| | George N. Barnard - Retouched images - Checklist |
1
LL/8089 |  | George N. Barnard
Battlefield of Atlanta, Ga., 1864 [Original]
1864
Negative
National Archives and Records Administration
[ARC identifier: 524961]
| 2
LL/8090 |  | George N. Barnard
Georgia, Atlanta Battlefield, July 22, 1864 [Retouched]
1864, 24 July
Retouched composite
National Archives and Records Administration
[ARC identifier: 533410]
| 3
LL/8091 |  | George N. Barnard
Confederate lines near Atlanta, Ga., and Potter House [Original]
1860-1865 (ca)
Negative
National Archives and Records Administration
[ARC identifier: 525131]
| 4
LL/8092 |  | George N. Barnard
Georgia, Atlanta, Confederate works in front of [Retouched]
1862-1865 (ca)
Retouched composite
National Archives and Records Administration
[ARC identifier: 533412]
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Contextual notes:
With wet collodion negatives the light sensitivity of the chemicals was such that one could get the correct exposure for the sky or for the landscape but rarely both. The French master of seascapes, Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884), got around this by taking two plates each exposed correctly for a part of the shot and then creating a final image that was a composite of the two.
With George N. Barnard (1819-1902) during the American Civil War these examples show both the original negative (presumably from a plate) and the retouched version where the clouds are both dramatic and visible. If you look at the skyline on the retouched version of the Potter House image and examine the trees on the right hand side you can clearly see where the two images have been joined.
Davis, Keith F., 1990, ‘George N. Barnard: Photographer of Sherman‘s Campaign‘, (Hallmark Cards) [Hardcover] [ISBN: 0875296270] |
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