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Reading black-and-white photos for color / Flettner Rotorship

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Reading black-and-white photos for color / Flettner Rotorship
Posted by AndrewGorman on Monday, March 3, 2008 11:01 PM

I'm trying to figure out the color scheme for the Flettner Rotorship Baden-Baden, AKA Buckau, and could use some help!  As well as having two names, the ship had at least two paint jobs. As the Buckau, I think it was black hull, white deckhouses, and aluminum painted rotors.  As the Baden Baden, it looks like a grey lower hull, white upper hull and deckhouses, and I'm not sure of the rotors.  I have a childhood memory of the rotors described as buff or orange, but I'll be darned if I can find a reference. I've found a nice painting of the later "Barbara", which does have pale orange stripes on the rotors which may be a source of confusion.

Can anyone point me toward a tutorial on interpreting B&W photos for color? I you want to take a look at the Baden-Baden, best images I've found on the web are at:

http://www.schoonerman.com/rotar_ship_badenbaden.htm

Clicking on at least one view will open up a high-resolution version.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Andrew

 The "Barbara" painting is at:

http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/digi_einzBild.php?pi=146_99-1976 

 

 

  • Member since
    March 2005
  • From: West Virginia, USA
Posted by mfsob on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 2:23 PM
To my knowledge, there isn't a tutorial per se because doing what you want to do is a crap shoot - it's totally subjective according to each person's biases and past experiences. Case in point, the ongoing controversy over what color the battleships were in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 - new information, and new interpretations, indicate that 60 years worth of assumptions might have been wrong. I think your best bet is to go with your memory ... and if no one else can produce a period color photo, who's to say you're wrong?
  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Fort Lauderdale
Posted by jayman1 on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 12:26 PM

I believe I have heard of some sort of computer program that interprets shades of gray into colors. It is used to colorize old hollywood B&W movies into color.

Now, if there is such a program, can it be obtained? And if it can, at what price? The answer to the last question may make all others rather academic.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Australia
Posted by rokket on Saturday, March 8, 2008 2:50 AM

The problem with BW into Col is that some cols look the SAME in BW - red and green can (but not always) appear as the same shade of gray. (a checker patter of red and green MIGHT show in a BW pic as a stripe of near-black).

 

This site might be useful:

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/ 

AMP - Accurate Model Parts Fabric Flags, AM Uboat Goodies & More http://amp.rokket.biz/
  • Member since
    January 2005
Posted by John @ WEM on Saturday, March 8, 2008 6:26 AM
A problem you're dealing with here is the performance of film types. Orthochromatic film--the type in use during the 1920s (and well through the 1950s)--rendered a gray scale in the final print that differed from modern panchromatic black-and-white films. Basically speaking, ortho films were blue-sensitive. This means that they rendered anything blue, or with a blue cast in in, as very light in the final print (that's why the sky always looks washed out in those old photos), while yellows went gray, and reds almost black. Based on the 1920s photos of her, the rotors were clearly buff or yellow. That is, however, assuming that the photographer wasn't using a colored filter on the lens. In this case, based on the washed-out sky, I don't believe he/she was.
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