# Software to turn BW into color?



## Ilovemycam (Dec 23, 2012)

Is there any software that can colorize BW?


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## 480sparky (Dec 23, 2012)

Yes.  Most PP software can.

But there won't be a 1-click option.  It must all be done manually.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 23, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> Is there any software that can colorize BW?



Where would the software get information on what should be which color?
If you have a digital image where the conversion has been made through a B&W layer, which is still intact, then you can just delete the layer but otherwise the color, and color choices, must be made by a sentient being.


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## table1349 (Dec 23, 2012)

Let me google that for you


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## Mully (Dec 23, 2012)

Not from a strictly shot on film B&W


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## Derrel (Dec 23, 2012)

Turn lead into Gold: Is it possible? - Yahoo! Answers

Kind of the same question, only it has been around a LOT longer!!!

I had a brief fling with Marshall's Oils wayyyy back in the 1980's...used to be "*the way*" to turn lead into gold....err, I mean to turn B&W prints into COLOR prints!!! It's still kind of fun!!!

Amazon.com: Marshall&#39;s Hobby Oil Set Photo Coloring System photo oil kit: Arts, Crafts & Sewing


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## table1349 (Dec 23, 2012)

Mully said:


> Not from a strictly shot on film B&W


How To Colorize Black and White Vintage Photographs in Photoshop - How-To Geek


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## Ilovemycam (Dec 23, 2012)

I was hoping they had some type of generic thing that gave you a bunch of choices and you picked something doable.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 23, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> I was hoping they had some type of generic thing that gave you a bunch of choices and you picked something doable.



Come on, think this though.
How does a program, seeing only bits, running on a home computer, know what a hat is or a tree or a car or any of the thousands of other possible items in a photo?


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## 480sparky (Dec 23, 2012)

Gray is gray.  The computer can't tell the difference between a gray sky (to make it blue), a gray shirt (OK, what color to make the shirt now?), gray grass (to make it green), a gray car (lessee now... is it red or blue or purple or orange or yellow?), a gray dog (Brown? Gray? Yellow?), a gray house (what color is the real siding?).......


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## DannyLewis (Dec 23, 2012)

A piece of software called black magic is what you are looking for google and go


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## Ilovemycam (Dec 23, 2012)

Sure, not looking for the real colors. Just a half ass thing.  Blue sky and flesh color. If something was off color, click on it for a pallet of colors to choose from. 

Software should be able to figure sky, people, maybe grass, streets. buildings, cars. Don't like a blue car, click on it for red or pink. But software would give you something to start with.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 23, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> Sure, not looking for the real colors. Just a half ass thing.  Blue sky and flesh color. If something was off color, click on it for a pallet of colors to choose from.
> 
> Software should be able to figure sky, people, maybe grass, streets. buildings, cars. Don't like a blue car, click on it for red or pink. But software would give you something to start with.



There's no 'should' in there.
Software and hardware combinations can do that for specific items and situations but it is very computer intensive.
Computers are not a magic box.


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## 480sparky (Dec 23, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> Sure, not looking for the real colors. Just a half ass thing.  Blue sky and flesh color. If something was off color, click on it for a pallet of colors to choose from.
> 
> Software should be able to figure sky, people, maybe grass, streets. buildings, cars. Don't like a blue car, click on it for red or pink. But software would give you something to start with.



Sounds like you've identified a niche market.  Start writing the script and fill it.  In no time, you'll be hobnobbing with the Vanderbilts and lunching with Gates.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 23, 2012)

480sparky said:


> Ilovemycam said:
> 
> 
> > Sure, not looking for the real colors. Just a half ass thing.  Blue sky and flesh color. If something was off color, click on it for a pallet of colors to choose from.
> ...



What Sparky is saying is that it is an enormously difficult problem that is only handled at this time by dedicated hardware and software issues that can do sophisticated pattern matching.
A computer would have to isolate something from a digital image and match it against a pattern for all possible items in every possible configuration.

