A local buy/sell/trade shop has a huge photo of what appears to be about 500-600 WWI soldiers in front of (we think) the White House. The photo is 5'8" wide by about 12" tall. It's crazy wide. The uniforms, hats, and eyeglasses make me think it's from the WWI era. The signature says "Photo by DeSouza 467 PA Ave NW (Pennsylvania Ave) Washington DC".
It's heavily stained or water damaged, but it has really piqued my curiosity. Mostly I'm interested in the equipment used. I looked very closely at the image for quite a while, and it shows no evidence of being a multiple image. I can see no seam anywhere. The detail on the individual people is, IMO, amazing. I could find no movement in the image, not even in the trees, which makes me believe it was a somewhat fast shutter speed. Grain in the image was negligible, and I really didn't see any, so that makes me wonder how much this was enlarged.
I was thinking it was a panoramic stitch, but like I said, I can't see any evidence of that. Then I thought maybe one of those old pano cameras that the lens moves as the photo is being taken, but I would have imagined there would be some sign of a long exposure, wouldn't there be? Could it have been some crazy huge camera that has a negative that could be 6 feet wide? I know they're out there, but were they being used at that time?
If anyone has any guesses, I'd love to hear them. If you know anything about the photographer, I'd love to hear that to.
Cell phone snaps of the image (they're pretty crappy) -
It's heavily stained or water damaged, but it has really piqued my curiosity. Mostly I'm interested in the equipment used. I looked very closely at the image for quite a while, and it shows no evidence of being a multiple image. I can see no seam anywhere. The detail on the individual people is, IMO, amazing. I could find no movement in the image, not even in the trees, which makes me believe it was a somewhat fast shutter speed. Grain in the image was negligible, and I really didn't see any, so that makes me wonder how much this was enlarged.
I was thinking it was a panoramic stitch, but like I said, I can't see any evidence of that. Then I thought maybe one of those old pano cameras that the lens moves as the photo is being taken, but I would have imagined there would be some sign of a long exposure, wouldn't there be? Could it have been some crazy huge camera that has a negative that could be 6 feet wide? I know they're out there, but were they being used at that time?
If anyone has any guesses, I'd love to hear them. If you know anything about the photographer, I'd love to hear that to.
Cell phone snaps of the image (they're pretty crappy) -
