I don't like 'colourised' photos. (With AI imagery stuff)

Discussion in 'Photo Restoration' started by von Poop, Sep 12, 2014.

?

To 'colourise' or not to 'colourise'?

This poll will close on Jan 23, 2027 at 3:54 PM.
  1. Yes. I like it.

    10 vote(s)
    16.1%
  2. No, it is a bad thing. Stop it.

    38 vote(s)
    61.3%
  3. Depends. (dithering quitters tick here :whistle: )

    13 vote(s)
    21.0%
  4. Don't you know theres a real world out there? Why would anyone care?

    1 vote(s)
    1.6%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Swiper

    Swiper Resident Sospan

    I debated writing a very involved response, but thought naff it. A few articles have circulated over the years suggesting that younger generations with less of a direct link to the past do respond well to colour photos of the past as it makes it real. Helps provide a swift reference for the world as they record it etc.

    Period colour photos are wonderful, colourisation (as its all fedgling guesswork by Twiddles McGee after a five min google) is a joke.

    So can it engage, it appears so. Jackson believes the former - I believe he is a proponent of the research underpinning it, and it defined his museum's interpretation of the Great War. So there is a lot to his approach in some ways.

    The biggest problem is the huge number of unscrupulous colourists who effectively anchor their business model around clickbait and are frankly guessing at what they portray, then using the wonderful phrase "I DID MY RESEARCH" to cover a multitude of basic sins and signal their worth as a RESEARCHER and dedicated HISTORIAN to their fans, as obvs ££££ is NOT an incentive. NO.

    There, I even avoided pointing out how 'new media' believes 'history is irrelevant' to 16 - 40 demographic.

    Oh... so close.

    Balls.
     
    Chris C likes this.
  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Yesterday whilst I was at the Imperial War Museum after a slight hesitation the teacher told the school children that the Weeping Window Poppies were to celebrate the end of World War 2.

    Lets hope this is a one off otherwise black and white or colour photographs of the time wont make the slightest difference to a generation of goldfish.
     
    canuck, Tricky Dicky and SteveDee like this.
  3. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Steve I know what you mean mate
    A photo of my Mum and Dad on their wedding day August 1941 which I had coloured by a professional
    [​IMG]
     
    TTH, gash hand, Otto and 9 others like this.
  4. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Clive,

    He would not have approved of your parents being so frivolous during wartime.

    colorized-black-and-white-historic-photos-marina-amaral-652__880.jpg
     
    CL1 likes this.
  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Oh, if I could only share the bulk of the ghastly efforts I've collated & people send me.
    Sadly, doing so might make the originators notice my black museum & cut me off... A corner of a Facebook account that is forever 'Murdering Monochrome'.
     
  6. Hebridean Chindit

    Hebridean Chindit Lost in review... Patron

    Had this thread pointed at me by the Dark Lord his'self, so chucking in my own 2c for good measure...

    [Igor (eye-gore)] Mathter Von Poop, I'd definitely dig out the tints and play (not on "originals", obviously), but do keep the de-rigueur mask on that is so in-style these days, so as to keep the brushes away from ones face... [/Igor (eye-gore)] :D

    With me been playing with (digital) imagery for so many years now and photography back to my first camera in the mid sixties (Man From Uncle Spy Camera, from the Spy briefcase; so wish I still had it; just got the badge left) but never really working with the development side I did not know about "sepia" being an option from the get-go and always believed it to be degradation, which it can be, but... so ta for that info Boss...

    Regarding colourisation techniques... if you have a quality image, a quality program, and most importantly, time, then it has it's place...
    If you have none of the above, then it is what it is... amateur...
    If you take a known and classic image that is cherished and play with it, purists will, of course, object, which is their right...
    It is a corner of Photoshop (yes it does have that function, with LOTS of possible tweaks to confound the unknowing on that exponential curve that the program is) I have not yet experimented with (the "time" factor) but intend to... presently stuck in Lightroom going over images taken over a year ago, then there's the stuff I took in 2017 that just got archived, and, and...

