Sunday

Colorizing old black and white photos?

My Heritage, the family history website just introduced something new. They will "colorize" old black and white or sepia-toned photos. I haven't yet decided if I like it or not. It seems to work better with some photos than others. Many of the old family photos I have been lucky enough to have in my possession have been damaged over the years. With the help of Adobe Photoshop I have tried to buff many of them up, covering cracks, spots etc. lightening or darkening. I also now add names, dates and places to photos so future family members will always know who that is in the photo. I am all for that but I think I like the original black & white look of an old photo. However I do admit, "colorizing" does do something special that is cool to see.

Here is my great grandmother Lydia Abrahamson with her siblings and parents.



Well, what do you think? Cool? Creepy? I can't decide.


2 comments:

pasmithx2 said...

I used the MyHeritage site to colourize a nursing portrait of my mom and the result was really nice. It brought out the depth and texture of the details. However the program decided that she had brown eyes instead of blue and that's a detail I can't accept. The program guesses at colours and does a decent job of it, but it's still a guess and that makes me wonder if it's better to stick to the B&W and leave the colours to the imagination.

Ranae Kallman Feick said...

After a bit of thought I think I agree with you. Myself and numerous members of my family were blessed? (or cursed, it depends on how you look at it) with flaming red hair. Nope, it did not come out correctly. Skin tones also don't tend to be always right. It was a fun adventure though wasn't it?