Often when I was busy working I would think, I would label these photos if I had the time. Now that I am semi-retired and at home I have more time. And more photos. And technology has improved.
Colourizing Your Photos
Old photos can be improved, colourized, using artificial intelligence, or mechanical means. What is the difference between coloured and colourized? Colourized is a term we use to describe the artificially aided colouring done in our times, in recent times, now in the year I am writing, 2021. Years ago old black and white photos were deliberately coloured with a sepia wash to make black and white photos look warmer. I was surprised to learn this. I thought sepia was the effect of fading black colour. Apparently not.
Colourising Landscapes
What can the automatically added photo programs do? They work best on landscapes and mechanical objects, such as the old photos of railways and trains in countryside backgrounds. The automatic systems recognize that sky is blue, the contrast colour in sky is the white of clouds. Sea can be blue when reflecting sky or green when reflecting vegetation. Trains and mechanical objects can have a metallic shiny grey look. Wooden railway sleepers (the cross pieces supporting the shiny metal lines) and tree stumps and tree trunks can be brown.
Colouring Clothing
Simple workers' clothing can be coloured simply. A group of people dressed alike might have white tee-shirts or shirts and brown trousers, or navy for the navy.
When you come to people's clothing it gets more complicated. What about my photos of family weddings from 1910, in the back garden of the east end of London.
Laying On Layers
You could put the photo into Photoshop or a similar photo editing program. Start adding the colours in layers bit by bit. Each layer can be changed or removed if you don't like it without changing the original. S and see what is interesting and an improvement.
For example, blue sky. Green grass. Brown fence. Bride in white? Or cream? Groom in black? Or dark grey? One could read about other events in the period to confirm. If you were to give your great aunt a dress in blue instead of green who would know or care? You could even show two different colours so that your grandchildren can see the options are only possibilities.
Colour and Captions
If only the colours had been written in a caption! Even a date would help us identify styles of clothing from that era.
If you colour, or caption, others can build on your work, your research and efforts, your time. Or you might come back to the project a year later, starting one step ahead of when you began the project to enhance the photos.
Captioning Modern Photos
I am now looking at my own photos and thinking how much detail I can add to captions. Maybe my son's wedding photo will be found years later, with parts torn off, or the colours faded. If I add, mother of the groom, Angela, wearing a blue Ann Balon dress and jacket, years later I, my family, or any other researcher will be able to identify the people in the picture, and trace the style of dress and its colours.
Useful Websites
About the Author
Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.
About Angela The Speaker & Trainer
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.
Angela has several blogs on speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:
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