizing an image is an interesting one would be the understatement of the century!

Learning to Colorize Images

By the beginning of the Twentieth Century the crossroads of the world is born. “Number One Times Square under construction 1903.” Photographer unknown.

If seeing these amazing photo transformations and learning about the process of how they were created has whet your appetite for colorizing photos, Carroll has some sage advice.

"My advice would be jump on Facebook and like or follow a few of the excellent groups that are out there." He continues, "Some of the best talents in this field are members or administrators of these groups and regularly contribute images and share ideas, techniques, inspire, and advise each other in a supportive environment."

Photographer unknown. Colorized by Patty Allison.

Of course, getting a copy of Retrographic should be high on your list as well.

With a forward by the Royal Photography Society Ambassador Jeff Vickers, MBE, Hons RPS, Fenton Medal, Retrographic is littered with informative gems and a powerful narrative that bounces themes of conflict, exploration, progress, regression, culture, and hope across the age of the image.

In other words, this book is a celebration of humankind's most impactful medium, photography.

About the Author

Author Michael D. Carroll

Michael D. Carroll is the director of Britain’s most exciting press agency, Media Drum World. From the agency’s newsroom in Birmingham, England, he manages a team of staff journalists specializing in the curation of offbeat digital content, particularly historical photography, for national newspapers and international media outlets. He lives with his wife and two daughters.

You can learn more about Michael and Retrographic by visiting the book's Facebook page. You can also purchase Retrographic on Amazon.

This post about the topic "Some of History’s Most Exciting Images Transformed Into Living Color" was first published on our website here https://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/8060-some-of-history-s-most-exciting-images-transformed-into-living-color

The camera timeline-A short history of the tools of our trade

Photography is almost two hundred years old. The history of the camera however, dates back long before the first photographs were ever developed. The evolution of the modern camera began with the camera obsucra principle and continued a long path of change that included landmarks such as the daguerreotype, calotypes, dry plates, film and finally, digital imaging. Here is a quick look at how things evolved before our cameras got so advanced.

The camera obscura

The earliest stages of the development of the camera obscura took place in ancient China and Greece. The camera principle basically consists of a device that uses a pinhole, or a lens to project a scene upside down onto a viewing surface. Before the discovery of the actual photographic process, the only way to record what the camera saw was to manually trace everything. Early cameras where the size of rooms and could fit people inside. In 1685, Johann Zahn envisioned a more portable device for the process; however, it would take another 150 years before it would be applied in real life.

Fixing the images

In 1816, a breakthrough came from the French inventor Niecephore Niepce. He coated a piece of paper with silver chloride which darkened when it was exposed to light. The first permanent photograph was made by Niepce in 1826. He then coated a pewter plate with bitumen and exposed it. Bitumen hardens when struck by light. The photograph survives to this day.

Daguerreotypes

This was the world’s first practical method for photographing. It was invented by Louis Daguerre who partnered up with Niepce. The later unfortunately died before he could see the project completed. The process would probably be considered highly toxic by today’s standards. Daguerre used a copper plate which he coated with silver and made sensitive to light with iodine vapor. The developing was done with mercury vapor and the fixing via sodium chloride, also known as regular salt.

Daguerreotype camera. Photo source: Camerapedia

The dry plate

In 1871, Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate. For the first time, the wet plate would be rivaled in terms of quality and speed of operation. It was also the first time in history that camera sizes were reduced enough to enable hand held use. You can also view post about the history of photography. 

There was also significant progress in the use of shorter exposure times. The innovation that gave birth to these new possibilities was the mechanical shutter. Early models were individual pieces detached from the cameras. The built-in shutter first emerged at the beginning the 20th century.

Enter the photographic film

In 1885, pioneer George Eastman began making paper film and he did so until 1889 when progress taught him celluloid was better. The world’s first Kodak camera started selling in 1888. It was a rudimentary box with a fixed focal lens and a single shutter speed, but it had a good price tag and thus became attractive for ordinary users. The film was preloaded into the camera and enabled no less than 100 exposures. Of course, after you exposed the film you had to return it to the factory for developing. The famous Brownie model came out in 1900. It was the camera that gave the concept of snapshot. In fact, it became so popular that it was available for buying until sometime in the early 60s. You can also view photo timeline here.

Kodak Brownie

Although George Eastman was making history with his portable and affordable cameras, the choice of professionals was still the plate cameras, largely due to superior image quality. Film cameras offered the advantage of multiple exposures and to compete with that, plate camera manufacturers started supplying magazines that would hold several.

