October 21, 2020
Retro Postcards
From the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, when color photography was either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, hand tinting photos was a means to get a color photo of those special occasions or for postcards of tourist spots. Often the person who tinted the photos for postcards was not the photographer and had never been to the location in the photo so the color would be 'off". I've attempted to recreate that style digitally by converting my color photos to Black and White and the colorizing them via software so that they have an color somewhat independent from the original color. I combine the black and white photo with the colorized photo and blur the color to reduce the digital "look". Using this technique I've produced postcards of historic buildings and views from Southern California as well as our State Capitol in Sacramento.
Read MoreFrom the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, when color photography was either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, hand tinting photos was a means to get a color photo of those special occasions or for postcards of tourist spots. Often the person who tinted the photos for postcards was not the photographer and had never been to the location in the photo so the color would be 'off". I've attempted to recreate that style digitally by converting my color photos to Black and White and the colorizing them via software so that they have an color somewhat independent from the original color. I combine the black and white photo with the colorized photo and blur the color to reduce the digital "look". Using this technique I've produced postcards of historic buildings and views from Southern California as well as our State Capitol in Sacramento.
