Colorizing Technique

[bcarll]

I was talking to a young lady just out of a photo school and she said they had classes on coloring B&W photos. She said that some of the best work she saw in examples by the pros were photos that only one or two items inthe photo were colored. I always try to colorize it all but am interested if anyone here has tried her technique she learned. After hearing about this I started looking at some B&W photos tha my dad had colored and there it was. Pictures I thought were 100% colored are not. A picture of him in 1942 in his army uniform just had his arm patch colored and his hair and eyes. All this time it looked totally colored to me. Also a pic of my sister and me as kids on a blanket is only partially colorized. The blanket squares are colored and my sisters dress nothing else. Imazing how the eye gets fooled when using this partial coloring. Does this effect have a technical name or was it just used in the early days of coloring and not so much anymore. I think it really looks great !

bcarll

[byRo]

I get to restore quite a few images like this one . Often the only coloured part is the background and, maybe, some detail on the clothing.

I imagine that, at that time, colourizing (by painting) was not an easy task and the less they could do, and still look coloured, the better.

Today it is a good technique which simplifies the work (les to colour) and brings more attention to the subject, like this .

Though I don't know a specific name for this.

Rô

[bcarll]

Thanks for your reply RO ---- how do you do the vignette of blurring --is it hand done or do you find that in Photoshop? Great job with the children in that photo.

bcarll