VICTORIAN PHOTOSHOPPER

Just been to the Camille Silvy exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
He was an innovative 19th century photographer who was a marvel at manipulating pictures.

Ever tried taking a photo as it's getting dark? Then have a look at this photograph of a man buying his evening paper, and remember, it was taken using a primitive camera in 1859.

Camille Silvy's Studies on Light: Twilight, 1859.

Camille achieved the effect of early evening using four different negatives when printing. Basically, he took the photo four times at different times of the day and put them together.
In today's world we would use Photoshop to do that. Every pic you see in every magazine or advert has had some Photoshop done on it.

I'm no stranger to it myself, both at work and play. Take a look at these and see what you can do to a simple photo...

Deckchairs on Southend seafront before the Photoshop!!

Spot the difference! Now with different colours and without the fussy background.

So hats off to Monsieur Silvy, he really was the original Victorian Photoshopper. Amazing to think he was doing it 150 years ago.