Photoshop Archaeology

[Elmo Dukat]

I like to play around in Photoshop once in a while, and I started playing with the idea of Photoshop archaeology. That is, taking an old photo --- like from Time Life --- and colorizing/sharpening/denoising/etc it, in order to more closely approximate what that person/image/building/etc looked like, live and in person.

Here is the beginning of tonight's playing:

I latched on to this girl (who is a part of a bigger image), because her expression, her smile, was so fascinating to me. She is a worker at a vodka bottling company, sitting at a table with other women at the factory.

Has anyone else engaged in this kind of "archaeology"? I know there are professional sites that do this, but I was wondering more about the humble amateurs out there.

 

[Rÿcher]

heh, I thought you meant, "ooh looky, an artifact!"

 

[trampledamage]

It's not something I've done, but the colouring you've added to that photo is amazing - you've really brought her to life!

 

[trekkiedane]

heh, I thought you meant, "ooh looky, an artifact!"

I was thinking along the same line: http://www.theorionconspiracy.com/

 

[Elmo Dukat]

It's not something I've done, but the colouring you've added to that photo is amazing - you've really brought her to life!

Thanks!

This one didn't come out as well...I just whipped it up after I posted the first one:

I rushed on the jacket and flowers, and it shows Still, I think it does some justice to what the original person may have looked like.

 

[Amaris]

I like to play around in Photoshop once in a while, and I started playing with the idea of Photoshop archaeology. That is, taking an old photo --- like from Time Life --- and colorizing/sharpening/denoising/etc it, in order to more closely approximate what that person/image/building/etc looked like, live and in person.

Here is the beginning of tonight's playing:

I latched on to this girl (who is a part of a bigger image), because her expression, her smile, was so fascinating to me. She is a worker at a vodka bottling company, sitting at a table with other women at the factory.

Has anyone else engaged in this kind of "archaeology"? I know there are professional sites that do this, but I was wondering more about the humble amateurs out there.

I have tried, but with Paintshop I don't have much breathing room. It's possible, but painstaking. I'll see if I can dig something up.


J.

 

[Elmo Dukat]

Oh, btw, if anyone has one they'd like for me to give a whack at, please include here and I'll give it a shot! (and please, any other Photoshoppers, or Paintshoppers we've got here! )

 

[trekkiedane]

I like what you did to the flower woman, she looks great!









Please don't post images wider than 640 pxl -

 

[GulDucati]

It's not something I've done, but the colouring you've added to that photo is amazing - you've really brought her to life!

Thanks!

This one didn't come out as well...I just whipped it up after I posted the first one:

I rushed on the jacket and flowers, and it shows Still, I think it does some justice to what the original person may have looked like.

What do you mean it didn't come out as well? It's great! Almost looks like natural color and lighting!

 

[Canadave]

This may be really tough to do, I don't know, but I'd love to see this image of Ottawa (circa 1920) colourized:

 

[Amaris]

I'm only using PSP 9, and I'm not very good at it, but here's one I grabbed from the net and colorized.

J.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Wow, Elmo, both of those are great. Yours, too, J.

How do you do that? I mean, I'm sure you use the Color Replace tool, but I can't imagine how you can differentiate the shades of gray so cleanly, and make the natural tones of things like wood and skin so realistic. Pretty amazing.

 

[Elmo Dukat]

Wow, Elmo, both of those are great. Yours, too, J.

How do you do that? I mean, I'm sure you use the Color Replace tool, but I can't imagine how you can differentiate the shades of gray so cleanly, and make the natural tones of things like wood and skin so realistic. Pretty amazing.

Actually I don't use Color Replace! I bring it in first, then I use the "Image Adjustments" menu to change it from grainy, blurry black and white to something a little sharper, with better lighting, and in more of a sepia tone. You can actually change the tones of the lowlights, midlights, and highlights separately in the menu. So I fiddle for a while. Then I grab the plain old paintbrush, and set it on a VERY low opacity. I pick three or four colors: for the high, mid, and lowlights, all in the same palette (i.e., light peach, darker peach, darkest peach). Then I zoom in and carefully spread the color in the right areas. Sometimes I use the color matcher to get the deeper tones.

