Scalefour Forum

Yes. They were fantastic photos.

You can get the book here https://hoxtonminipress.com/products/th ... -in-colour

What strikes me about the colour images, is the strong resemblance to the street scenes in Middlesbrough, and Hartlepool, in the same period.
Doubtless, others will see similar resemblances to their home towns.

References like these are useful when it comes to painting. Compare the pictures with some painting and one finds the painting too vivid. On the whole, colours need muting. A tip given to me is not to use white to dilute paint but a flesh colour instead. Makes quite a difference.

There's a lot to be said for Kodachrome, but no-one should presume it gives an accurate colour render. Without getting into the issues of scale effect, you need to add quite a lot more blue and green if you want to portray subjects like these 'realistically'.

dal-t wrote:There's a lot to be said for Kodachrome, but no-one should presume it gives an accurate colour render. Without getting into the issues of scale effect, you need to add quite a lot more blue and green if you want to portray subjects like these 'realistically'.

To my eye, the photos also seem a bit muddy/dull - maybe ageing of the negatives, or just the reproduction? For example, this one compared with a slightly modified version using around 30 seconds of Photoshop.



I suspect this was a bright, sunny early morning shot judging by the shadows. B is the modified one, which to my eye looks more believable. The difference these changes make to some of the other images is even more dramatic.

Most people seem to be dressed in very drab clothing. The one big exception is one with the lady on her doorstep next to the demolished buildings.

dal-t wrote:There's a lot to be said for Kodachrome, but no-one should presume it gives an accurate colour render. Without getting into the issues of scale effect, you need to add quite a lot more blue and green if you want to portray subjects like these 'realistically'.

Interesting you say this. I remove blue (and a little green) from such images. I used to find Agfa gave a much better colour reproduction, Kodak being too vivid and too blue.

Valid, and interesting points all, but it should be remembered that there was a lot more particulate in the air at that time, buildings were grimier than now.

Another important point, for modellers, is that the way a model is lit can have a significant impact on the display appearance.

IMO that is what makes attending Exhibition events more interesting, than just looking at pictures on-line.

jim s-w wrote:You can get the book here https://hoxtonminipress.com/products/th ... -in-colour

Thanks for the link, I've ordered it. To add to the discussion of modelling colours, those reproduced in the book will be even less reliable, since they're separated into multiple colours for the printing process. Still, the scenes will be useful.

Some very interesting photos there Martin.

On Facebook there tends to be a number of groups set up for various areas around the country, a lot of time some rather interesting photos can pop up in them. I follow the Woolwich/Plumstead/Bexley/Barnehurst ones and some very interesting early photos have cropped up, as well as fascinating stories about the areas (to me this is what I like about model railways to some extent, the research and the history, especially the social change).

An interesting topic! Colour rendering in film emulsions and it's variation is a complex subject, made more difficult by our own colour perception. Kodachrome was a fairly consistent emulsion by the 1970s but even so there was variation between batches - large users for commercial purpose (such as National Geographic) would test batches in order to determine what colour correction was required. Kodachrome was generally regarded as having a red-yellow cast, which contributed to the perception of a more vibrant look. Conversely, Ektachrome has a bias towards more subdued blues. These differences were often exploited according to subject and purpose. A few modern emulsions such as Fujichrome and it's derivatives lean towards greens. In general colour transparency (slide film) is said to have more faithful colour rendering and higher contrast than colour negative film. The problem from our point of view is that as emulsions age, depending on storage conditions such as temperature and humidity, they tend to develop a yellow and magenta (pink-purple) cast - hence the need to correct with blue and green (complimentary colours) as mentioned above by dal-t.
Nevertheless, using certain known reference colours we can often make a pretty good adjustment allowing for these variations. Lastly, atmospheric conditions and time of day probably account for even greater variation than the emulsion itself.

This looks to be a fascinating book - I've ordered one too!

David Murrell