Colorizing Vs. Black and Whites

[Kraellin]

Sergio and some others who frequent here, got me thinking about black and whites versus colorizing. so, i thought i'd start a little challenge. and for that challenge, i visited one of the great resources of the United States, the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/ . you can find all sorts of interesting items and information there. there is a section on conservation of images and documents. there are image archives from different times and locations within the U.S. and there is a general wealth that has been collected and stored and then put online for all of us. this is one of the things that i dont mind my taxes being used for

ok, so here's the deal. i've picked an image from the national archives and am placing it in this thread for all to view, copy and work on. this is your choice; you can restore this photo to it's original black and white condition or, do a colorization, or, if you're really brave, do both

1. do not crop the image.

2. you may enlarge it but keep the same side to side ratio.

3. you may colorize the image or do it as a black and white... or both.

4. you may NOT put your image up on another site and link to it so that it shows here. the reason is, i want ALL the works to be available for as long as this site is here. we lose too many images the other way. someone takes their image off that other site and then it's gone for good and the thread loses coherency. i will edit and remove links to outside images, so do the 100k (or 200k if you're a patron) thing and post them here in the thread. that way we always have them.

5. you may do as many versions as you wish. if you do do more than one, i'd prefer you edited your original post and put your new images there, but, this isnt mandatory and i wont make any edits for that.

6. do feel free to add your rendition to your own gallery here on RP.

this is NOT a contest. it's more along the lines of other challenges in the forums. me, i prefer to think of it as practice. and, being that it isnt a contest, let's not get too judgemental critiques are fine; just make sure you find things right with the rendition as well as finding what's wrong.

a few of the colorizers here were quite adamant about the worth of colorizing black and whites and i dont disagree, but i'd also like to show the worth of black and whites as black and whites and to do a little side by side comparison. but, i also want the colorizers to have their day, as well. this is completely subjective, so let's acknowledge that up front and keep the flames at a minimum, please

the image i chose for this first 'practice' is one of a native american. you can find the original and a bit about it here: http://www.archives.gov/research/nat...-list-094.html

there is no deadline for this and i'll probably sticky the thread so it wont get lost, at least for a while.

have fun and do well ;

[MiningArt]

Black & white and color versions.

[RayGuselli]

Hi Craig,

I may have misread your instructions (excuse me I am new here) but I delved into the images and took a b/w for colourisation....not sure if you only wanted the indian worked on?

Hope you don't mind if I post...

Here it is...

Kind regards

Ray

[RayGuselli]

Originally Posted by MiningArt

Black & white and color versions.

That is super John

I like the depth of colour in this image and the nice colour to the trees.

Did you use indivudual layers to paint or the worth tut method...

Whichever....excellent!!!

Kind regards
Ray

[MiningArt]

Thanks for the nice comments Ray. I used layers, background, background sky to hand paint to a neutral color, subject, face to retouch a bit. Worked on image detail first then gave a focal point, face. Finally finished up by coloring subject.

[Kraellin]

ok, let me clarify just a bit here. the idea here is to take the photo i posted and work on that one so we get a full gamut of all working on the same image. that will get us the best comparison of works.

also, this isnt about 'being right' about whether color or black and white is better. it's totally a subjective thing, each with their own opinions. my purpose for this thread is to show all ways and let the viewer decide for themselves.

looking good, john. glad you posted both ways.

ray, i like that. maybe you can post that in its own thread and give a show and tell on it?

[lurch]

Here's what I've done. To clean up the image, I started with Topaz denoise, lightly applied. Then applied it more heavily, twice, and 'saved' the resulting history states. Then undid each heavy application, in order, and used the history brush to take out more noise selectively, twice. Then I adjusted the tone with a curve. Explanation is probably thoroughly screwed up at this point - oh, well. If anyone cares, they can ask questions. I didn't change the backdrop; this is a historical image and should be left as it was taken.

Had a tough time colorizing this one because of the aforementioned historical nature. Felt it was better left in black and white. That was, after all the history of the image - both of the subject and the technology. That said, I did colorize it anyway, just for the fun of it.

Both versions are posted. You pays your money and you takes your choice . . .

[Nan]

I love to colorize but I'm not sure about this one. Probably better in black and white. I gave up trying to get a realistic skin color.
Nan

[printmeister]

I enjoy colourising black and white photos, but I admit that a lot of it is just to imagine what the scene would have been like in real life.
Of course, this usually means doing some research into the fashions and colours of the period.
I haven't done any research on the photo supplied and have just coloured it as I imagine it should be!
I think that generally, B/W photos are best left as they are. Colouring them is mostly just an interesting aside.

[aartist]

Thanks Craig for posting this practice exercise!

Sorry, no research and no knowledge on Indian apparel.
For all I know he could be wearing General Custard's uniform!

I most always prefer color over black & white
but understand why others don't.

[Kraellin]

lurch, wow. the face is a bit overly smooth, but otherwise, wow!

very nice, nan

also nice, john

aartist, i think your b&w is probably the best so far. very clean without that neat image smudge look. the color is nice also

you guys are doing great!

[RayGuselli]

Great work from all...

I thin Aartist has nailed it in both b/w and colour .

The tones to the face are excellent and the skin looks a lifelike colour.

I think thisis a hard colourisation because of the need to get the correct sklin tone.

Great to watch and learn from....

Best wishes

Ray

[aartist]

Thanks Ray!
I'm in favor of colorization if done right.
Sometimes it's hard to determine and
this was one of those times.

[skydog]

What is a good resource to learn this well. Are you just creating a layer and usng the color or multiply setting on a brush and painting the color you desire?

[aartist]

With color, your better off with less saturation and making sure to use colors that are not pastel or pretty but hold true to the subject/reality. You don't want a cartoon. Practice!

[Kraellin]

ok, let's talk a little about technique, too. i'll point you to a couple fairly well known tutorials and we'll go from there. these both come from the Worth1000 web site. they have quite a few very good tuts on an array of subjects. well worth visiting.

http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/16...ary-colorizing that's the one that our own Vikki uses. it's the first one i ever used, too, though i go a different way now.

and this is also from worth1000: http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/16...ation-tutorial i've never tried this one, so you all will have to let me know if you like it or not.

[Janet Petty]

Photoshop is reading what I want as far as saturation and color. The monitor was recently calibrated. I'm getting print wise what I'm seeing. But, when I bring this up in Windows, it is way too red. Please tell me if this is too red on your monitor. I'd like the opinions of others on this.

Thanks not only for replying to, "is my monitor..." but for the challenge of colorizing this dignified gentleman. Colors were picked from reenacter's uniforms and from Native Americans I shot pictures of this summer.

Janet

P.S. The face colors were taken from face colors of Native Americans at a Pow Wow I attended this summer. The military coat was colorized using colors from Union soldiers reenactment clothing at a reenactment I attended recently.

[Kraellin]

hi janet,

the blue could be desaturated just a touch. not much, just a little.

the skin tone is tough to say for sure, but my guess is you've got it a little too dark.

there is pink/red in the background, but i'm guessing that's not what you're asking about. i see no overall red tint to your work.

really nice job!

[Janet Petty]

Thanks Craig. Looks like I'll be doing some "get rid of the red" in my edit.

Janet

replaced pics - see above