fetzler Loc: North West PA

The prints are dye transfer prints or digital recreations. It requires R,G and B filters to make 3 B&W negatives. I made a few such prints a long time ago and they are indeed superb. The process is similar to Technicolor used in movies. Autochrome is another early color process for color transparencies. While autochromes are not as good as these photos they are still very interesting.

I have been familiar with these Russian photos for several years.

bonjac Loc: Santa Ynez, CA 93460

Absolutely agree.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

The big difference is available film/shutter speeds back then. Notice how smooth the water is in those photos.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

Very nice. "Beginning in 1910 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii used color photography to document the Russian Empire. He made black-and-white exposures with red, green and blue filters, then combined those images in the laboratory to create a color image." Notice that people don't smile? Why? People can't hold a smile as long as it took to take the set of photos, but they can stay still adequately.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

I can’t believe the quality of the photography. Awesome presentation. Thanks

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

Unbelievable and great presentation. Hard to believe these are from 100+ years ago. Better than most photos of today and matches many of those shown here on UHH. Mahalo for sharing.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Russia..! Russia..! Russia..! Actually all very well done and a fantastic job of colorization of the old photos.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Seriously cool!! Thanks for posting! Incredible that he took 3 shots with different filters to create the color photographs. Way ahead of his time!

fantom Loc: Colorado

Great thanks

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

Actually, color photography was invented by the Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. In the 1899s, various systems were invented and most involved the use of the humble potato. French brothers by the name Lumiere presented their plate at the French Acadamy of Science in 1904. They called it the Autochrome and produced it commercially in 1907. They were quite clever in realizing the filter screen and emulsion could be combined on the same glass plate. Our beloved Kodachrome was invented by two musicians in the early 1920s. Dr. Mees at Kodak meet with them and thought they were onto something. Mees provided them with material to continue their experiments. About 1931, the joined Kodak and progress was more rapid. The first Kodachrome was sold in early 1935 for movie cameras and a year later was available for photographic cameras. The same year, 1936, Agfa offered color film. Following the French, they first sold color plates in 1916. I expect the Russian photographer was using the French plates. From old color photographs I saw at the Eastman House in Rochester, these images seem to have been color enhanced. Reds were the difficult color to capture and the is a 1907 image with a vivid red sash. Not likely. Nevertheless, his composition was outstanding and told a story in each.

smf85 Loc: Freeport, IL

That’s the beauty (and the pain) of separate B&W RGB images - you can use more modern technology to improve the color of the originals - its all there. More than that, film back then was insensitive to red but highly sensitive to blue (thats one of the issues with early color film, the bias towards blue was still there). When you use multiple filters you can adjust the exposure of each color band for the film’s (lack of) sensitivities. Technicolor (1916) works this way also with separate RGB images. Shutterbug has some examples of color images from a monochrome camera with separate RGB filters. It’s still the most accurate color available.

Technicolor process:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor#Two-color_Technicolor

Shutterbug’s article on creating a color image from a filtered monochrome camera.
https://www.shutterbug.com/content/getting-black-and-white-color-how-use-color-filters-create-monochrome-images

AlanD Loc: TC, MN

Well, I start again... In the early 1990's when the internet was becoming a thing, due to necessity of computer systems, I had access to the Internet, thankfully I had an office whose door closed. In addition to the administrative tasks, I found time to wander...

I am of Slavic Heritage, but it only kindled a curiosity, and a challenge to seek what I could get away with. After the usual forays into the Internet world I became focused. I found both Czech and Slovak art sites with which I could identify. They banned "beer" from searches, but not "Pivo".

Googling " Russian Photography" and "Russian Art" I found many sites displaying artwork that I loved. If only, I had copied them, but thinking I could always later look them up. Twenty years later... No I couldn't.

But, while we had Ansel Adams, Steichen, et. al., We also had these Russian Photographers who captured Russian life before and after the 1917 Revolution. Boris Ignatowicz, Leonid Shokin, Alexander Grinberg, et. al.

Google Russian Paintings and Russian Photography and see what wonders there are.