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.

    13
  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.

    3
  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.

    11
  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

    5
  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?

    3
  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.

    7
  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.

Comments are closed.