Although color photography dates back to the 19th century, most of the photographs taken in the second half of the 20th century were black and white. This method was cheaper and more common at the time. There were no digital cameras and smartphones at that time.
Many of us have old monochrome photographs that were taken at various moments in life: parents’ wedding, photos of grandparents, childhood photos, etc. Would you like to turn black and white photos stored in family albums into color images? There are many ways to do this!
Colorizing with a brush by hand
This is an old method of coloring black and white photos that artists used long before the advent of Photoshop. You have probably already guessed that its essence is to paint on a photo. Andy Warhol’s famous pop art painting “Marilyn Diptych” was done using this technique. As you can see, the artist who hand-colors the black and white photo has complete control over the final result. The artist can choose natural colors or make a surreal picture. Anyway, this is a meticulous and time-consuming job that requires attention to detail.
Colorizing photo in Photoshop
To colorize a monochrome image in Photoshop, you must make a digital copy of it first. It should be said right away that there is no special filter that reads black and white photo data and converts it into colors. You will have to paint the picture yourself but with a little technical assistance.
The essence of editing a black and white photo in Photoshop is the layer-by-layer coloring of every detail. Create a layer with objects of a specific color. At the end of editing, you will receive tens or hundreds of layers. Use built-in effects to create lifelike images.
Colorizing black and white photo app
If you don’t want to waste your time on the manual coloring of black and white photos, entrust them to a special application. RetouchMe is an image editing app available for iOS and Android devices. It has a function for coloring old pictures about which you can find out in more detail at the link https://retouchme.com/colorize-black-and-white-photos-app/. The program is free, but editing costs money. However, the result will surprise you.
Free online services
There are many free bots on the Internet that automatically colonize black and white photos. These days, the algorithm of such sites is not perfect, so the colors in the final images have dull, almost gray tones. AI ignores small details creating only large spots of different colors. However, this method also deserves attention.
