Super Expensive Photos - Objectivity 55

[@Ur-Ninurta]

Keith: "They are beautiful. I'm very fond of these images. They're really quite evocative." Brady: "Cool!" :-)

[@Nilguiri]

+mah93047 Keith: Dappled sunlight in a woodland scene. Brady: Another tree.

[@raykent3211]

+Nilguiri ah, but a tree that produces delicious apples that we sinfully munch and are punished for with sore bottoms for sitting around watching youtube too much.

[@DibsOnMe]

+mah93047 Oh the top two comments are great!

[@kennylex]

That is verbal optimization.

[@pbp6741]

I'd love to hear from Keith on how new submissions get processed for the collection in terms of recorded, labelled, packed and stored.

[@RodrigoVzq]

I would so follow a youtube vlogging channel of Keith

[@petergriffin9554]

I am gonna go all out and guess it would be a 5 minute video of him sitting in a big leather chair drinking a cup of tea.

[@wizard-pirate]

@@petergriffin9554 I'd watch it

[@DarkKnightCy52]

Very cool! Love coming here to learn new things and see cool objects. Thanks for making the videos Brady and Keith!

[@ObjectivityVideos]

+DarkKnightCy52 thanks for watching :)

[@ozdergekko]

+Objectivity -- I really enjoyed this video. I was wondering if those are normally touched with silk or cotton gloves and mask.

[@realspacemodels]

The images are spectacular! Keith didn't mention it on camera, but there were few enlargers in the 1800's and prints were made usually by placing a negative directly on the paper. So most likely the images that Keith was showing were from negatives of that size. Because there was no enlarging, the full quality of the negative comes through on the print. Fox Talbot did patent an enlarger in the mid 1800's but they were not used much because of the long exposure times required with the print materials of the day and the lack of reliable bright light sources (no electric lights yet). I would love to see higher resolution digitial captures of these images. Any chance of the Society allowing that?

[@paulwomack5866]

The "negatives" didn't have enough grain resolution to support much enlargement, so the need for an enlarger didn't arise

[@007bistromath]

Brady, the next time you get a chance, you should go get some modern stills and time lapse footage of whichever of the scenes in these old pictures can be located. The places that bookend the history of photography!

[@notforwantoftrying1]

Probably one of the best objectivity videos ever. Some of those pictures are absolutely breathtaking, and the brady/keith synergy has never been so good.

[@bgezal]

It's sad when people don't really understand how massively important the invention of photographic image capture has been for historic reference. It's not just a photo of a tree. It is exactly what that tree looked like in that year and moment in time, not altered by any artist's brush or impression. We don't have photos of vikings, gladiators or Sir Isaac Newton. Just artworks, written descriptions and preserved objects, pieced together.

[@codediporpal]

Selfie with a document describing the world's first photography. Love it.

[@dielaughing73]

A very flattering one too, hey

[@fft2020]

thank you for giving us the opportunity to appreciate this amazing so ancient photos

[@12tone]

Out of curiosity, would those actually be for sale? If someone approached the Royal Society with half a million pounds for the photo, could they actually buy it? I'd assume not, but if not then what's the point of getting it priced in the first place? Is it just for insurance purposes?

[@thefatgelfling8781]

Exactly

[@harolds1544]

Loving Keith's jacket! And of course those landscapes are amazing too.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

:D I love seeing Brady & Keith do amazing things. The Royal Society is so lucky to have so many incredible papers & objects.

[@Tribble_Mama]

Those photos are beautiful! Thanks for sharing Brady and Keith

[@JamesCoyle95]

Are there high resolution digital versions of things like this? It would be great if everyone could view items from the archive online.

[@Aravzil]

+James Coyle I agree! I love the half a million pound one and the silky river one. I would definitely love to examine them in detail too!

[@orti1990]

+James Coyle That, would be cool.

[@Wernerrrrr]

+James Coyle That would be so cool! I don't think there's still copyright :P

[@abyssaljam441]

+James Coyle You may be abel to find them here royalsociety.org/collections/

[@unvergebeneid]

Greg Zaal So, the exact same link I had already posted which was in itself already mostly redundant ... seems like you could have saved yourself the trouble ;)

[@gregbrooks7102]

Beautiful objects, thank you for sharing them with us, and thank you Brady for including the moment when you were speechless! I think that moment illustrated very well just how impressive these (and other Objectivity objects) really are.

