Photochroms
You possibly know what photochroms are but I’d never heard the term until about an hour ago. From what I can work out the ‘original’ photochroms came about way back in the 19th century when photographers used various processes (a technical term) to colourise black and white photographs.
The resulting images are quite distinctive and rather pleasing to the eye. It’s a bit like seeing the world in what we’ve come to think of as a ‘retro’ colour scheme (…like real life colour was all that different then and now…).
It’s what we see in some old postcards and films and some people (me) think there’s something quite beautiful about it. Here’s a photochrom image of a street in New York, taken around 100 years ago (via Wikipedia)
I think that colourising old photographs makes the past less of ‘another country’ and helps us connect more with the people in the photograph. They just seem a little more like us somehow, less alien.
The reason I checked out photochroms is because I was working until 9pm tonight and decided to have a half-hour skive I’ve noticed that this retro-look colourisation is becoming popular with present day photographers and I wondered how they achieved the effect (and if I could do it too).
This Vintage Postcard Photoshop Tutorial from Alibony Web Design & Graphics seems to give a good step-by-step guide to achieving a photochromic effect.
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