How obsessive artists colorize old photos

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Photo colorization artists use a combination of research, physics, and technology to digitally reconstruct history’s black and white record.

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Artist links:
Jordan Lloyd (@jordanjlloydhq):
Mads Madsen (@Madsmadsench):
Marina Amaral (@marinamaral2):
Dana Keller (@HistoryInColor):
Patty Allison (@imbuedwithhues):

The Paper Time Machine:

Photo colorization isn’t just coloring within the lines — it requires meticulous research to make sure that every detail is historically accurate. The color of military uniforms, signs, vehicles, and world fashion spanning decades needs to be accounted for before even opening digital software like Photoshop. That means digging through sources like diaries, government records, old advertisements, and even consulting historical experts to get the colors right.

But even after the arduous research, restoration, and blending of color, the image still isn’t finished. In order to achieve true photorealism, the physics of how light works in the atmosphere needs to be taken into account. Colors look different depending on the lighting conditions when the photo was taken, so artists rely on shadows and the location of light to make an educated guess about the time of day in a black-and-white photo.

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47 Comments
  1. Vox says

    You can find more photos on the artists' pages. Check them out:

    Jordan Lloyd (@jordanjlloydhq): http://dynamichrome.com/
    Mads Madsen (@Madsmadsench): http://www.colorized-history.com/
    Marina Amaral (@marinamaral2): http://www.marinamaral.com/
    Dana Keller (@HistoryInColor): http://www.danarkeller.com/
    Patty Allison (@imbuedwithhues): https://imbuedwithhues.wordpress.com/

    The Paper Time Machine: https://unbound.com/books/paper-time-machine

  2. ClarktheK says

    I'm continually astounded by people who need color to relate to a photo's subject.

  3. Evan M says

    One of the best YouTube channels

  4. Coronette says

    wow an interesting video by vox.. now that's strange

  5. T3.O1F5 says

    You know black and white photos are more powerful than colourised ones because they can say the n-word

  6. CraftedGadgetMC says

    That man and his spot-on vocabulary to describe his thoughts. I definitely got down what he really tried to mean. It is mind-blowing.

  7. Its_Elkku says

    This is very enlightening. Who would've thought simply adding color to pictures would make such a difference…

  8. 孙正麾 says

    It has always seem to me that black and white photography differs a lot from modern photography. Until they colored them.

  9. Glitzy Studioz says

    ghost of the person "IDIOT THATS NOT THE RIGHT EYE COLOUR I HAD!"

  10. Javier Bennett says

    Google is developing software so that when you point your camera to a black and white image, it'll colorize it.

  11. Ultimate XLR-8 says

    That is why i love images

  12. Tiggy says

    the laplander looks so hipster

  13. Jazzy-J X says

    That’s pretty freaking amazing if you ask me

  14. zain says

    6:44 John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy getting married:)

  15. Ethann Kyle says

    So basically this is one of the advantages of using AI, where you just deliver the image and it processes it with all the data it has collected. Im pro AI rn

  16. marcelo Rodríguez says

    The guy could be a little bit more polite and show some respect to his audience by acting more professionally and not swearing

  17. GetYour Fix says

    I mean, I'm sure if they could have taken the pictures in color, they would have.

  18. Ashton Michael says

    That's so beautiful and looks fantastic!

  19. Lando ve says

    Amazing…. The colors really erase the distance between us and those people living in the past. They look more humane, reachable, and relatable. Not gloomy, sad, and horror-like anymore.

  20. Mike Jones says

    People 100s of years from now are lucky they can look into the their past and our present with so much detail

  21. Paradox Fog says

    the old eiffel tower looks brilliant

  22. Ebi Sles says

    This is amazing!!

  23. Playtime says

    I'm a part-time movie colorizer.

  24. country boy 1970 says

    As long as they aren't coloring on the originals I don't care in fact I like it it turns those photos into something much more real feeling

  25. MrMus TangMan says

    This blows my mind.!!!!!!!!

  26. Very good work, this if nothing else, helps a mental relation to the photography. Black and white has always thrown a degree of indifference at those attempting to percieve the photo's as realistic.
    Thank you.

  27. N.i.B. says

    The Thomas Edison one I almost didn’t believe. It was beautiful

  28. This freakin' awesome!

  29. Another Dave says

    This was my dad's job before WWII. They would take a print that people brought into the photo lab, make a negative and then a new print from that. and paint out scratches, creases, stains etc. with a pallet of grey scale paints. Then make a new negative and a new print from that, that they colorized. They thought it was going to be a booming business after the war. But color film was invented and the trade became obsolete. So he got a job with the railroad.

  30. Harry Trueman says

    What a bell end for swearing, arse hole

  31. VodShod says

    0:22 what do you mean by people that were actually there? There was color back then?

  32. Rohann van Rensburg says

    What is it about old film photos that make them look like oil paintings, especially when coloured? The highlights and midtones are really controlled, as well as shadows. There's a lot of shadow detail and decent contrast but highlights tend to be very smooth.

  33. Rose Easton says

    im gonna tell you a secret.
    multiply layer.
    its in photoshop
    shhhhhh…. dont tell anyone.

  34. Jason Kaiser says

    👏👏👏👏👏

  35. Mackaneek says

    history is awesome and this is a cool way to make people see that

  36. Jonathan Driver says

    Yeah it's not like they can just design a program that correlates shades to hues and you can just paint the color in like in the video here, hidden in plane sight. It's much more complicated, don't try this at home folks.

  37. S N E A K Y B O I says

    Easter Egg for Hitler

  38. Jakub Garbacz says

    cool, but I like to imagine the colors in black and white photos.

  39. coclo27 says

    How do I get this job!?!?

  40. Missy Cabic says

    I LOVE the colorized photos. It really does give you a new sense of history!

  41. Tyler Mikos says

    how does the Photoshop program know how to remove "blemishes" acquired from being so old. how does it take away water marks , but leave the clouds in for example, how can the program tell the difference? mind blown. Im clearly not artistic.

  42. Tyler Mikos says

    wow, it looks flawless. Oh yah this guy has got to be a millionaire. Millions of people would love just have their great grandparents photos colored in.

  43. Michal Stym Patek says

    This is amazing. Truly makes the pictures feel a lot more real and relatable.

  44. Sabahat Khan says

    I am falling in love with this photos

  45. Luis Torres says

    I’ve been doing photo colorization on my own time lol

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