First Ever Photoshop?!

[Sivart]

I came across this photo, and apparently, it was actually faked through compositing all the way back in 1902.
Here is the photo:

It was done by a man named Levin Corbin Handy, and he did it by combining these three photos:

Photo of Grant in 1864 (face)

Major General Alexander M. McCook (body)

Confederates prisoners captured after the battle of Fisher's Hill (background)

The mystery of the photo was not unlocked until 2008

More information:

https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/10/27/452089384/a-very-weird-photo-of-ulysses-s-grant

This 1902 'Photo' of General Grant is an Early Example of Compositing

Want to see a super early example of a photo being faked through compositing? Look no further than this circa 1902 photo, titled "General Grant at City

petapixel.com

https://blueandgrayeducation.org/pdfs/newsletters/Dispatch_22-Oct-19.pdf

 

[JOHN42768]

The wonders of not so modern science

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I have no doubt Mr. Levin Corbin Handy accumulated a lot of wealth on the late 1800's séance circuit.

 

[JOHN42768]

I have no doubt Mr. Levin Corbin Handy accumulated a lot of wealth on the late 1800's séance circuit.

His skills were way ahead of the era

 

[Mike Serpa]

Handy was Mathew Brady's nephew. Brady's photos ended up with Handy. After Handy's death his daughter sold the photos to the Library of Congress and we are able to see them 160 years later.

 

[lupaglupa]

The face does look odd in the final shot. Did people suspect the photo before it was discovered it was manipulated/ Or was it widely seen as real?

 

[R. Porter]

As I recall, in the 1850's photoshopped style images were all the rage. There was an attempt to make photography an art form by producing images with complex compositions using as many as 6 or more negatives. This allowed scenes to be created in the style of oil paintings. For examples see the work of Henry Peach Robinson.

Henry Peach Robinson - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[TallTallMan]

I came across this photo, and apparently, it was actually faked through compositing all the way back in 1902.
Here is the photo:

View attachment 542381

It was done by a man named Levin Corbin Handy, and he did it by combining these three photos:

View attachment 542382
Photo of Grant in 1864 (face)

View attachment 542383
Major General Alexander M. McCook (body)

View attachment 542384
Confederates prisoners captured after the battle of Fisher's Hill (background)

The mystery of the photo was not unlocked until 2008

More information:

https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/10/27/452089384/a-very-weird-photo-of-ulysses-s-grant

This 1902 'Photo' of General Grant is an Early Example of Compositing

Want to see a super early example of a photo being faked through compositing? Look no further than this circa 1902 photo, titled "General Grant at City

petapixel.com

https://blueandgrayeducation.org/pdfs/newsletters/Dispatch_22-Oct-19.pdf

Call Oliver Stone...

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I came across this photo, and apparently, it was actually faked through compositing all the way back in 1902.
Here is the photo:

View attachment 542381

It was done by a man named Levin Corbin Handy, and he did it by combining these three photos:

View attachment 542382
Photo of Grant in 1864 (face)

View attachment 542383
Major General Alexander M. McCook (body)

View attachment 542384
Confederates prisoners captured after the battle of Fisher's Hill (background)

The mystery of the photo was not unlocked until 2008

More information:

https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/10/27/452089384/a-very-weird-photo-of-ulysses-s-grant

This 1902 'Photo' of General Grant is an Early Example of Compositing

Want to see a super early example of a photo being faked through compositing? Look no further than this circa 1902 photo, titled "General Grant at City

petapixel.com

https://blueandgrayeducation.org/pdfs/newsletters/Dispatch_22-Oct-19.pdf

Wow!

 

[Sivart]

The face does look odd in the final shot. Did people suspect the photo before it was discovered it was manipulated/ Or was it widely seen as real?

I'm not exactly sure. I think people knew something was up with the photo, but they didn't know what until 2008. The purpose of the photo in the first place was to sell to the U.S. government, as well as civilians, for historical records, but since the Civil War had just ended, not many were actually bought since the trauma was so fresh in people's minds.

 

[ColonelBuckwalter]

I have no doubt Mr. Levin Corbin Handy accumulated a lot of wealth on the late 1800's séance circuit.

I wonder if that sort of thing would work now, considering.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I wonder if that sort of thing would work now, considering.

I think it would work even easier today.
Just look at the folks that believe everything they see on social media.

 

[ColonelBuckwalter]

I think it would work even easier today.
Just look at the folks that believe everything they see on social media.

We need to go into business. The Mississippi-Florida Seance & Cocktail Lounge, LLC.

That way there isn't too much liability involved.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

We need to go into business. The Mississippi-Florida Seance & Cocktail Lounge, LLC.

That way there isn't too much liability involved.

 

[chubachus]

They were pretty much doing photoshop back in the daguerreotype era with, to name a few...
Composite photos: https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM125093
"Magic" backgrounds: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/magic-background-dag-daguerreotype-1929283250
Hand-colored photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs

 

[Old Soldier]

Most of the 'live' photos were 'arranged' by the photographer. The panorama photos that were not posed usually show some movement - those hazy horses tails and legs, lack of cloud or hazy smoke due to the exposure length.

To take the 'after battle' photos, the photo teams arrived on the scene well after the action. All the arms and equipment had been gathered up and stacked, if not removed and often they carried some to add to photos. You will notice that few have hold of a rifle or sword or are lying on top of it. It is usually laid on or by the body. There are even signs that 'clean' bodies were moved to make them more 'arty'. There is and emphasis on relatively clean skin (sometimes blood was wiped off), no visible wound or bloodstains on clothes and certainly not bloated or 'smelly'. Remember that these photos were long exposure too - 5 - 10 seconds outside on a good day.

This guy is beginning to start stiffening - rigor mortis. (The hat may have been put there too)

There are other photos of this guy further down the slope, on his back with the rifle laid next to him


Horses appear less often, but notice that all these horses have no harness, saddle or bridle - all gathered up by the 'clean-up squad'. They will probably have been artillery carriage horses with so many in the same place.

 

[Stryker65]

Wow! Never realized that famous "sniper at Gettysburg" photo was arranged!

 

[WinterLeia]

When I first learned about Civil War photographers rearranging the scene and even sometimes moving the dead body, I found it very disturbing and wrong. That was a human being and somebody's loved one, after all. But, in actuality, that was a rather common practice in the early days of photography, even for people who didn't die on a battlefield. People saw the value of this new technology to capture the exact likeness of a person, and sometimes their death was the only opportunity the family had to capture that likeness before they were buried. So, I guess in a way we should view the photographs as a memorial. I still struggle to put myself in the minds of such people, though, trying to make an artsy scene where the centerpiece is an actual corpse. It's too foreign to anything I've experienced.

 

[Old Soldier]

Wow! Never realized that famous "sniper at Gettysburg" photo was arranged!

Look close and you will see that the rifle is a Springfield M1861. It would hardly be a decent backsight for a sharpshooter. Here are two other photos of the same area and possibly the same man:

 

[TallTallMan]

We need to go into business. The Mississippi-Florida Seance & Cocktail Lounge, LLC.

That way there isn't too much liability involved.

Well, I'm in the Sunshine State--count me in!