To end, I take a transparent black brush and do some touchup. That's it, though!

 

[Elmo Dukat]

It's not something I've done, but the colouring you've added to that photo is amazing - you've really brought her to life!

Thanks!

This one didn't come out as well...I just whipped it up after I posted the first one:

I rushed on the jacket and flowers, and it shows Still, I think it does some justice to what the original person may have looked like.

What do you mean it didn't come out as well? It's great! Almost looks like natural color and lighting!

Thanks! Actually, I mean that I could have spread the jacket blue a bit more evenly, and have been more careful about the edges and so forth.

 

[Amaris]

Wow, Elmo, both of those are great. Yours, too, J.

How do you do that? I mean, I'm sure you use the Color Replace tool, but I can't imagine how you can differentiate the shades of gray so cleanly, and make the natural tones of things like wood and skin so realistic. Pretty amazing.

Thank you.

I don't use the color replace tool. I eyeball everything, then I use the color balance tool to change hues and tones to what my mind's eye perceives the colors to be. Then I use brightness and contrast to make things appear more realistic (or as close as possible). After I get the coloring how I want it, I have to blend it together and use the soften tool to smooth over areas between two colored borders, which in an old photo, is much easier to use when necessary, then touch it all up with the paint brush set to 45 opacity, 80 density, which lets me blend the colors together. This photo took me an hour and was done by hand. Photoshop has great tools for stuff like that, but I use Paint Shop Pro, a far more limited program (although I like it).

J.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Hey, check out my attempt:

 

[John Picard]

I like to play around in Photoshop once in a while, and I started playing with the idea of Photoshop archaeology. That is, taking an old photo --- like from Time Life --- and colorizing/sharpening/denoising/etc it, in order to more closely approximate what that person/image/building/etc looked like, live and in person.

Here is the beginning of tonight's playing:

I latched on to this girl (who is a part of a bigger image), because her expression, her smile, was so fascinating to me. She is a worker at a vodka bottling company, sitting at a table with other women at the factory.

Has anyone else engaged in this kind of "archaeology"? I know there are professional sites that do this, but I was wondering more about the humble amateurs out there.

Amazing! That looks so much better than when Ted Turner started to colorize classic movies

 

[RJDiogenes]

Actually I don't use Color Replace! I bring it in first, then I use the "Image Adjustments" menu to change it from grainy, blurry black and white to something a little sharper, with better lighting, and in more of a sepia tone. You can actually change the tones of the lowlights, midlights, and highlights separately in the menu. So I fiddle for a while. Then I grab the plain old paintbrush, and set it on a VERY low opacity. I pick three or four colors: for the high, mid, and lowlights, all in the same palette (i.e., light peach, darker peach, darkest peach). Then I zoom in and carefully spread the color in the right areas. Sometimes I use the color matcher to get the deeper tones.

To end, I take a transparent black brush and do some touchup. That's it, though!

I don't use the color replace tool. I eyeball everything, then I use the color balance tool to change hues and tones to what my mind's eye perceives the colors to be. Then I use brightness and contrast to make things appear more realistic (or as close as possible). After I get the coloring how I want it, I have to blend it together and use the soften tool to smooth over areas between two colored borders, which in an old photo, is much easier to use when necessary, then touch it all up with the paint brush set to 45 opacity, 80 density, which lets me blend the colors together. This photo took me an hour and was done by hand. Photoshop has great tools for stuff like that, but I use Paint Shop Pro, a far more limited program (although I like it).

Nobody uses Color Replace. You guys are boggling my mind. I've used most of these features, but it never occurred to me that they could be used to colorize a picture like that. I'm going to have to experiment with these techniques....

Very impressive.

 

[ITL]

Yeah, I would never have thought of doing it that way. I'd probably have used different colored overlays/blending modes and masked off the edges, or something. And it would look pretty poor as a result.

Just goes to show - there's always more to learn! Great stuff, Elmo!

 

[Elmo Dukat]

Thanks all! GREAT pic, J. Allen!!!!

To be fair, I have to say that I took oil painting classes for a year, so I use a lot of that when choosing the all the colors and their varying tones.

Here's my latest - a picture of my stepmother's parents in the 1950s: