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Chock · 31 October 2009, 11:20 AM

Estimating colours off monochromatic images is always a bit tricky, but I've had a go. By the way, I do know a fair bit about this, I have an Adobe Certified Expert qualification, and I have taught police department artists in the UK on how to do this sort of thing off monchromatic security camera footage, so it's not just wild speculation. Keep in mind that doesn't mean I'm definitely correct here, but anyway here's basically what I did:

I opened the image up in Photoshop, then converted it to monotone with the channel mixer, using the known ranges of what WW1 era monochromatic films tend to react to. Then I took an average sample of the fuselage colour and converted that to monotone too. Then I got a swatch of the RGB spectrum and moved a copy of the monotone average sample swatch along it, to find out at which points on the monotone converted RGB spectrum the average sample of the fuselage tone aligned. Here's the result:

A further bit of guesswork, based on the fact that WW1 era monochromatic film was not great at distinguishing certain colours, leads me to think the sky blue colour is the best bet, which is of course slightly supported by the fact that blue might be favourite for Finland too.

But that's not concrete, and if you prefer the red or the lilac colours, and there is no reliable period documentary evidence to contradict it, then you could go with those. I reckon you might be right about the wing colours, there are slight hints of tonal differences on the wings that might point at lozenge fabric, although it is not hugely apparent, so that is more of a guess.

Al

31 October 2009, 11:20 AM	#2 (permalink)
Chock Scout Pilot Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The grim north of England Posts: 405	Estimating colours off monochromatic images is always a bit tricky, but I've had a go. By the way, I do know a fair bit about this, I have an Adobe Certified Expert qualification, and I have taught police department artists in the UK on how to do this sort of thing off monchromatic security camera footage, so it's not just wild speculation. Keep in mind that doesn't mean I'm definitely correct here, but anyway here's basically what I did: I opened the image up in Photoshop, then converted it to monotone with the channel mixer, using the known ranges of what WW1 era monochromatic films tend to react to. Then I took an average sample of the fuselage colour and converted that to monotone too. Then I got a swatch of the RGB spectrum and moved a copy of the monotone average sample swatch along it, to find out at which points on the monotone converted RGB spectrum the average sample of the fuselage tone aligned. Here's the result: A further bit of guesswork, based on the fact that WW1 era monochromatic film was not great at distinguishing certain colours, leads me to think the sky blue colour is the best bet, which is of course slightly supported by the fact that blue might be favourite for Finland too. But that's not concrete, and if you prefer the red or the lilac colours, and there is no reliable period documentary evidence to contradict it, then you could go with those. I reckon you might be right about the wing colours, there are slight hints of tonal differences on the wings that might point at lozenge fabric, although it is not hugely apparent, so that is more of a guess. Al __________________ Wiseman: When you removed the book from the cradle, did you speak the words? Ash: Yeah, basically. Wiseman: Did you speak the exact words? Ash: Look, maybe I didn't say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically I said them, yeah.