What Old School Photoshop Looked Like Decades Before Social Media
It's hard to imagine for some of us, but there was a time back before we used to post heavily edited photos of ourselves and our lives all over Facebook and Instagram. But while the internet is relatively new, photography isn't. The first photo was taken in 1827 and since then we've been experimenting.
Here are the pretty amazing ways our ancestors edited photos. And they did everything we do and more—from making a waist smaller to pretending your town grew the biggest cabbages, we've all been photo-editing junkies since the day it came out.
This 1905 Lady Really Lost Her Head
This lady really has her world on a platter over here—well, her head at least. The photographer probably achieved this effect by taking two photos, cutting her head out of one, and splicing those two negatives together before enlarging and developing the positive print. You can kind of see the white edges where her face looks cut-out.
This Isn't A Grasshopper You'd Want To See In Your Garden
This 1937 photo is part of a photography tradition called "tall tale postcards." People used to photoshop fantastical creatures and scenes together and then send them out as jokey postcards to friends.
Even The Victorians Were Worried About Their Bodies
Looks like wanting to look smaller in a photo has been a feeling we've all had for hundreds of years. This early 1900s effect was achieved by "etching" where a photographer would take a tiny knife and cut around a subject's body to get the desired shape, and then stick that negative back on the background and enlarge that version.
Turns Out They Had Airbrush Tools In The 1930s
This beautiful portrait of Joan Crawford was done by George Hurrell, a popular portrait photographer, in the 1930s. It's not clear how he achieved his "airbrush" look, but a lot of photographers in this time period would go in by hand using tools to scrape and alter the photo negative to smooth out any imperfections—so it's likely he did a version of that.
Don't Look Now, But There's A Ghost Behind You
This is a "spirit photography" image, created in the early 1900s by combining multiple image negatives on top of each other. You can make these as blurry as possible, which many photographers did to create the effect that there was a ghost in the picture. Sadly, a lot of grieving families who'd lost loved ones were preyed on.
When You Don't Have A Suit, Just Photoshop One On
This is the ultimate lifehack here and one that I'm going to start using in my everyday life. If I'm not dressed appropriately for the event I'm just going to photoshop the right clothes on my body, that way at least the photos look good. Besides, the Facebook photos are all anyone cares about anyway right?
Darkening And Blurring Stuff We Don't Like Has Always Been A Move...Even In The Early 1900s
Photographers would use ink or graphite and literally paint onto a photograph in the areas they wanted to hide. It's a pretty genius effect, but it would look super weird nowadays since photos are much more high-def.
It's Not Foggy In Here, That's Just The Soul Of My Late Wife
Sometimes the spirit photography doesn't look as gloomy or as sweet as the photographer probably wanted. Sometimes it looks like a cloud of dust just exploded out of your vacuum cleaner and your late wife's face is in it.
This 1910s Photo From His "Grandmother's Photo Album" Is The Past's Version Of Us Photoshopping Us And Our Crushes Together
This is the 1910 version of all the photoshop edits we do of ourselves posed next to our favorite celebrities. This grandmother's crush is having pleasant dreams about her and it just goes to show how Photoshop has always been a young adult with a crush's best friend.
You Can Make A Lot Of Sauerkraut With These Cabbages
There's something fishy about these cabbages...or wait, something vegetable-y. This is one of those tall-tale postcards, but instead of a giant grasshopper, we've got some absurdly large cabbages from Canada. Looks like that's all they'll be eating for a few months.
Do Ghosts Have Their Learners?
Here's another interesting version of spirit photography, except this time the ghost is behind the wheel. I'm not sure where this gang is heading, but she's the DD tonight—the "deceased driver."
There Was A Headless Man In 1875
Don't worry—William Henry Wheeler wasn't actually a dude walking around losing his head. This effect was probably achieved in 1875 by the process of taking two photos, cutting out the heads in the negatives, moving them around, and then enlarging and developing the images. Think of it like making a collage.
A Widow And His Ghostly Wife
I wish they would've taken a different creative direction with this one since she looks like she's growing out of a piece of cloth on his shoulder. Maybe they can put their heads together and figure out a plan because, as we all know, two heads are better than one.
Salvador Dali's Atomicus In 1948 Still Has Better Photoshop Than Most Instagram Models
Salvador Dail was the master in so many things, so of course, he'd be amazing at old school photoshop as well. Taken by Philippe Halsman, Atomicus was made by hanging an easel and chair on strings while two assistants threw a bucket of water and three cats into the air and Dali jumped. The whole thing took 28 shots and six hours to achieve.
The Late 1800s Way To Bring Angels To Life
Even though this photo looks downright angelic, the process is a little more down to Earth than that. Two duck wings are procured, dried in the oven, and then pinned onto the clothes of the subject or fastened to the back of the chair they're sitting in.
This 1942 Xmas Card Is A Sight (And Song) To Behold
We're so used to seeing heavily photoshopped and staged family Xmas cards, but this couple was truly ahead of that trend all the way back in 1942. You go Milton and Anita!
This Photographer Could've Made The Late Wife Look A Little Nicer...
This poor widowed husband probably didn't ask the photographer to make his late wife look like she's literally haunting him and cursing his life from beyond the grave...but that's what happened. Maybe they could've chosen a happier photo?
I Wouldn't Get Into The Water If This Was In There
This giant manta ray is neither real nor a trick of the eye, but actually a giant stuffed model that was made in 1917. Its creators tricked the public into thinking it was real by staging photoshoots around it and distributing doctored photos of it coming out of the water in flyers.
"Grandma Asked Me To Retouch Some Old Photos. I Discovered Someone Had Already Done That...90 Years Ago"
Look at that, it's our old friend Mr. Pencil here to doctor our old photos for us. To be fair, even almost a century ago, this kind of photoshop looks surprisingly seamless and I wouldn't mind using it today.
Before Video Editing, This Is How Movie Titles Were Shot
These were "title cards," a card the size of the camera's view that had a film's title printed on it that videographers had to film and edit into movies. This was all done before video editing software made it easy to insert them.
"Special Effects Before Computers, A Guy Named Joe, 1943"
If you were producing a WW2 movie before CGI but there wasn't a real war going on and you couldn't actually film a flying plane, you had to get creative. Filmmakers used plenty of tricks like miniature models and backgrounds to give the appearance of real-life action, but in reality, it's a guy in swim trunks throwing a plane.
This Definitely Puts A Different Perspective On The Plane Scene From Medusa Touch, 1978
While 1978 isn't that long ago, CGI still wasn't far enough along in development for filmmakers to start using for special effects. So that epic plane crash scene in Medusa's Touch is brought to us by two guys on a ladder and a model plane.
For The 1927 Metropolis Movie, Way Before CGI, The Background Was Hand-Painted
Can you believe that many movie set backgrounds were hand-painted before they were recreated through special effects by mural artists? Famously, the Wizard of Oz also had many painted sets, which is just crazy because can you imagine painting that many gold bricks?
"Photograph (With Old School Photoshoping Done By Pencil) Of My Grandpa Taken By His Father In His Studio In Early 1920s"
More often than not, old school photoshop involves pretty old school methods, and that's usually a handy dandy pencil. That's probably a good idea in this case, since you don't want a kid holding a real bow and arrow.
From James Dean To Dean Of Students
This photographer just gave us all a masterclass in how we should look on our LinkedIn profiles. He airbrushed the living daylights out of his skin and removed a finger and a cigarette and truly made this regular guy look like the principal at every school we've ever been to.
