19th Century Photo Portraits Come to Life – IOTW Report

19th Century Photo Portraits Come to Life

25 Comments on 19th Century Photo Portraits Come to Life

  1. The My Heritage genealogy site animates the photos and does this for free. I uploaded photos of my Civil War soldier relatives and the grandfather who died before I was born. Very emotional experience. They blink, turn their heads slightly, and smile slightly. I don’t know how they do it but I’m so grateful.

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  2. A few of the women and a few of the men were easy on the eyes, natural beauty/handsomeness, but overall, bad hair-dos and haircuts.

    Apparently smiling at the camera was against the law in those days… still, fascinating work by the animator and the colorization is nice.

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  3. They didn’t smile because photos in those days required a very long exposure time.

    It’s relatively easy to hold an unsmiling look over a long period of time, but very hard to hold a smile for that long without moving, which would show as blurring on the finished photo.

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  4. “… overall, bad hair-dos and haircuts.”

    just think what they’re gonna say about todays styles. saw a kid yesterday walking along w/ Sideshow Bob hair … & NO ONE can understand the Mullett

    they didn’t smile because they had to pose for a long time so the image could ‘develop on the camera plate

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  5. I agree with Brown Eyed Girl: MyHeritage does some stunning things with old pix, and you can try it for a limited period for free. I uploaded a black and white yearbook picture of an old girlfriend. Tools then sharpened it, colorized it, and animated it. Instead of a flat, dull picture it was startling to see her lifelike, look from side to side then blow a kiss, wink and smile. Talos IV anyone?

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  6. Beautiful portraits. The AI animation is great. I’ve seen a lot of these recreations and some have a lot more animation.
    Yes, the Victorian style is elaborate, but these people are so distinctive, intelligent. Their personalities very present. Much smarter and presentable than the Hipster/Clownworld freaks we see today.

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  7. A couple years ago, I submitted a photo of my then-recently deceased dad for this. It was creepy; he never moved his head or blinked like that, and he never smiled at all. Just creepy.

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