Colorize Black & White Photos 10. Colorized using Algorithmia Bob Heck 11. Comparison of all three: MPAFUG MyHeritage, Image Colorizer, 10 MARCH 2021 Algorithmia 1. Why Colorize? 12. Original and Enhanced by • Adding color to an old black & white MyHeritage photo can add “life” to your ancestors. 13. MyHeritage Original and • CAUTION: You should never colorize an Enhanced original photo. You should always work 14. My Heritage Original Enhanced & with a copy. Colorized • Most services make a copy and do not 15. “Image Colorizer” Plans modify the original. 16. Algorithmia incorrectly changed • If you post a colorized photo add the word the color of the blue dress to pink. “colorized” to the title. Original, Black & White, • Example: Lydia.jpg and Colorized Lydia colorized.jpg 17. I have some color photos that are 2. How does colorizing work? badly faded. • Most programs use Ai or Artificial • Colorizing will bring out the color intelligence to colorize a photo. however the colors will not be true. • If you took 9 colored balls and ordered • It would be best to use a fade correction them white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, program for best results. indigo, violet, and black, and took a black 18. Color photos from the 1940-1980 and white photograph, you’d see a white period fade in time. ball, a series of darkening gray balls, and a • If kept in a closed album fading can be black ball. Each level of gray would moderate. correspond to a different color. • If exposed to daylight the fading can be 3. Twelve Colored and Grayscale severe. balls • If exposed to sunlight the fading will be 4. Nine Colors set to Grayscale extreme. 19. Most photo programs can correct 5. Each color corresponds to a a faded photo. different shade of gray. • I use a commercial program: Corel “Paint 6. Brightness Level also has different Shop Pro”. Grayscale Level • The best free photo editors at a glance: 7. Let’s look at five programs for • GIMP colorizing photos. • Ashampoo Photo Optimizer • Image Colorizer • Canva https://imagecolorizer.com • Fotor • MyHeritage https://www.myheritage.com • Photo Pos Pro • Algorithmia https://demos.algorithmia.com • Paint.NET • Gimp https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ • PhotoScape • PaintShop Pro • Pixlr X https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/ • Adobe Photoshop Express Editor 8. Original Photo • PiZap 9. Colorized using Image Colorizer & 20. GIMP is a FREE Photo Program. MyHeritage • https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ • GIMP does a good job on faded photos but • In 2019 MyHeritage added “Colorize” not quite as good as Paint Shop Pro. black & white photos. • GIMP is more complex and may take a bit • In January 2020 MyHeritage added more practice to learn. “Enhance” to sharpen photos. • Can’t beat the price! FREE • In late 2020 MyHeritage added “Restore 21. GIMP: Colors, Levels, Auto Input Colors” to correct faded photos. Level 38. What I had often said… 22. MyHeritage just introduced • “You can add new life to those old photos. “Restore Color” Make those people come to life.” 23. MyHeritage’s Color Restore • MyHeritage must have been listening 24. Paint Shop Pro 2021 because… • Amazon price: Download Version $50 • In February 2021 MyHeritage added • Amazon price: PC Disk Version $52.50 “Animate” to add near life to your photos. • For $2.50 more I recommend buying the 39. Richard and Gladys PC Disk Version. 40. Richard Animation • Earlier version work just as well. 41. My mother with her grandmother • E-Bay: X2 for $20. 42. The last time she would see her 25. Paint Shop Pro corrected a faded granddaughter color photo using the “Color Fade 43. My Mother in 1914 Correction”. 44. Mary Ann McNulty 26. Original – Gimp - MyHeritage - 45. Cheryl Heck and her Dad PaintShopPro 46. Henry Heck Original 27. Image Colorizer PaintShopPro 47. Henry Heck Colorized from Black & White Fade 48. Henry Heck 1839-1920 Correction 49. Conclusions 28. GIMP: Colors, Levels, Auto Input • Of the five colorizing programs that we Level looked at I would pick the top three as 29. Paint Shop Pro “Color Fade follows: Correction” • MyHeritage (Commercial) 30. MyHeritage Restore Colors • PaintShop Pro (Commercial) 31. Gimp PaintShop Pro MyHeritage • Gimp (Free) 32. Even TinType can be salvaged. • I would not use Algorithmia or Image Original, Restored (PS Pro) Colorizer. (Free) 33. MyHeritage: Colorized, Enhanced & Colorized 34. TinType before and after 35. TinType Photos using MyHeritage 36. Suggestions • Scan all photos in color. • Scan at 300 dpi (dots per inch). • Many Civil War era TinType photos were hand colored. • TinType photos turn black in time, but they can be salvaged using photo software. 37. MyHeritage added New Features .