[@lzeph]

This is my favorite YT channel. Always something to amaze and inspire. Many thanks!

[@piratecheese13]

just imagine being one of those guys under a tree if you told them that many years from now electric signals discerned to two different binary states sent over large swaths of Asymmetric digital subscriber line to a place that would turn those states into numbers and those numbers would be turned into a color on a part of an array of small light emitting diodes to make a series of rapidly changing images,captured by means of someone exposing a light sensitive object to a scene of interest which happens to be of an scene derived by similar technique of those very men under a tree you might blow their minds

[@smaakjeks]

+piratecheese13 I reckon you would.

[@philipp7145]

I'm amazed at the quality of these. They are amazingly detailed and beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.

[@PinkChucky15]

This is really interesting, photography has come a long way but those photographs are so beautiful.

[@CybranM]

This is probably my favourite episode so far! I love those images

[@chikenchasa]

I love how the photographers had an innate flair for photography.

[@ZeedijkMike]

You guys just keep on giving. And yes! Very beautiful photos.

[@TheJonOwen]

Brady, your coloration in this video is amazing! Just beautiful, good job man.

[@Jacksirrom]

One of my favorites so far, thanks Brady.

[@rzasen]

Thanks for bringing all these objects to light so that we can appreciate them :)

[@carbo73]

3:00, that mountains landscape, isn't it the circle de Gavarnie?

[@ooloncolluphid9975]

About 5:56 Keith says : " Because they hadn't had any light exposure, of course they'd been preserved beautifully." So will these images fade away in time due to light exposure ? How long would that take ?

[@LexanPanda]

I'm having trouble finding scans of these photos, but they fall under the reference number MS/784, and you can view the descriptions of each on the Royal Society's website.

[@MacoveiVlad]

Do a series showing a interesting thing from every country or from a personality of every country. An archive so old has to have at least a piece from every country in the world. The more interesting angle would be to find personalities from every country that collaborated/donated to the Royal Society... Basically a friend list. :)

[@MagmaMusen]

How do you put a price on these kinds of objects?

[@hackleberrym]

+MagmaMusen My thoughts exactly, how do they know how valuable these are?

[@puupipo]

+MagmaMusen Simple economics, supply and demand, I imagine. Very few prints, a lot of rich people willing to buy them.

[@sam08g16]

+Joonas Puuppo indeed, the price of anything is how much a person is willing to pay for it

[@hackleberrym]

Fiddling Beelzebot Is there really anyone who is willing to pay half a million pounds for this photo?

[@puupipo]

+Michał Hickiewicz Wouldn't surprise me one bit. When it comes to art, all conventional ideas of what something is "worth" go out the window.

[@anthonyflores1606]

Speaking of photographs, Brady you should post more pics on your Twitter. They are always very good and rather interesting.

[@flamencoprof]

I suggest this shows that a quality image is more likely when you know it will be a unique opportunity, and it will be pretty expensive. A lot more thought will thus be invested in the making of it. I know that a lot of my old 35mm film pics, often with a tripod, seem to be better than most of my digital camera ones, and definitely better than a bunch of my phone pics.

[@adricortesia]

these photos are absolutely astonishing! They look like photos from today.

[@matt.robinson]

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing Brady!

[@KillerAceUSAF]

I am loving this channel! I love this video especially because I am huge into photography!

[@JosephCoates]

Could you do a supplemental video interviewing Keith? I'm an Archivist at a college in the US and I wonder what it takes to be a librarian in the UK, especially somewhere cool like the Royal Society.

[@unvergebeneid]

This is so interesting! If you consider how much time it took to develop the basic visual language of movies, it's obvious that this was a much quicker process with photos. It would be interesting to know if the first photographers had at least some training as painters because the same basic ways to compose a picture can be used in both mediums.

[@xStrikie]

Fantastic! are these pictures (and other items of higher value) off limits when you visit the royal society? Or can you request them just like any thing? :)

[@pencilpen786]

My favourite was that cathedral-esque building.

[@sooth15]

Thanks for sharing these! The photographs are beautiful. I'm surprised they were so large as well.