Not simple or easy - even with dedicated fast hardware on a limited set of potential items in the field of view. 
With no limit of what is in the field from grass to cats to airplanes, the number of patterns that would need to be scanned is astronomical.


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## CCericola (Dec 23, 2012)

Yes
Colorize Black and White Photos using Recolored


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## Ilovemycam (Dec 24, 2012)

The_Traveler said:


> 480sparky said:
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> > Ilovemycam said:
> ...



I don't know. I'm not much of a computer guy. Was just asking and hoping something was out there. I figured if they could do it with movies, then still pictures should not be that hard.


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## Ilovemycam (Dec 24, 2012)

CCericola said:


> Yes
> Colorize Black and White Photos using Recolored



Hey, that looks nice. Will check it out. 

Thanks!


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## 480sparky (Dec 24, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> ........ I figured if they could do it with movies, then still pictures should not be that hard.



It's still done manually with movies.  Some human must tell the computer, 'This is a shirt, color it this shade of yellow. This is the sky, make it this shade of blue.  Here is a car.... color it red.'


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## nycphotography (Dec 24, 2012)

The_Traveler said:


> 480sparky said:
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> > Ilovemycam said:
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That said... 

How DID they colorize "It's a wonderful life"?    130 minutes at 24fpx = 187,200 frames.  Even if they paid the labor to color each frame individually, how did they keep the colors consistent across multiple frames?  I was always curious how they managed to do it... this just reminded me that I never found out.


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## The_Traveler (Dec 24, 2012)

The Internet is your friend

HowStuffWorks "How do they color old black-and-white movies?"
Film colorization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I quote from the Wikipedia article



> A major difficulty with this process is its labor-intensity. For example, in order to colorize a still image an artist typically begins by dividing the image into regions, and then assigning a color to each region. This approach, also known as the segmentation method, is time consuming, as the process of dividing the picture into correct segments is painstaking. This problem occurs mainly because there have been no fully automatic algorithms to identify fuzzy or complex region boundaries, such as between a subject&#8217;s hair and face. Colorization of moving images also requires tracking regions as movement occurs from one frame to the next (motion compensation).



It all starts with a human doing work.


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## fjrabon (Dec 24, 2012)

heck, computers can barely identify an object as a whole thing.  ie 'magic lasso' doesn't even consistently work for selecting a part of an image as a single thing.  Then you add in the problem of not only figuring out what is what, but also figuring out what it is, and thus what color it should be.  

To solve this problem, you'd have to solve a lot of artificial intelligence problems what are VASTLY more important than colorizing B&W photos.  That would be sort of like if Newton/Leibniz had invented calculus to figure out how to properly toast bread.


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## 480sparky (Dec 24, 2012)

fjrabon said:


> ..........  That would be sort of like if Newton/Leibniz had invented calculus to figure out how to properly toast bread.


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## nycphotography (Dec 25, 2012)

Soooo.....

I found this cool collection of molested materpieces...

19 Legendary Black & White Photos Colorized Using Photoshop

with this picture...

http://cdn.bitrebels.netdna-cdn.com...Legendary-Photos-Colorized-In-Photoshop-9.jpg

Anyone knows who / what / where / why this picture is?  I've seen it before, but I can't place it.


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## table1349 (Dec 25, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> The_Traveler said:
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> > 480sparky said:
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If it was easy everyone would be doing it.  COLORIZATION - The Museum of Broadcast Communications


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## Helen B (Dec 25, 2012)

nycphotography said:


> Soooo.....
> 
> I found this cool collection of molested materpieces...
> 
> ...



That is Dorothy Counts, at Harding High School in Charlotte, NC. 1957.


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## nycphotography (Dec 25, 2012)

Ahhh thank you.


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## photoloverpp (Dec 27, 2012)

Ilovemycam said:


> CCericola said:
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> 
> > Yes
> ...



I've just tried this software, it has many colors of different body parts, but still need carefully handy control. and it's hard for me to work out a good colored photo, what I worked out was too fake...


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