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    Bringing History to life...


    Alex K

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    How long does it take you to do one of those?!?!?!?!?!?!!

    Hi Chris, all depends, the average head and shoulder portrait I can do in 1-2 hours, it depends on how much "Bling" he is wearing, with ribbon bars, it can take days or sometime weeks to find out exactly what the medals are as I try try to ensure total accuracy. The actual picture is easy, trying to ensure the accuracy of the image can take longer. Some that I've done do take longer.

    Example attached

    regards

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    Those are some amazing photos. The Krebbs photo, is mind blowing in its significance. I wonder what was going through their minds as they are waiting to go inside to begin negotiations?

    Hi Paul, thanks, it's quite an enjoyable and absorbing past-time. With regards to the Krebs image, I have read several accounts that the negotiations didn't go too well. Krebs went with pre-determined instructions from Goebbels with a "Conditional surrender, these were dismissed out of hand by the Soviets who insisted on "Unconditional" surrender". Krebs returned to the Bunker and for the next few days seemed resigned and suicidal, he did in the end commit suicide in the bunker. There are images of his remains after being removed from the bunker, in-line, with the remains of the Goebels family, I'm not sure of forum rules regarding posting these type of images so choose not to.

    regards

    Alex

    Edited by Alex K
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    All of them are absolutely great!

    One question though... I know "some" Wehrmacht generals didn't bother to change from the silver to the gold cap devices (eagle & wreath), but why do you retain the silver ones on all of them?

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    Not ot be picky but that would be "Governor General" of Canada. I believe he held that position in the mid 1920s.

    I can not get over how these photos look after they have been colourized. It is an art, or some sort of dark magic, they are beautiful and certainly bring the whole subject to life.

    Thnaks for sharing them with the membership.

    Regards

    Brian

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    All of them are absolutely great!

    One question though... I know "some" Wehrmacht generals didn't bother to change from the silver to the gold cap devices (eagle & wreath), but why do you retain the silver ones on all of them?

    Hi, You are quite right, Genarals cap devices were in silver, (Eagle and Wreath) up unto about 1942, after which they SHOULD be wearing Gold versions. I look at the images and try to identify the period when they were taken which can sometimes be found at other parts of the image, before 1942, silver, after, gold. Many Officers did continue to wear outdated insignia, but when you are a General, who's going to argue with you :unsure:. I do have many colourisations of Generals, (Not posted yet) where it is clear that they are gold, it depends on the amount of time you spend researching the subject and image.

    regards

    An example, Erich Abraham who I believed recieved to Oaks after 1942

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    Not ot be picky but that would be "Governor General" of Canada. I believe he held that position in the mid 1920s.

    I can not get over how these photos look after they have been colourized. It is an art, or some sort of dark magic, they are beautiful and certainly bring the whole subject to life.

    Thnaks for sharing them with the membership.

    Regards

    Brian

    Hello Brian, thanks for the compliments, You are of course quite right with regards to Julian Byng. I take a particular pride and determination to produce the most accurate colourisations I can, it does require patience and research into the subject you are working on, hopefully 99% of what I do is not too far of the mark. I have numerous almost completed images which I will not post as I have certain doubts about uniforms, badges and escpecially medal ribbon bars, (which I hate!!), I do eventually find the info I need then they get completed.

    regards

    Alex

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    Just having a quick sortout, Wermacht clergy

    The first on the left is of Catholic faith, (Denoted by the effigy of Christ on the cross), the second and third, unknown but I suspect Protestant or Lutheran, (The cross was the same without the effigy, (I could be wrong!)

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    Hi TacHel, it has crossed my mind, the problem lies sometimes with who still owns the original, if any, copyright to the image, most, if not all, of the images I use are freely available (Public Domain) on the internet. I actually do this for fun, without any "Commercial interest". Many are from the German Bundesarchiv, who have published their collections on-line without, it seems any restrictions, others are from NARA, Life, etc which are freely available for download. That being said, any copyright holder who wishes to have an image "Colourised", then I would be happy to consider it.

    One reason I "Watermark" the images is to ensure that it is a colourised and not a true colour image, where the source is known I also indicate that, only images posted are watermarked.

    regards

    Alex

    Edited by Alex K
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    Just having a quick sortout, Wermacht clergy

    The first on the left is of Catholic faith, (Denoted by the effigy of Christ on the cross), the second and third, unknown but I suspect Protestant or Lutheran, (The cross was the same without the effigy, (I could be wrong!)

    The Second one is Father Bernard Schmidt from the 299th ID. You did a great job colorizing that one!! Only one thing was different on his original tunic in that is collar tabs were field grey backed rather than violet. Otherwise that is a GREAT colorization. Here is the tunic to compare :)

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    The Second one is Father Bernard Schmidt from the 299th ID. You did a great job colorizing that one!! Only one thing was different on his original tunic in that is collar tabs were field grey backed rather than violet. Otherwise that is a GREAT colorization. Here is the tunic to compare :)

    Hi Chris, That to me is fantastic information, I can now put a name to the image. With regards to the collar tabs, it is sometimes difficult to separate shades of grey, I look for original items from collectors etc and have a large library of original examples, I then try to replicate them. In this instance, I will now re-visit my original colourisation, and amend. Thanks for your help

    regards

    Alex

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    what do you use to do this , Photoshop?

    Larry

    Hi Larry, yes it is basically Photoshop. My version is V4.0, this is actually, by modern standards quite ancient, (Designed originally for Windows 95 operating system). For the technically interested my current operating system is Windows 7, it keeps telling me that the photoshop software will not work, but it DOES,! so I don't worry :unsure:

    Regards

    Alex

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    The Second one is Father Bernard Schmidt from the 299th ID. You did a great job colorizing that one!! Only one thing was different on his original tunic in that is collar tabs were field grey backed rather than violet. Otherwise that is a GREAT colorization. Here is the tunic to compare :)

    Hi Chris, attached a modified version of Bernard Schmidt based on your comments

    regards, hope you approve

    Alex

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    Amongst the many I've done, I have favourites, this is one, Erich Hartmann, the emblem indicated on top right is worn on his lapel and was also painted on the side of his aircraft, (Took a bit of researching to find it!)

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