[@SteelSkin667]

The very first one is absolutely gorgeous.

[@michaeldonders677]

Love the Hello Internet t-shirt subtly hidden under brady's shirt :)

[@timothy9958]

is that a portrait of Keith by the door?

[@EleanorCharlotte8855]

Hahahahaha I thought the same

[@locouk]

Your videos are so enjoyable to watch, please can you do 10 minute videos on subjects that are picked?

[@fossil98]

+Green Silver On the very small chance you didn't know, Brady has many other channels including periodic videos, sixty symbols and the really very good numberphile channel; worth checking out even if you've never given mathematics a second thought.

[@Roy_Godiksen]

This is literally the first paper on humanity's first suksessfull attempt to freeze and capture time and space... Worth more then 1 million dollars in my opinion.

[@ClashBerry]

Really like how you worded that!

[@chriswalford4161]

Could you mention something about the processing of the prints - how they were developed and whether they were fixed?

[@isaacc7]

Keith mentioned that one of the prints was a salt print. Do you have any information on what kind of process was used for the others? I'm guessing albumen prints by how they look but it would be exciting if there were any carbon prints in there as well.

[@percsone]

loove these photogenic drawings!

[@robmckennie4203]

Do the rooms wherein these kinds of things are shown or looked at have special lights, or filters on the windows, to help preserve the images?

[@sabberi]

+Rob Mckennie I think when the photos occasionally are on display, exposure to UV light is restricted and lighting that is safe for graphics (e.g. like in museums) is used. It's either that, or Keith stands in front of the windows, while rendering the displayed photos even more vibrant with lengthy, sage monologues about the essence of beauty.

[@Metalkatt]

I'm a large proponent of mass scanning projects so the details of these documents can be properly indexed and distributed digitally, but I'd worry about scanning pictures like those--would the scanner lights hurt them or change them in any way, I wonder?

[@Martial-Mat]

Fascinating, but ridiculous that they have so much value.

[@DokterKattenbakvulling]

favourite episode. great photos. thanks bois

[@kf4744]

That's amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[@thefatgelfling8781]

With just one of those photos in my possession, I could afford the most basic rudimentary bare-bones healthcare plan, here in the United States. Man that'd be a heck of a treat, access to basic healthcare.

[@samueldevulder]

The first picture of lanscape from the Pyrenees, is the Cirque de Garvarnie. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_de_Gavarnie)

[@Tilbythegreat]

I don't remember if you've done this already but maybe you could do a video about Keith's favorite object? He said he was quite fond of these photos so I'm curious about if there exists an object that Keith is particularly fond of and takes out from time to time for his own viewing pleasure? Since he's the expert this could only be quite interesting.

[@KingTaltia]

I have goosebumps, such history!

[@rjhrjh3]

Note there are no people in those scenes (apart from one). This is because exposure times would have been measured in minutes.

[@derTeddy]

Does anyone know if there are any high-res versions of those images available to look at?

[@dalannar]

How can we find these photos online ? Would love to maybe even use them as inspiration.

[@FrottyZaoldyeck]

Sad to see that this channel isn't really taking off - I think it might be due to the varying fascination of the object presented in each video. I don't really have a suggestion for this though - I only wish for another of Keith's librarian-stories.

[@francoislacombe9071]

+Frotty Zaoldyeck Over 68000 subs is pretty good.

[@culwin]

+Frotty Zaoldyeck How do you define "taking off"? Many people would love to have about 25,000 views on each of their videos.

[@Pqag]

Does anyone know why so many of these old books have that weird half page thing where the bottom is chopped off?

[@stefanenache9002]

What is the last photographer's name? Didn't quite catch it

[@macro820]

Are there any scans of those pictures?

[@DarthTyler17]

So Keith says that they have been preserved due to lack of light exposure. How does looking at them now affect them? Is there any treatment that can be done in order to preserve them for viewing? Cool video!

[@timwatley4793]

+DarthTyler17 Much like all silver prints, they do eventually fade... very slowly though.

[@letartean]

Have these prints been numerized? I would really like to make a print of those, as they must be public domain... Can someone provide a link if it exists?

[@FlesHBoX]

I would so love to be able to purchase reproductions of some of these!

