Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 November 27

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November 27

How people spent their leisure time in France in the early 1900s (1900-1909)

How did people in France spend their leisure time in the early 1900s (1900-1909)? Rebel Yeh (talk) 09:38, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Big difference between town and country. Town would include sport, visiting public parks, reading, cabaret and music theatre. Countryside: local festivities and celebrations, gatherings like agricultural fairs, religious celebrations and pilgrimages, hunting, drinking and playing cards. Big regional differences too. Itsmejudith (talk) 09:48, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Cabarets, particular the Moulin Rouge, which would have been universally known and the audience having changed around 1900 from the select few of the avantgarde during the 1880s-1890s to the general populace by then. And theatres of course, some of the earliest movie theaters. And hanging out at cafés. --Saddhiyama (talk) 10:17, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

A surprising find from an earlier question - [British working class leisure in the 1800s] - was that many people would get dressed up on a Saturday night and just wander about the main streets of their town, where there would be street entertainers and refreshment stalls; they could meet their friends, see and be seen. I suspect that Parisians would have done this too - I found this 1904 "promenade suit". Alansplodge (talk) 14:00, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

For the working class, also, drinking in bars and bantering for men, sitting around one another's kitchen tables and gossiping for women. Going to a cabaret or even a cafe would I think have been more of a middle class pastime. Marco polo (talk) 15:52, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Did they go on retreats, or did that start later? μηδείς (talk) 18:05, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

The OP didn't specify the social class, but going to cafés would certainly be more common even among the lower classes in Paris than it would elsewhere. While putting on your sunday best and watching jugglers is probably more of a provincial phenomenon. --Saddhiyama (talk) 19:54, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I doubt that the working class had much free time to invest in pastimes around 1900-1909. OsmanRF34 (talk) 22:06, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Well. you might think that, but researching the question linked above led me to the leisure activities of British coal miners in that era; they ranged from gardening, whippet racing and football to ballroom dancing, bible study and adult education classes. The point was made that women had very little spare time unless they had enough income to employ a domestic help. Alansplodge (talk) 12:40, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

How to achieve the effect on this picture with digital means?

Is a filter necessary or processing on the computer? OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:56, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I assume you mean the slightly unusual coloring. The answer is, yes, that can be done on a computer, but there are mathematically infinite numbers of operations that can start with the uncolored photograph and end with the one on the right(and they could all operate differently on different base photos). Could you be specific about exactly what kind of change you want to see? "like this photo" is dreadfully nonspecific. i kan reed (talk) 21:41, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I mean the coloring, it appears to be stronger or warmer. I don't know how to describe it. OsmanRF34 (talk) 21:45, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

What you basically have there is low saturation and high contrast. It can easily be replicated on a computer using programs like PhotoShop, but decades ago, when color film was pretty primitive, that effect was actually hard to avoid. Looie496 (talk) 21:51, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Yes, with the red segment of RGB a bit enhanced, i.e., "warm" as you said. μηδείς (talk) 22:06, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

The reddish glare across the top and center of the image is likely the result of a minor light leak. To replicate it digitally some kind of masking or gradient would have to used. There is also may be bit of vignetting which could also be added digitally. --Daniel 22:58, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Try the Instagram filters — they have many that make digital photos look more or less like this. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:31, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

It looks to me like the cyan has been turned down. StuRat (talk) 06:01, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

It may help if you describe how exactly your created this photo in the first place. Did you use a filter with an analog camera? (I presume your created this photo since you uploaded it as your own work.) Also do you have the original photo without the OkCupid watermark? Nil Einne (talk) 10:39, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Stuart seems to be right. I have used a photo editor and applied an autocorrect (after which the photo looks fairly normal). Tweaking the colour balance (cyan >> red, about 75%) returns the image to the current (false colour) setting. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 13:01, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

What's that, VSOC?

Recently on an old wine bottle (some 40 yo) I encountered the abbreviation VSOC, what does it mean, pls? 92.193.105.123 (talk) 22:40, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

This suggests that the wine may be from Romania (our article is poor, unfortunately), and the initials stand for "Vinuri de calitate superioara cu denumire de origine si trepte de calitate". This article suggests that VSOC wines are now termed DOCC, and are the highest quality wines produced in Romania. Ghmyrtle (talk) 23:05, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It seems to be an old form of describing a wine in French - that it's actually wine (vin), superior quality (supérieur), its origin is given (origine), and its origin is controlled (contrôlée). It seems to have been replaced by other "Controlled origin" descriptions like DOC or AOC. Adam Bishop (talk) 23:07, 27 November 2012 (UTC)