Amazing color photos of Tsarist Russia (1907-1915) (Many Pics inside)

These have been digitally published for some time now, but i've recently discovered them and I think they're amazing, so I wanted to share.

These pictures were taken by Sergei Michailovich Prokudin-Gorsky, who was hired by Tsar Nicholas to document the Russian Empire and its people through photography. He used a unique method of taking the photos which allowed him to create sharp, color photos long before color photography was commonly utilized. I don't know the specifics of how he did it but the result is absolutely stunning. These pictures were taken between 1907 and 1915, on the eve of WWI and the Russian Revolution.

Here is a site where you can view a lot of them. It's in Russian but you can still find your way around:

http://www.museum.ru/museum/1812/Memorial/PG/colorpg_1.html

Here are some of my favorites:

Anyway, thought they were cool. Feel free to post cool old pictures of your own I guess! :P

They look awesome yet modern.

Who's the babe sitting at the table? :shock:

In Tsarist Russia, picture takes YOU!

Couldn't resist. :P

Anyway, they do look amazing.

They look colorized to me.Engrish_Major

His own research yielded patents for producing colour film slides and for projecting colour motion pictures. His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly-coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times. The exposure time of the frames is likely to have varied, even if the developed negatives were later on similar glass plates. In a letter to Leo Tolstoy requesting a photo session, Prokudin-Gorsky described each photo taking one to three seconds, but when recollecting his time with Tolstoy, he described a six second exposure on a sunny day. Blaise Agüera y Arcas estimated the exposure of a 1909 photo taken in broad daylight to have had combined exposures of over a minute, using the movement of the moon as comparison.Wikipedia

Who's the babe sitting at the table? :shock:

Pirate700

no way HOW? they look freaking digital...nm I looked it up on wiki

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

Who's the babe sitting at the table? :shock:

fidosim

Nice. Tell her she's a fox.

Wow these are amazing! Thank you very much for this find! :D

[QUOTE="Engrish_Major"]They look colorized to me.fidosim

His own research yielded patents for producing colour film slides and for projecting colour motion pictures. His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly-coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times. The exposure time of the frames is likely to have varied, even if the developed negatives were later on similar glass plates. In a letter to Leo Tolstoy requesting a photo session, Prokudin-Gorsky described each photo taking one to three seconds, but when recollecting his time with Tolstoy, he described a six second exposure on a sunny day. Blaise Agüera y Arcas estimated the exposure of a 1909 photo taken in broad daylight to have had combined exposures of over a minute, using the movement of the moon as comparison.Wikipedia

Wow, hard to imagine theye were taken over 100 years ago, thats really cool.

This is what Wikipedia says about how he made them: [QUOTE="Wikipedia"] His own research yielded patents for producing colour film slides and for projecting colour motion pictures. His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly-coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times. The exposure time of the frames is likely to have varied, even if the developed negatives were later on similar glass plates. In a letter to Leo Tolstoy requesting a photo session, Prokudin-Gorsky described each photo taking one to three seconds, but when recollecting his time with Tolstoy, he described a six second exposure on a sunny day. Blaise Agüera y Arcas estimated the exposure of a 1909 photo taken in broad daylight to have had combined exposures of over a minute, using the movement of the moon as comparison.Engrish_Major

Yes, I don't know much about photography, but he did have to colorize the black and white photos. Still, they came out amazing, especially when comparing them to WW2-era color photos.fidosim

Nice find. Here's some from WWI

[QUOTE="fidosim"]Yes, I don't know much about photography, but he did have to colorize the black and white photos. Still, they came out amazing, especially when comparing them to WW2-era color photos.Engrish_Major

[QUOTE="Engrish_Major"]They look colorized to me.fidosim

His own research yielded patents for producing colour film slides and for projecting colour motion pictures. His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly-coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times. The exposure time of the frames is likely to have varied, even if the developed negatives were later on similar glass plates. In a letter to Leo Tolstoy requesting a photo session, Prokudin-Gorsky described each photo taking one to three seconds, but when recollecting his time with Tolstoy, he described a six second exposure on a sunny day. Blaise Agüera y Arcas estimated the exposure of a 1909 photo taken in broad daylight to have had combined exposures of over a minute, using the movement of the moon as comparison.Wikipedia

[QUOTE="Engrish_Major"][QUOTE="fidosim"]Yes, I don't know much about photography, but he did have to colorize the black and white photos. Still, they came out amazing, especially when comparing them to WW2-era color photos.duxup

Amazing how things have changed since then.remmbermytitans

[QUOTE="duxup"][QUOTE="Engrish_Major"] Yeah, don't get me wrong, he was brilliant in coming up with this method, and these are amazing photos. However, they aren't color 'photos', per se, but color 'prints'.Engrish_Major

Dude had a process, end product was a color based on what was captured. Same goes with digital cameras (and their true raw capture is pure garbage). I'd call either that color photography.

Those look very cool.

No one knocks MY thread off the front page. :x

Here's some more good ones:

Wow, those look really good

Ah yes, the times when no one smiled, lol.

btw, whats city is the first pic.

That's crazy as hell. I wish there were more of these (from all over the world).

Wow, those photos looks beautiful.

very amazing photos. :)

Ah yes, the times when no one smiled, lol.

btw, whats city is the first pic.

lol at the guys laying down in the second picture.

"Don't mind me, yall. Just posin'."

Wow, I'd really like to see some of my own nation's history's photos in colour. :)

Colour just gives life to sth which seems "distant" in black and white...

Nice. Very cool stuff. I wish there were photos like these of the American southwest.

Those are very interesting, thanks op!