Hi Everybody,
What RGB values are sepia.
I colored this ancient photo in "sepia".I got a lot of flak from the grandchildren. They claimed that it was too red. However, I thought that it looked washed out when shifted towards yellow.
So what's a realistic "sepia". Phil
Paul Johnson said:Oh Roy... How could you do this to me? You do realise that I'm going to waste part of my morning playing with the time machine now... I usually paint a Christmas card for my wife but this has given me a new idea for this year, so I suppose I should be thanking you really :o)
Oh Paul... you haven't downloaded the (now free) Nik Filter Collection have you!
Ok here's what I know about old photography. They made a movie years ago with Paul Newman called the left handed gun about Billy the Kid who was thought to be left handed.
It was thought that he was left handed because one of the only images of him had him holding a rifle and his side arm on a belt, ( his favorite was a Colt Lighting) which was on his left side.
Well a gun collector noticed that the rifle was a Winchester lever action and the ejection port was on the left side in the image. They never made a level action at that time with the ejection port on the left side.
So the image was flipped which was common for (I believe it was a Daguerreotype) and for many years and for this movie producer people thought William Bony was left handed but he was not.
Early photographic emulsions were only sensitive to blue light. Orthochromatic film (sensitive to blue and green light) was first made in the early 1870s. Panchromatic film was invented in the early 1900s but didn't become widely available until after WWI, and even then orthochromatic film was much cheaper until the middle 1920s and by about 1930 panchromatic film had pretty much taken over.
You can often notice the effects of orthochromaticity in early black & white film/photos that include images with the UK or US flags, where the red will appear very dark and the blue much lighter. Obviously this had a knock-on effect across the whole tonal range and colour spectrum.
This also explains some of the weirder make-up effects in early black and white films.
This thread got me digging into early photography, interesting reading for sure. I wonder how many of them succumbed to exposure to the chemicals?
It seems that there isn't one set of RGB values to answer Phils question. I also don't think any of the modern filters get it right, it looks like you'd need to start by giving the filter an image with a limited DMAX and compressed tonal range.
David Milisock said:It seems that there isn't one set of RGB values to answer Phils question.
The RGB value I quoted earlier in the thread is the RGB value given in Wikipedia and Encycolorpedia for the reddish brown called sepia. That value is also given on several other websites, but it's not a part of the SVG named colours so I don't know if it's part of any official specification.
David Milisock said:I also don't think any of the modern filters get it right...
I do't think the PhotoPaint filter does a bad job - so long as you get the conrtrast levels right in the original image.
David Milisock said:...it looks like you'd need to start by giving the filter an image with a limited DMAX and compressed tonal range.
This would tie in with how you make an actual sepia toned photographic print where you would typically make the image with a lower contrast (particularly in the highlights) than you would for a 'normal' black and white print.
60 foot in the air waiting on a crane so I'll be short. Even old dogs can learn new tricks and I'll try this one tonight. Thanks.
the funny thing is to discover that according Wikipedia, the "English Sepia" has different values than the Sepia on Spanish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_(color)