affinity photo Back In Time . . . What Have We Thrown Away?

[Smee Again]

This is something I used to spend a lot of time with before my heart attack back  in 2015 and it's a subject that is dear to my heart. This effort was done between phone calls today, so it was a rush job and I'll likely rework it when I can get a decent sized set of images.

Some of the old architecture was so much more appealing than today's cookie cutter rubbish. Being born and raised in the New Orleans culture, there are lots of old structures that were removed to "modernize" the downtown area. by removing the old buildings that gave the city character and putting up some of the leggo looking structures that some folks see as an improvement.

This is a composite of an image from the turn of the 20th century (Southern Railway Station at the corner of Canal St & Basin Street, New Orleans, LA), an image from Google Earth (taken from about the same point on Canal Street as the old image). I combined the images using layers and masking, then I added some "colorization to the building matching what I was told the building looked like(I purposely did not colorize the people in the old pic). I personally did not get to see it because it was torn down and hauled away in 1958, less than a year after my birth it was no more. On a side note, Basin street was a one lane road designed for carriages with parking on one side, thus the street along the building has been narrowed accordingly.

Only posting it as it may inspire someone else to do similar work in order to remind people of what they've thrown away in the  name of progress, maybe even convincing some modern architects that buildings can be beautiful --- it just takes a bit more work than drawing different size boxes and connecting them. .

[Smee Again]

Oh, and yes those are trees reflecting in the glass. At the time this image was taken, there were still large trees in that part of the city, not many but some were reflected in this image. Using gradient mapping. The lighter colors were mapped to shades of blue taken from the modern image, darker colors were assigned to the green spectrum. Once the colors on the glass looked right, I inverted the mask on the gradient mask so that the mask was filled with black. Next I selected the panes with the lasso tool and flood fill with white.

[bumz]

Nice looking Job. Well done.

[VectorWhiz]

Very nice eye for detail and plenty skill to create a realistic image. A lot of functions were used. Kudos. I know from experience that coronary failure can disrupt life dramatically, but when allowed to remain in this dimension one tends to see many matters in a different light which may lead to more profound art. Stay healthy and creative! 

[Smee Again]

The last train leaving the station. Demolition had already started.

Black and white photo added to modern Google Earth image then colored. Actually found a color photo of the engine, so I know these colors are right.

[DeBella]

wonderful idea! Has a lot of interesting possibilities. like the unpolished station image. To me it's more time-machine. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[Slammer]

I do enjoy looking at these kind of pictures, there is a series from a Russian artist showing wartime pictures with contemporary ones, but I find his style a bit too copy-paste. This one with the terminal I could see myself walking past not knowing that the building doesn´t exist any more.