    I don't get out much... best that way; too easily distracted... heading back to the CBI pages...:moose:

    Have you become so thoroughly hacked off as I have about the ordering of photo albums on Farcebook... all new images go to the bottom of the "album" pile so it has become pointless to try and use it for "photography" perse... can't even use the "go-back" option any more... need to find a more "professional" outlet for them... ;)
     
  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Mostly abandoned FB, other than the odd header image change. Just too irritating.

    You seen the 'colourise' filter on the latest Photoshop? It's grim. And while I don't really like much of any colourising - big style agree that the one-button sites etc. are the lowest form. Not seen one yet that doesn't just completely mangle perfectly decent monochrome.

    Anyway... Everyone remember this image, and bear it in mind as a warning & example to all...

    18259_10153442501247139_4425936178494552773_n.jpg
    It's as if you were there! After a fair dose of hallucinogens.

    In case anyone got the shakes from that. A salve:
    11403462_10153442501477139_3923180331549422204_n.jpg
     
  8. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    gash hand, SDP, Guy Hudson and 2 others like this.
  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    That incredible level of detail & sharpness on a 180 year old half plate never fails to astonish.
    (Spent a while printing a friend's collection of Victorian full plate Street pictures - even more remarkable.)

    Which is partly bound up with my dislike of colourising.
    Let chemical photography stand on its own feet: Maybe more fully appreciate what it was, & what it could (and couldn't) do before deciding to 'improve' it.
     
    gash hand and PsyWar.Org like this.
  10. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic


    That actually reminds me of very old style colour postcards etc so, in that context, it's not as bad as it looks? Personally I think it looks awful...but in a quaint sort of way...
     
    Andreas likes this.
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    From a cack auto bot on Twatter:

    EtBL_ZoXcAA8r28.jpeg

    I laughed, briefly.
    Then the sadness...
     
  12. JDKR

    JDKR Member

    Could the half-hidden soldier on the right be a collector for the Blue Cross animal charity taking a well-earned rest from a morning's chugging?
     
    gash hand and von Poop like this.
  13. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Colourising really is something that consenting adults should be free to engage in, in the privacy of their own homes but it should stop there. Distributing it should be treated as a hate crime.

    I hate it and it makes me hate the perpetrator...so it must meet the threshold !
     
    Orwell1984 and gash hand like this.
  14. Dutchsteammachine

    Dutchsteammachine Active Member

    I think people are forgetting that colour emulsions/films from this period (Kodachrome and Agfacolor farbdia) also had weird spectral sensetivity, unlike modern slides/negatives.

    Which often needs to be corrected for digitally to look natural.

    Look at Agfa farbdia from the 30s to 40s. Or 30/40s Kodachrome.
     
    SDP likes this.
  15. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  16. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

  17. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    It's so frequently done so poorly that it becomes the first thing I notice about the image and a distraction from the impact of the picture. Signed a grumpy old fart.
     
  18. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    ...or even that self-developed Ferrania kit stuff from the 70/80s. I did loads of those - slide show anyone?....
     
  19. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Some egregious colouring in jobs elsewhere re-trigger a long-standing 'technical rant'.

    I still don't ever seem to see the widespread use of coloured filters in black and white photography acknowledged by the colourisers.
    Buy a pre-1960 camera and there's a good chance of it having a box of filters on the strap.
    Many box brownies have a sliding yellow or red filter built in.
    Completely normal usage. Common. Adjusting contrast, cutting through haze, etc. etc.
    Near-impossible after the fact to determine what filter was used without far more detailed info than almost any old shot carries.
    Monochrome shade and contrast does not tell you colour.
    The result of filters, film etc. creates counter-intuitive results.

    Using-Color-Filters-with-Black-and-White-Film-by-Jennifer-Stamps-on-Shoot-It-With-Film-01.jpg
    Using Color Filters with Black and White Film » Shoot It With Film
     
    Chris C likes this.
  20. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Make your own minds up on these.
    My uncle Bill "Somewhere in Burma"
    Arrived Deolali December 1943 Devons

    Bill B&W.jpg Bill colour.jpg
     

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