Colorization of B&W Pictures

[kennethw]

A little 'morbid', but my Grandmother has given me a small B&W photo that she wants to blow up and colourize for her impending day (no need to say any more). Question is in 2 parts:

1. What software can I use to do this with relatively little pain? Quite difficult in PS since my PS skills aren't that great.

2. Can you recommend anyone who can do this?

Thanks in advance.


Ken

 

[lsisaxon]

A little 'morbid', but my Grandmother has given me a small B&W photo that she wants to blow up and colourize for her impending day (no need to say any more). Question is in 2 parts:

1. What software can I use to do this with relatively little pain? Quite difficult in PS since my PS skills aren't that great.

2. Can you recommend anyone who can do this?

Thanks in advance.


Ken

Why not shoot her again? In colour this time?

 

[kennethw]

Why not shoot her again? In colour this time?

hahaha...because she refuses to have her photo taken, and the photo she gave me is at least 60 years old....

 

[kandinsky]

I recently did that for a friend's grandfather who suddenly passed away.

It was even more difficult given that the only photo they had of him was the photo on his IC.

 

[m3lv1nh0]

I think it's better to show the b/w version cause I think the colorize version will look "scary".

However, here's a guide on how to do it in PS :
http://www.sxc.hu/blog/post/706

 

[kennethw]

Thanks for the link. I'll try that. It might look scary, but that's Grandmother's "orders"...

 

[phyrewall]

Wow, that's going to be a challenge. It's always easy to do B&W from color pictures, but not the other way around.

If you colorize the B&W photo, won't the colors be unrealistic? You would lose texture and proper gradients, right?