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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Converting B&W Photographs to Color


cwbuff

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Can someone recommend a good service that will convert Great War B&W photographs to color. I have two scanned family photographs that I would like to convert to color. Thanks.

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Can't help with your query, I'm afraid.

But I'm curious about this - how would the specialist know what colours to use on the photographs?

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A question I've asked myself, while watching various colorized footage of both world wars.

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This topic is often discussed in a sub-forum on an American Civil War forum. See link below:

http://civilwartalk.com/forums/civil-war-photography.94/

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  • 3 weeks later...
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These guys, who also have Facebook page with lots of examples, accept commissions (worldwide )

http://www.colourisehistory.com

On the other hand if you have Photoshop with patience there are lots of 'how to' videos on You Tube

I 've not used them though have liked their Facebook page so usual caveats apply

https://www.facebook.com/ColouriseHistory?ref=timeline_chaining

Ken

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It isn't that hard, a few practice sessions on Photoshop and I did this to one of my family pictures.

Finding the right colour is the hard part.

Spend the money on Photoshop, and have a go, people may start coming to you then!

Gareth

post-890-0-48227600-1433620605_thumb.jpg

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Thanks - this is what I was looking for.

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i guess it's personal preference but I don't like colourized photos at all.

The silver emulsion used in Edwardian portrait photography was reactive to both visible and UV light, giving it a distinctive look. it's most noticable on skin tones. Black and brown skin will look MUCH darker, with an almost metallic sheen and white skin will show up pigmentation which isn't usually visible - a slightly tanned face will look grubby. It also renders certain bright colours in a weird way, making them look much darker. Digitally spraying on a colour doesn't make those photos more realistic IMO, it just distorts them. The artist needs to make a lot of guesses and assumptions when choosing what colours to use and the result tranforms the picture from a documentary piece into an artistic one.

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Absolutely, colourising photographs is far more an activity for artistic impression rather than historic data retrieval, that’s the fun of it.

Also the original is not lost or destroyed, and if you wish at the end of a session you press delete and no one will ever know what a complete muck-up you made of that attempt.

It should not be taken too seriously academically.

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Absolutely, colourising photographs is far more an activity for artistic impression rather than historic data retrieval, that’s the fun of it.

Also the original is not lost or destroyed, and if you wish at the end of a session you press delete and no one will ever know what a complete muck-up you made of that attempt.

It should not be taken too seriously academically.

I'll admit it's fun to play with. I am fairly competent on Adobe Photoshop and had a bash with some digital "hand tinting" of B&W images I'd shot. Took me ages and the results were atrocious :)

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