Wednesday, July 12, 2017

An Early Example Of Photoshopping For A Biscuit Tin


I've been colourising again! My starting image is another glass negative from the batch I bought a couple of weeks ago. By just holding the glass up to the light it was a little unclear what the image was, but after a good high-quality scan and a digital wash and brush-up, what appears is a quite charming Victorian photograph of a woman and a child with a hoop.  Why anyone believed that they could improve on this image I can't understand, but I handed the digital scan over to a mate of mine (a certain Pierre-Auguste Renoir) to see what he could do with it.


The result is quite cute, but perhaps a little gaudy. He has added too much blue to her dress and got rid of the poor mother entirely! Amusing as it is, I can't see the colourful result stand the test of time. It looks more like a biscuit-tin than a serious attempt at photographic art.


3 comments:

  1. Mr. Renoir's work is quaint enough, but it'll never sell...

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  2. I agree with "The Silver Fox": Renoir would have a hard time selling that kind of sentimental tosh in this day and age - even for biscuit tins. But the painting shows how uneven the work of even the best of artists can be. Degas is another and doubtless I'm in the same boat.

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  3. I had a pair of shoes very like that when I was 11. Slightly higher heel but the bow was just the same. A lot of my friends had the same style - they were all the crack. Thanks for reminding me. I loved those shoes.

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