Old B&W Group School photographs conversion.

[prashantakerkar]

Is it possible to convert our Old B&W Group School photographs to colour photographs for a different visual effect?

These were B&W photos since colour cameras technology was not existing.

Thanks & Regards,

Prashant S Akerkar

Correct me if I am going wrong. Also if there are other techniques,let me know.

1 I carry the Group B&W 

[prashantakerkar]

Ignore the text "Correct me if I am going wrong. Also if there are other techniques,let me know".

1 I carry the Group B&W.

New content

---------------------

Correct me if I am wrong. Also if there are other techniques for conversion, let me know.

1 I carry the Group B&W school printed photograph to the Photo Studio.

2 I scan the B&W school printed photograph to get a digital image Viz jpg, gif etc

3 Using say Adobe Photoshop web designing software or any other image editing tool, open the image, edit by adding Colours to the B&W image.

4 Save the digital file, print to get the converted Colour School group photo.

5 Print the Colour School group photo on the Photo printer output device.

Thanks & Regards,

Prashant S Akerkar

[CharonY]

Roughly speaking that is a way (and probably the easiest) to do it. It helps to scan it with the highest quality possible. Best use a lossless format rather than jpeg.

[Sensei]

How to get gray from RGB?

The easiest function is:

luma = ( red + green + blue ) / 3

(each component has the same influence)

The more complex function utilize specific influence of component on gray scale:

e.g. luma = 0.2126*red + 0.7152 * green +0.0722 * blue

For more coefficients look at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luma_(video)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale

 

Literal B&W (black & white), is even worser, it has only black and white pixels without any other intermediate pixels.. Grayscale is just simulated by dithering.

Now you come by, and ask for information, which has been removed/deleted from image, and want to get it back.. ?

 

You need to manually color tint images

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs

google for "color tinting images" or so..

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Sensei

[Strange]

2 hours ago, Sensei said:

How to get gray from RGB?

 

No. That wasn't the question.

[prashantakerkar]

Thanks.

1 Which will be a easier method?

Adobe Photoshop i.e. aid of software tool or Hand colouring of photograph?

2 Which will give more quality results?

Adobe Photoshop I.e. aid of software tool or Hand colouring of photograph?

Thanks & Regards,

Prashant S Akerkar

 

[Endy0816]

Deep learning to the rescue!

Automated form of manually coloring it in.

https://demos.algorithmia.com/colorize-photos/

Keeping in mind it is still guessing based on training.

[prashantakerkar]

Thanks.

Interestingly, there will be many B&W photos where colour cameras was not existing in weddings, conferences & seminars, sport events etc in olden days.

Which will be the Best method, Easier method, Optimum method giving us Best Colour photographs conversion from B&W photos ?

Thanks & Regards,

Prashant S Akerkar

Edited July 31, 2018 by prashantakerkar
Content.

[Endy0816]

A combined approach probably. Let the computer work on it first and then go over it yourself if needed.

Computer is fast but only so knowledgeable.

19 minutes ago, prashantakerkar said:

Thanks.

Interestingly, there will be many B&W photos where colour cameras was not existing in weddings, conferences & seminars, sport events etc in olden days.

Welcome.

Yes, I've converted a number of historical photos of my own city using this. They are pretty cool.

[StringJunky]

8 hours ago, CharonY said:

Roughly speaking that is a way (and probably the easiest) to do it. It helps to scan it with the highest quality possible. Best use a lossless format rather than jpeg.

It took me a while to figure out why my repeatedly saved jpeg projects were going all blocky and pixally.   I was using the graduated tool a lot and the gradations gradually became banded instead of smooth with each save in jpeg.

Edited July 31, 2018 by StringJunky

[Sensei]

10 hours ago, Strange said:

No. That wasn't the question.

I know what was the question. I started from explaining how to get grayscale, or black & white image, in the first place, from point of view of mathematics. From equation with three unknown variables (r,g,b) there is made just single one (luma). Luma is known, from photo, but you can't return back automatically to having r, g and blue back. Information has been lost. That was purpose of my post. To show that information has been lost.

8 hours ago, prashantakerkar said:

Adobe Photoshop i.e. aid of software tool or Hand colouring of photograph?

Hand painting of the real photo would require quite a bit of experience. You would have to mix various base colors, in the right proportions, to get intermediate one.. Entertaining for some people.

I would use computer program of course. Less messy and more control to manually color grayscale image.

Put grayscale image in background layer, and make new layer with color on top of it, and change layer blending mode to "multiply". Then use brush tool. grayscale * base color = final color.

You can search for colorful reference image, on the net, load it as second project in application, and pick reference color ("color picker tool") of some common elements like color of human face, tree, grass, sky, etc. etc.

For a start to learn how to do it, you can find colorful photo, duplicate it, and use convert to grayscale tool. Then you have either colorful version of project and grayscale version of project at the same time in computer painting program. Then use color picker tool on reference colorful version to get color, and try recreating colors in grayscale version of project, using the above mentioned method.

If you know exact location where photo has been taken, you can go there and make photo again, or use Google Maps in 3D "Street View" mode, and use it as reference color for background environment. Then you will have to recreate just colors of people.

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Sensei