One thing I’ve found while trawling the web for reference photos is that in the vast majority of cases no-one ever bothers to edit photos before they upload them. So frequently I read threads in forums where a photo is being used to aid in the discussion but it is often complained that not enough detail can be seen as the photo is too dark.
These old photos weren’t taken with digital cameras, so in most cases the detail is there, it just can’t be seen. Usually what obscures it from being seen better is the method used for adding the photo to the interweb. If you look through a lot of published reference photo books you’ll usually notice that photos are much clearer and much better detailed. This is usually because the printer had access to the original and could do a hi-res scan and then lighten it all up and bring out the detail that was always there.
I’ve included a few examples below to show what I mean. The original photos are as found and are quite dark, all I’ve done is use a very basic photo editor, in this case the Kodak software that came with my camera, to lighten them up. The results will vary depending often on the method by which the original photo was uploaded, the resolution it was stored and displayed at, as well as the quality of the original photo.
Sometimes you’ll end up with a lot of the photo looking washed out and over exposed, the trick is to lighten it up till you can see the bit you want, or to crop down smaller and lighten just that bit. One thing you just can’t escape though when working with photos on the net is the resolution, they can only be enlarged so much.
click images to enlarge
Pz.Kpfw. II with Mine Rollers : Before ( above ) and after ( below )
Radio Truck Crew On A Break : Before ( above ) and after ( below )
A Vomag FlaK 88 : Before ( above ) and after ( below )
