13 Stripes and 34 Stars

JonA_CT

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Accompanied my students on a Civil War Field Day, and came across this flag in a local restored home. It was a flag from the 1860s that was carried by local troops during the Civil War, and managed to return home in one piece. Experimental treatment in LR and PS -- please tell me what you think.

34 stars.jpg
 
HKMS Civil War Day 2016-28.jpg Without too much processing (cropping, tone curve and sharpening)...maybe I should have kept it color.
 
That color looks pretty intense for as old as this flag is. Was the blue field a late restoration?
 
That color looks pretty intense for as old as this flag is. Was the blue field a late restoration?

Maybe...I only know what I was told as we were walking through the room (and I had 21 thirteen-year-olds with me...). As I was posting, I thought about the fact that I would have thought that the color should be more faded. It honestly wouldn't shock me if the story I got wasn't completely accurate.

EDIT: And now that I've done a bit of google research, this flag has 33 stars, not 34...ugh. I'll have to find the real story about it and get back to you.
 
I counted 34 stars (6 per star, 4 in the middle).

Nice find.
 
Both B&W and color work, but I like to see it cropped tighter so you can't see the clips holding it or see past the curve at the top. Make it all flag in the frame.
 
Both B&W and color work, but I like to see it cropped tighter so you can't see the clips holding it or see past the curve at the top. Make it all flag in the frame.
I echo Leo. If this was my image, I'd burn in the top to eliminate of the upper right and clone out the clips (as opposed to a crop). In the B&W I'd darken the blue field a bit for a touch more contrast and drama.

A very nice image ... especially with 21 squirrely 13 y/o's running around in front of and behind your back.
 
Both B&W and color work, but I like to see it cropped tighter so you can't see the clips holding it or see past the curve at the top. Make it all flag in the frame.

Both B&W and color work, but I like to see it cropped tighter so you can't see the clips holding it or see past the curve at the top. Make it all flag in the frame.
I echo Leo. If this was my image, I'd burn in the top to eliminate of the upper right and clone out the clips (as opposed to a crop). In the B&W I'd darken the blue field a bit for a touch more contrast and drama.

A very nice image ... especially with 21 squirrely 13 y/o's running around in front of and behind your back.

I'll give both of those ideas a shot when I get home later and post the results. Thanks for the feedback!

For what it's worth, I posted it on other social media last night -- and everyone liked the color version better.
 
34 stars edit.jpg


I split the difference -- cloned the clips and cropped the top...one of my friends said this to me -- "Dude. It's a flag. Colors are important." Hard to argue with that.
 
It looks like an un-official version of the 34 star great flower design 1861-1863, although I don't see why a military regiment would carry an unofficial version of the flag, it wouldn't have been authorized by the government. It seems more likely that it was flown in the home it was found in and not carried by troops as a lot of citizens flew un-official flags to show patriotism but didn't have access to official flags, so they made their own.
Interesting find. I like the original presentation best as it showed the stays.
 
Both B&W and color work, but I like to see it cropped tighter so you can't see the clips holding it or see past the curve at the top. Make it all flag in the frame.

I don't think those are clips holding it, I think those are the original mounting tabs. I don't imagine they had grommets then ;-)
 

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