Salute to Mathew Brady

[eskimo2]

I wanted to see if I could take one of my Burton Civil War photos and make it look authentic.  Obviously I made it black and white and flattened the contrast taking out the true whites.  Photos from the Civil War era had very long exposures and poor depth of field so I blurred the parts that were close and far.  The long exposure times meant that all photos were posed and never in real time action; the photo I choose was one of the few that could pass as posed.  The soldier in the foreground with his back to the camera just didn't make sense for a posed photo, so I took him out.  I added emulsion streaks and corner flaws as well as spots throughout.   Most of the flaws were lifted from actual Civil war photos.  Overall its still sharper and less "damaged" than most period photos.



And here's the original:

[REP0MAN]

Cool pic!

I'd say the old one is a bit too clear in the center. Other than that, very nice!

[DiabloTX]

Other than the grass looking too manicured I'd say you did a damn fine job.  Looks awesome.

[splitatom]

you should have taken that photo in knee deep grass and then it would look prety good

[kamilyun]

Cool effect.  As mentioned above, the center looks a little bit too clear.  Maybe save as a lower resolution?

[Sikboy]

Where's Nilsen?

-Sik

[Thruster]

Seems to that the contrast is still a wee bit too sharp. The depth of field is about right but The metal doesn't show as well as some older photo's I've seen. I understand the old processes picked up metallic gleam pretty accurately. As far as focal resolution, some of those old shots are super clear when they were exposed properly. Nice work.

[texasmom]

very nice indeed! 

[MsBhaven]

Thats pretty neat. I wish I could do that to photos.. What do you use?