Good photos.

its impressive, even at infancy. the photo quality isnt too bad either. and very interesting information too.

they are mostly french soldiers right?

Yes they're French soldiers and the photography was done by the French. Apparently they pioneered the earliest color photos.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

Yes they're French soldiers and the photography was done by the French. Apparently they pioneered the earliest color photos.

very interesting, thx for the useful facts given by alex kroll. i had fun reading that.

i nearly got mixed them up with austrian soldiers. btw does austrian soldiers had a pointed hat like the germans in WW1?

is the soldiers with high hats and black unform a special regiment of the french or the BEF?

You're welcome!

There is no technical reason why these photographs cannot be real. There were several good color photography processes available at that time. The Library of Congress has a nice selection of Photochromes available on-line here for example: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pgzquery.html (type in Paris as a search term). These World War I photographs appear to be Autochromes, a process invented by the Lumiere brothers (the inventors of motion pictures) in 1903: http://www.institut-lumiere.org/engl...utochexpo.html

Old photographic techniques and technology were often remarkably advanced, their practicioners real craftsmen. Lenses, although more limited, were every bit as sharp as those of today. To this day, no photographic process can match the sharpness and resolution of the original Daguerrotype process (1840).

That said, these seem to be photographs taken on the Alsace front, perhaps in the early stages of the war, judging from some uniforms, but they might well be from right after the war, as they include a lot of photos of ruins, which was a favorite subject of photographers looking for a subject that was both sensational and did not move. The street scenes show no signs of electric or telephone wiring, which would be correct in rural France of 1914~1918.

There's also no reason why they could not be heavily Photoshopped images, but I think it unlikely.

On a side note, the history channel has a very interesting series called "World War 1 in color" where they digitally added very realistic color to actual WW1 footage, it's amazing how much more "real" the war seems when the footage is displayed in color.

Okay, I surrender. I was wrong. (I'm sure Chewie will frame this)

I did do some checking and it is evident that these can indeed be real. What would have been helpful is if the pictures initial post had stated that they were original pictures reprocessed with modern technology. I was basing my opinion on the pictures as they were produced at that time. I did not know that they could be so well improved with updated means. Of course the fact that alot of, shall we say, "hooey" is posted on these forums made me more inclined to think they couldn't be real.

Originally Posted by Charge_7

Okay, I surrender. I was wrong. (I'm sure Chewie will frame this)

I did do some checking and it is evident that these can indeed be real. What would have been helpful is if the pictures initial post had stated that they were original pictures reprocessed with modern technology. I was basing my opinion on the pictures as they were produced at that time. I did not know that they could be so well improved with updated means. Of course the fact that alot of, shall we say, "hooey" is posted on these forums made me more inclined to think they couldn't be real.

i don't have any frames, but i'm just glad i was here to see it! lol

just jokes charge

Make no mistake: these are original COLOR images from the period. The Autochrome process was a true full-color photographic process. There is no need for "enhancement". In fact, the modern part of the reproduction process, the scanning in this instance, seems to have degraded the images somewhat by introducing banding.

On the other hand, looking at the Library of Congress' Photochromes I've come to the conclusion that those are "colorized" black&white images.