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I saw this in person one time at the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin. I don’t think I had made a special trip to see it - I think I was meeting a professor the

I saw this in person one time at the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin. I don’t think I had made a special trip to see it - I think I was meeting a professor there, and they had it set up as an exhibit in the lobby - but naturally I had to check it out. It’s hard to describe, but thinking back on it, it was probably one of the most awe inspiring moments I’ve ever had. Literally looking through a window into the past and seeing a sunny French courtyard as it existed 200 years ago. It was very cool and, though I suppose not inherently that much more impressive than a portrait from a few decades later, something about seeing the actual physical artifact and knowing that I was looking at the same plate that had been struck by photons a couple centuries prior, etching that moment into metal - it was an incredible link into the past. Zelda reference not intended.

userbinator 3y ago
For comparison, the oldest surviving colour photo is a little more detailed, but the subject isn't quite as interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography
- civilitty 3y ago
  The first large collection of color photography is the most impressive of all: https://www.loc.gov/collections/prokudin-gorskii/ https://www.loc.gov/collections/prokudin-gorskii/ Taken 1905-1915 it shows life in Czarist Russia on the eve of revolution in full color and incredible detail.
  - ZeroGravitas 3y ago
    I wonder how much of the color is due to the modern process used to digitally combine the three monochrome plates. The overlap areas on the boundary seem quite modern in feel. The tartan bow image was taken by a similar process yet the image reproduced seems to be an image of an image. Do we no longer have the black and white plates as we do for the Russian ones? exit: we do still have the plates, but according to this, examining them reveals it wasn't actually a true 3 colour photo: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/2/54 https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/2/54 See particularly figure 7 for their modern re-enactment.
  - dotancohen 3y ago
    We've come full circle with me opening that link on my greyscale E-ink device before realizing what was happening!

userbinator 3y ago

For comparison, the oldest surviving colour photo is a little more detailed, but the subject isn't quite as interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography

civilitty 3y ago
The first large collection of color photography is the most impressive of all: https://www.loc.gov/collections/prokudin-gorskii/ https://www.loc.gov/collections/prokudin-gorskii/ Taken 1905-1915 it shows life in Czarist Russia on the eve of revolution in full color and incredible detail.
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago
  I wonder how much of the color is due to the modern process used to digitally combine the three monochrome plates. The overlap areas on the boundary seem quite modern in feel. The tartan bow image was taken by a similar process yet the image reproduced seems to be an image of an image. Do we no longer have the black and white plates as we do for the Russian ones? exit: we do still have the plates, but according to this, examining them reveals it wasn't actually a true 3 colour photo: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/2/54 https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/2/54 See particularly figure 7 for their modern re-enactment.
- dotancohen 3y ago
  We've come full circle with me opening that link on my greyscale E-ink device before realizing what was happening!