How do they colorize black and white photos and old movies? I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color...

four66four Loc: waunakee,wi

I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago. I was watching old world war one documentary historical film and it was all in color.How do the get all the colors correctly on these old film and photos?.

ToBoldlyGo Loc: London U.K.

I would imagine the process today would be quite different. It would be done digitally, but I agree it would be fascinating to find out the actual process from past times. Some of the Laurel and Hardy films were colourised frame by frame. From memory they didn't get much praise though.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

four66four wrote:

I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago. I was watching old world war one documentary historical film and it was all in color.How do the get all the colors correctly on these old film and photos?.

It originated with a NASA engineer.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/26956/how-and-why-are-black-and-white-films-colorized
https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question184.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBR1l21J70I

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

four66four wrote:

I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago. I was watching old world war one documentary historical film and it was all in color.How do the get all the colors correctly on these old film and photos?.

I'm sure there are digital techniques now, but my mother did a few photographs back in the 1950s. She used a very fine brush and what I assume were a specialized set of translucent dyes.

I may even have one somewhere, hope I have, but finding it could be tricky.

Mr. Google came up with this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I haven't seen them recently, but some time ago you could buy colorizing kits at Michaels.
According to my brother, the method was much the same, if not identical, to the way my Dad (a professional photographer) colorized some photos.
The reason Michaels gave for these kits, was to make your photos look like photos from when? 1940's, 1950's? for your scrapbooks.
I have only one of these colorized photos my Dad did, taken in late 1953, of my sister.

machia Loc: NJ

Colorization is a fine tool to do exactly what it’s supposed to do ; add color . But there are old movies , both dramatic and comedic that aren’t the same in color . B&W suits them better in most cases .
Interesting phenomenon .

blackest Loc: Ireland

Peterff wrote:

I'm sure there are digital techniques now, but my mother did a few photographs back in the 1950s. She used a very fine brush and what I assume were a specialized set of translucent dyes.

I may even have one somewhere, hope I have, but finding it could be tricky.

Mr. Google came up with this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs

You can do surprisingly well with a pack of felt tip pens pick a suitable color and have a go the different shades of grey in the photo lighten and darken the ink (not totally accurate but it can look pretty impressive).

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Personally, I don't know how they colorized old B&W movies but, I wish they wouldn't! Those old movies can show us a lot about the use of light and it seems that is diminished during the colorization process.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Some years ago I read a b&w image into Photoshop LE {"Limited Edition" - packaged with a scanner I had purchased} - and told it to fix the white balance. This was a mostly browns winter scene, and the software came amazingly close to the original scene.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

four66four wrote:

I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago. I was watching old world war one documentary historical film and it was all in color.How do the get all the colors correctly on these old film and photos?.

Movies is a more recent technique using computers.
Photos as has been said were hand painted or with special color pencils. Movies I believe were not colorized until computers as hand coloring each frame would be quite a task.
Most WWII color movies I understand were done using amerature movie cameras that only had color film as the government could not get enough professional cameras that had black and white

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

four66four wrote:

I realize color film and color movies have been around for a long time, but it was expensive. How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago. I was watching old world war one documentary historical film and it was all in color.How do the get all the colors correctly on these old film and photos?.

By hand.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I colorize old black and white photos via Photoshop. Not all need or should be colorized but some, like the attached below, come out well

(Download)

ToBoldlyGo Loc: London U.K.

Architect1776 wrote:

Movies is a more recent technique using computers.
Photos as has been said were hand painted or with special color pencils. Movies I believe were not colorized until computers as hand coloring each frame would be quite a task.
Most WWII color movies I understand were done using amerature movie cameras that only had color film as the government could not get enough professional cameras that had black and white

As I said earlier, movies have been done by hand, with no computers involved.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

four66four wrote:

How do they accurately color old movies and film type photos from long ago.

It's not really accurate. Much of it is guess work.

Bobsphoto

My wife has a friend who does very well colorizing black and white photos. She calls them hand painted photos. It is a painting process.