The 35 mm film, otherwise known as the Leica format

Oskar Barnack, the man responsible for development at the Leitz Company, wanted to know how useful 35 mm cine film would be for still photography. He also wanted to build a compact camera capable of offering high quality prints. He built this camera, called prototype Ur- Leica, in 1913. Further development was stalled however by the outbreak of WWI. Testing resumed after the war and between 1923-1924, enough positive feedback was received that the company decided to mass produce the Leica I ( for Leitz camera). Because it became an immensely popular camera, competition started to emerge from the likes of Contax and other German manufacturers. The immediate result was an increase in quality of the cameras and the consolidation of the format.

Kodak entered the 35 mm game in 1934, with the introduction of the Retina I. It was the camera that introduced the 135 cartridge used in all modern film cameras. The Retina was inexpensive, but it took a while before the choice of the people would change from roll film to 35 mm. All that would change in 1939 when the Argus C3 hit the market.

Argus C3. Photo: camera-wiki

It was still not the cheapest camera one could buy, but it put the 35 mm format in top position. The C3 had a long, thriving career until it was finally discontinued in 1966.

The SLR

The first single lens reflex camera that was actually practical was the Ihagee Exacta, which was introduced in 1933 and used 127 roll film

The transition to the 35mm format happened six years later when the Kine Exakta came out. The design of these cameras quickly became popular because they were compact and relatively easy to use. After the Second World War, camera manufacturers massively focused their production on 35 mm SLRs. The first Japanese model was the Asahi (later changed to Pentax) Asahiflex. The rest soon followed and the world massively started enjoying quality cameras from Nikon, Canon and Yashica.

Autofocus and auto-exposure

In 1960, the German Mec 16SB became the first camera to use a light meter for accurate measuring. The more advanced, through the lens system ( TTL) was first used on a SLR by the Japanese company Topcon in 1962, on their model RE Super.

The word’s first mass produced camera to use autofocus was the simple, compact Konica C35AF introduced in 1977. The Polaroid SX-70 OneStep was the first SLR to incorporate autofocus.

The digital revolution

The idea of digital photography goes back to the late 60s. However, the first recorded attempt to build a digital camera was in 1975 and belonged to Kodak engineer Steven Sasson. The camera he designed had a CCD sensor, weighed 8 pounds, and recorded 0,01 megapixel images on compact cassette tapes. This was the first sign that film would eventually be replaced, but of course at that time everybody ignored it, especially since this was only an experiment that wasn’t designed for mass production. You can also check post about when were photos invented.

Fast forward to 1988, when Fuji produced the first, true, digital camera, the DS-1P which recorded on an internal 16MB memory card. It was never sold in the US and there is also insufficient proof that it was available in Japan. The first commercially available camera came out two years later and was called the Logitech Fotoman. It had a CCD sensor, digital storage and could connect directly to a computer.

The development of the JPG format helped the transition from traditional, physical photography to digital capture and storage.

In the professional market, Kodak broke the ice with the DCS-100. It was a gigantic storage unit that had a 1, 3 megapixel sensor and at that time was priced at $13,000.

The first, real, fully developed by one company DSLR in the world was the Nikon D1, introduced in 1999.

It has the standard F-mount, a 2,7mpx sensor and it changed the world of professional photography forever. Of course, now you get 4 times that resolution with your smartphone.

This article about "The camera timeline-A short history of the tools of our trade" was first published on our website here https://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/3079-the-camera-timeline-a-short-history-of-the-tools-of-our-trade

7 Simple Photography Hacks You Try At Home

It's no secret to anyone that photography is an expensive activity. The basic cost of a camera and a lens will set you back a few hundred dollars if you're a beginner , but if you're a little more serious you could put some pretty big holes in your budget.

Any you will soon find that the party really starts after you buy a camera. There's tons of useful stuff out there, but it all costs money. So what about DIY stuff? Well, the unfortunate truth is that not all of us are good at it. Quite frankly, I suck at putting things together with my own hands. But I found this cool video from photographer Leo Rosas and the folks at COOPHthat was very helpful and I believe it will be for other photographers too. You can also check another post about photography at home on our website PhotographyTalk.com.

I often struggle with the inability to carry a tripod with me all the time, so when I found out I can solve that problem with a simple string, I had to see for myself. I put it to the test and the truth is you do need to use the string a few times to get used to it, but after some practice it works almost as good as an actual aluminum tripod.

You also probably never thought about shaping the bokeh of your lens. Well, it's a whole lot easier than you think. And so is crafting your own flash diffuser, but don't let me spoil the surprise. Enjoy the video and start crafting!

Check out more cool hacks from these books:
The Wild Side of Photography: Unconventional and Creative Techniques for the Courageous Photographer
Digital Photography Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips & Tools

Image Credit: Photographs by Leo Rosas and provided by COOPH and used with permission.

This article about "7 Simple Photography Hacks You Try At Home" was first published on our website here https://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/4870-7-simple-photography-hacks-you-try-at-home