Coloring; Colorizing; Colorization

[footfootfoot]

RE: coloring B&W photos

@ GRavdigr, colors reproduce differently in black and white. For example, red and blue are the same tone of gray in a black and white photo. Generally speaking, the more color contrast in the original, the less b&w tonal contrast. Rule of thumb: if it looks AMAZING in color, it will look like shit in b&w.

The other limiting factor is that the underlying tones of the color are tones of gray, making all the colors muddy by default. In a true color photo there might be some muddy colors but colors in shadow don't have gray added to them, they are different colors, or shades of a color, so you end up with colors that are less intense in a colorized photo.

The best candidate for a colorized photo is one that is lighter, and has flatter contrast.

Here is a rare example of Ansel Adams's color photography (good thing he kept his day job) and a similar view of the same subject by a photographer paying homage to AA. The B&W version of AA's photo was only 340 px so I didn't bother with it.

You may now return to your heretical, culturally criminal colorizing.