Tim Wager: Book, 'Bennington History' Volume 1
Bennington History - A Colorized Journey Through the 19th-20th Century - Volume 1
by Tim Wager
PREFACE
Being a self described, self taught computer NERD with a need to try anything once, this is my new venture, the Art of colorizing historical Black & White images of my home town, Bennington, Vermont. This Art died out shortly after WWII and Is seeing a comeback thanks to the numerous computer software programs coming on to the market today.
Every image shown here is cropped from the original Black & White glass plate negative. This expands the finer details which would otherwise be lost in the background. The dates given are those used to identify the years each photographer was in service in the Bennington area. If a known date is available, it will be placed in the caption.
Because I wasn't around 120 years ago, the colors I used are my personal preference in what I envision they would have been. All colors used come from various color palettes of the era.
I would like to thank Callie Raspuzzi of the Bennington Museum for her constant help on this project, Lisa Verschoor for her help in creating the cover and all of the members of my Facebook Group Page, "Bennington History, After Dirt Was Invented"
BACK COVER
Colorizing Black and White photos goes all the way back to the invention of the camera. Around 1860 this practice started in Europe and quickly spread to Japan where it became a respected art form with photographers often teaming with an artist. Flash forward to the United States where photo studios hired young single women as colorist. According to history, many of these women would often become ill from constantly putting their brushes into their mouths to maintain a pointed tip. Because many different things were used to create the proper color, I have no reason to doubt this claim. The best selling hand colorized photographer of all time, was Wallace Nutting, a New England minister who took his hobby and turned it Into a full time business that spanned nearly 40 years with colorized Images seeing their golden years from 1900 to 1940. It's been noted that Nutting sold millions of his colorized images netting him $1000 a day.
Flash forward to my mission: Using various software programs with modern technology, a few years of trial and error, and I'm off to colorize as many black and white images as possible. This task ls more than simply colorizing, it requires preparing the Images by adjusting light levels, contrast, shadowing and eliminating haze from images created by the glass plate negatives. After that there is the research to create the proper era color palette. From there, it's place headphones on head, crank up the volume and drift off Into the 19th and 20th Century.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Publication Date: 2018
Publisher: Tim Wager
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 x .125 inches
Format: Soft Cover
Pages: 48
Photos: 49
by Tim Wager
PREFACE
Being a self described, self taught computer NERD with a need to try anything once, this is my new venture, the Art of colorizing historical Black & White images of my home town, Bennington, Vermont. This Art died out shortly after WWII and Is seeing a comeback thanks to the numerous computer software programs coming on to the market today.
Every image shown here is cropped from the original Black & White glass plate negative. This expands the finer details which would otherwise be lost in the background. The dates given are those used to identify the years each photographer was in service in the Bennington area. If a known date is available, it will be placed in the caption.
Because I wasn't around 120 years ago, the colors I used are my personal preference in what I envision they would have been. All colors used come from various color palettes of the era.
I would like to thank Callie Raspuzzi of the Bennington Museum for her constant help on this project, Lisa Verschoor for her help in creating the cover and all of the members of my Facebook Group Page, "Bennington History, After Dirt Was Invented"
BACK COVER
Colorizing Black and White photos goes all the way back to the invention of the camera. Around 1860 this practice started in Europe and quickly spread to Japan where it became a respected art form with photographers often teaming with an artist. Flash forward to the United States where photo studios hired young single women as colorist. According to history, many of these women would often become ill from constantly putting their brushes into their mouths to maintain a pointed tip. Because many different things were used to create the proper color, I have no reason to doubt this claim. The best selling hand colorized photographer of all time, was Wallace Nutting, a New England minister who took his hobby and turned it Into a full time business that spanned nearly 40 years with colorized Images seeing their golden years from 1900 to 1940. It's been noted that Nutting sold millions of his colorized images netting him $1000 a day.
Flash forward to my mission: Using various software programs with modern technology, a few years of trial and error, and I'm off to colorize as many black and white images as possible. This task ls more than simply colorizing, it requires preparing the Images by adjusting light levels, contrast, shadowing and eliminating haze from images created by the glass plate negatives. After that there is the research to create the proper era color palette. From there, it's place headphones on head, crank up the volume and drift off Into the 19th and 20th Century.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Publication Date: 2018
Publisher: Tim Wager
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 x .125 inches
Format: Soft Cover
Pages: 48
Photos: 49