[@ScreamsOfSilence100]

"I'm quite fond of these images, they're really very evocative." "cool"

[@gaprilis]

Is it known which particular village from France is on the most expensive photo?

[@RahilSethi]

These are much better quality and sharp picture than most of the stupid cellphone cameras.

[@jackwhite3820]

Taking a selfie with the first paper describing photogenic drawing and then comparing those treasures by saying "it could have been taken yesterday with a *nice* Instagram filter" ... are you mocking us, Brady?! What has the world become?

[@jmchez]

I still bemoan the fact that "self-portrait" got shortened to "selfie". Now, some millennials refer to pictures, even the ones that were taken of them by another person as selfies. I just want to slap those people.

[@Patrick-cy2zh]

0:03 is that a picture of Keith?

[@EleanorCharlotte8855]

No! This is Patrick ! 😂

[@BigAirWindJam]

Wonderful!

[@joshuaroughan3350]

I have a serious issue with these videos..... there's not enough views I simply love this stuff! and to think maybe only 50 years ago this stuff would have been really only bee visible to royalty or extreme intelligentsia.

[@GlubbDrubb]

Who took the picture of the first camera??? ;-)

[@justin.booth.]

Those are incredible

[@otakuribo]

That selfie was meta.

[@katuroo]

is it a half million pounds because maybe the town no longer exists, maybe through war - or is it because the high contrast/sharp image quality?

[@leestuurmans2837]

so fascinating!

[@WMfin]

What a tie!

[@jmm1233]

for the first photos they made sure it was all HD , even if its all grey scale

[@raghuvirkenijr.4570]

best video of the lot !!

[@Pile_of_carbon]

That's _really_ cool! Hipsters, you're doing it wrong! Drop Instagram and bring out the silver nitrate.

[@ashkara8652]

problem with handling too much silver nitrate - it's poisonous.

[@jmchez]

I prefer the platinum printing process, myself.

[@johnallardyce4164]

2:30 Looks like you are sniffing the glue...

[@Fl0ep]

Brady, I hope you didn't send that photo to Grey. He wouldn't know what the point is, because you failed to point at the thing you want him to notice.

[@Sanelicv]

Wow, half a million pounds. That's enough money to pay for all my present and future tuition fees. I could afford almost five PhDs with one single photo.

[@thefatgelfling8781]

Saneli Carbajal Vigo Not in America you can't

[@iagocasabiellgonzalez7807]

Awesome!

[@billyhendrix5544]

id pay good money for the original copy at 4:02

[@NathanTyph]

Awesome! :D

[@Asher.Yodaah]

I did not know that the Royal Society had pieces of their collection appraised.

[@johnallardyce4164]

+Asher.Yodaah for insurance purposes.

[@stan.rarick8556]

Brady ... speechless

[@kaveia]

OLDEST tilted-back architecture photo ? photo of church has columns that seem TOO parallel. difficult to measure from video, though.

[@phampton6781]

Interesting, they don't usually mention the monetary value of the objects.

[@JeroenBaxexm]

amazing

[@abyssaljam441]

At the start, the portrate to the right of Keth looks like Keth.... It probaly isn't but it would be cool if it was. :D

[@DjVortex-w]

Somebody's vacation photos. Boooriing... (Just joking, of course.)

[@U014B]

At least it's not babies or meals.

[@chillsahoy2640]

+WarpRulez Most people's dream journal: boring. Sigmund Freud's dream journal: most important oneiric document in the Royal Society (not sure if they even have anything related to Freud but it would be interesting).

[@EleanorCharlotte8855]

What was the image about which Talbot photographed???

[@notnowliberty]

For goodness' sake, Brady! Those extraordinary images of great value were 'cool'? Didn't you see the beauty?

[@dinomanneke]

I like the HI T-shirt ;)

[@EleanorCharlotte8855]

I remember seeing two very odd scorpion figures and the history of the copied imageries at a manor in Lacock where Talbot lived. One of the previous owners was a famous nobleman who was notorious for forgery, I can't remember his name but his portrait looked a bit like count dracula to me, which was bit eerie ! I wonder if the photographer happened to live there because of its history rooted in reproduction. I hope there's no mad scientist's lab there now, cloning human beings! 😂