Coyote Blog

11 Comments

1. Amy Ridenour:

   That's strange. I'm quite sure the olden days were in black and white.

   October 17, 2011, 5:09 pm

2. Foxfier:

   The colors are a bit off (Texico red is more Coke or fire-engine, Chesterfield's has a bit more royal blue, the wood is just a bit...wrong...) but very impressive!

   October 17, 2011, 8:05 pm

3. John Moore:

   That's a beaut.

   October 17, 2011, 8:33 pm

4. Gil:

   I think the same thing as Amy - there weren't much in the way of colours back in the olden days. Doubly so since most people didn't have access to fancy mass-produced, multi-coloured dyes. Hence in the old days, only fancy, expensive clothing had any vibrant colours while everyone else wore drab clothing that either white, brown, grey or black.

   October 17, 2011, 10:29 pm

5. el coronado:

   having seen the original (B&W) pic, this version just...doesn't...*look* right. Not sure why. Maybe the comments above are right,and the colors are too bright. It just somehow takes away the sense of 'down home dirt-po' South' the original conveys. That "building" is sitting on poorly-stacked rocks, the steps are like as not ready to disintegrate, the ground is hardscrabble dirt and tufts of untended grass, and I'm struck by the bright colors of the clothes and the pumps & signs. Like a Disney version of the original.

   October 17, 2011, 11:30 pm

6. dearieme:

   "Hence in the old days, only fancy, expensive clothing had any vibrant colours": my dear Gil, have you not seen kilts?

   October 18, 2011, 4:51 am

7. Lee:

   It may be "artistic expression" by the person who colorized the photo. I would love to take this into FilterForge in PhotoShop, tweak the reds a little, and apply a grunge effect to give it some age and grittiness. i think the overall composition is great.

   October 18, 2011, 6:16 am

8. Gil:

   I believe it was around the time of the Industrial Revolution that chemicals dyes started to appear prior to that people only had access to plant and animal dyes.

   October 18, 2011, 7:19 am

9. NL_:

   If only the store owner could somehow convey to passersby that he sells tobacco products and Coca-cola.

   October 18, 2011, 8:37 am

10. caseyboy:

    They even colorized Steve Martin's hair from silver to brown. Must have been taken before he headed out to make his mark (getting his name in the Yellow Pages).

    October 18, 2011, 1:31 pm

11. J. W.:

    Amy Ridenour: Interestingly enough, we have proof that there was indeed color during that time period--in Russia, at least. See the gallery here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Prokudin-Gorskii

    el coronado: Colorized photos often look strange because their colorists tend to disregard natural variations of color (e.g., a patch of grass consists of many colors, not just one) and reflected light (e.g., a bright red object will reflect red light onto surrounding objects). Colorized outdoor photos look strange in large part because colorists don't make shadows have cooler colors than objects in direct sunlight; outdoor shadows are more blue because they get less sun and more reflected light from the blue sky. Colorized portraits look strange because there are subtle (and not-so-subtle) variations of color in the human face, but colorists just make a person's skin all one color (or two, if they redden cheeks).

    October 18, 2011, 2:03 pm