dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Ashampoo is offering "CODIJY Recoloring" 4.0 Standard for $25... Popsci.com offers it for $15~!

What are your thoughts on Coloring software? What one do you use?

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Oldie PS Elements 3 (airbrush tool).

Works for coloring as was done to tin types etc. If you meant "colorizing" as Turner does to movies then I can see youd want real automation, maybe AI.

Did you mean coloring as was done to portraits with Marshals Oils, or mean colorization to mimic full color media ?

srt101fan

I shot a lot of black & white because I liked (and still like) black & white ….

No need for colorization!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

He said "coloring software".

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

https://photomyne.com/colorize-app

Go to the above link and see if you like it. You can do a free trial run.

This is not for the purists- it's a quick and dirty automated app that I lkie because it is reminiscent of the tints and transparent oil treatment that were popular back in the olden days.

I use it to restore old family photographs and make them more displayable in my home where we have a "family wall"!

I love my monochrome but this app is fun.

Years ago, many photo studios employed colorists who worked with transparent oil paints and created effects that were close to natural color. Some folks are still doing that work but in professional circles, it is kind of a lot of art.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you for your replies.
As srt101fan suggested, B&W stands as is as great photography. B&W indeed is expressive, especially when flavored with Topaz B&W2. I am not against BW. The colorization temptation is for some old faded photos I have that were colored from the 1950/60s "drugstore" prints; now not BW or Color.

At a glance, the CODIJY Recoloring allows the selection of an area and then dipping a chosen color and putting in the selected area.

E.L.. Shapiro mentioned the old technique of transparent oils... I recall my sister doing these, was it a paid job? Yes, I think so, portrait studios did B&W photos, and color processing was not a back-of-the-studio darkroom technique.

The photomyne software suggested by Shapiro appears fast and automated...
https://photomyne.com/colorize-app

Photomyne as demoed using a Cellphone photo app form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9Zqpbo3QVEg&t=262s

Shapiro, do you have and use Photomyne?

ELNikkor

I once came upon a motorhome smoking on I-10 across the median in the Florida panhandle. My only quickly-available camera was my XA with Plus-X. Just as I framed & focused, the whole thing exploded in a huge fireball. Wish I had gotten that sequence in color, maybe someday will colorize it when I find a suitable program or service. UHH usually provides good info on things like this. (Thanks, everyone!)

nikon123 Loc: Toronto, Canada

I hope that your first instinct was to save any people caught inside!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Good questions.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

The app. I suggested is from Photomyne.

It probably works on some form of IA. I can not select specific colors for clothing or backgrounds but it works decenty enough on skin tones.

I can adjust the contrast in a black and whiteimage and clone our defects and damages before uploading the image to the app.

I do not use it for serious restoration work at my studio. The technician/retoucher there uses a manual colorization system that is more selective. My former retoucher has retired due to illness. She was a master at oil coloring and tinting. She used some of Marshall's' kits and other mediums. We would make a warm-tone print on Ektalur paper, sepia-tone it and she would apply the color.

As I mentioned, I use the app for personal stuff for a family wall and an antique table that we have at home for family artifacts and old and restored photographs as well as a few current additions.

My wife's family had been in the portrat photography business since 1922. There are some imags in our collection that were made by her grandfather and colored by her aunt back in the day.

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Thus my question !

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Anyone on-scene acting on such instinct would acoarst not be around today to be describing the scene to us.

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Pre-digital, my ladyfriend worked at hand coloring and retouching at Vardens, very typical portrait chain studio. Very tedious detailed work. The whole coloring crew and supervisor were a bunch of stoners. Think of it as verrrrrry early AI :-)

Today all that would be considered some form of "workplace injury". Acoarst I had always considered it a workplace benefit, not an injury !!!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Then why would you ask about Marshall Oils?

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I did not ask about oils, but whether the OP wanted software to produce an effect more like Marshalls oils or more like Ted Turners colorized movies. The OPs term "coloring" could be read as either thing.