Colors on the Eve of Revolution

31Jul06

I’ve never delved into the mysteries of photography any further than to learn that if you over-expose a picture you’ll capture more light and get cool wiggly effects if you move the camera around while you do this. Seriously, I played with this feature on my friends cam for like… hours.

Thanks to the wonderous digg.com, I came upon some pre WWI pics of the Russian empire taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. These photos, such as the one on this page, were taken prior to the Russian revolution as well; So, you history buffs might get a little something out of this.

I had no idea that color photography had existed this early, but apparently experiments had been going on since the 1800s. Prokudin-Gorskii’s method of taking color photos is actually similar to today’s digital cameras; Just without the transistors and such. Today’s digital cameras actually take three grayscale exposures when you take a picture: One sensitive for red (R), one for green (G), and another for blue (B). Once these are captured, there’s some behind the scenes compositing and you’re left with your beautiful color picture. Prokudin-Gorskii’s camera had three lenses, each with a R, G, or B filter. When he took a picture, he was left with three glass plates with grayscale exposures filtered for RGB, which he could then present overlayed, which would give the color effect. There’s a much better and detailed description of his method here.

Anywho, I thought these were some amazing shots. Prokudin-Gorskii’s negatives were bought by the Library of Congress in the 40s from his heirs after his death in 1944.

:: Related Extras ::

• Exhibit – Library of Congress online exhibit. You can actually search through it with keywords.
• Biography – Prokudin-Gorskii on wikipedia
• History – of color photography
• History – Russia 1892 – 1920

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