Transfer a Photo from Black and White to Colour
Jul/090
In the old days of black and white photography the only way to change a photo from black and white to color was to get a set of coloured pencils and do the work by hand. There were a couple of very big problems with this. The first was that unless you were a very skilled artist, the pictures could come out looking somewhat cartoonish. The second problem was, there was no way to undo any mistakes that were made.
Fortunately, advances in digital photo restoration technology have made it possible to covert photos from black and white to colour in a much more realistic way. Not only is the quality of the final product a much higher quality, it does not require any changes to be made to your original photograph.
Once you scan the original photo into the computer, all of the changes are made to the digital image. If a colour is added that is not just right, it can be removed, and a new colour added with no negative effects. Once the procedure is completed you will have a colourized photo, and you will still have the original untouched black and white photo.
The procedure to do a conversion of this kind is not technically difficult, but it is a bit tedious, and it requires a skilled hand to do it properly. In order to capture all of the shades and textures that are a part of every image, the specialist must go through each area making the changes to each individual area. Every fold in the clothing or shadow creates a different tone. These different tones and shades need to be added, colour overlay techniques make this possible and then blending so that it looks as natural as possible.
Because of all the details that need to be accounted for, there is not effective way to automate the procedure. Computers cannot accurately determine what colour to put where, or how to handle the detailed textures. It requires a human to determine whether the eyes should be brown or blue, or what the shade of the blouse or skirt should be.
Most people do not have the skill or the patience to accomplish this properly. Even if they did have the computer program to do the job, it still takes someone who knows how to use the program. Fortunately there are services that are available that will do this work for you.
If you have old photos that you want to have converted from black and white to colour, all you have to do is look around to find a service that can do the job for you. You can have it done for a very reasonable price, and it typically does not take too long to get the finished photo back. You will have a picture that is professionally finished and ready for display.
Use Photo Restoration to bring your old photos back to life
Jul/092
Photo restoration is becoming more and more popular. While in the times of yore a damaged photo was usually thrown away or stuck in a corner somewhere, modern digital photo technology has now presented the opportunity to take those old photos and give them a new lease of life.
Time has a way of taking its toll on photos. The corners can become folded or bent, they may get creased, crumbled or torn, and the photograph could become discoloured or faded by sunlight or mistreatment. When this occurs your photographs can become less enjoyable than when they were first taken. But just because you may have several damaged photos this does not mean that they cannot be enjoyed as they once were.
Photo restoration techniques are now obtainable to make it possible to return your photos to their original splendour. In some cases it is even possible to make the photo superior to what it was when it was first taken. Not only can you carry out repairs it is possible to remove unwanted object that may spoil the photo or maybe change the background to improve the image. You can have an old photo changed from black and white to color if you so desired.
Once the photo has been scanned (300 DPI or more) into a computer, a digital photo professional will be able to go over your photo correcting any flaws or anomalies. This normally entails scrutinizing each part of the photo and cloning from good areas to cover the damaged ones, ensuring all the time that the correction looks natural and blends well with the surrounding area. Every tone and shade of color will have to be matched in order to make the scratch or blemish become invisible.
These sorts of techniques may also be used to make alterations to your photo. You may have a picture that was very close to being a grand shot, except someone blinked just as the photo was being taken. You could then have the eyes opened digitally by having the specialist redraw the eyes so that they are open in the photo.
The good thing about this procedure is that your original photo is left intact. All of the alterations are carried out on a digital copy so you will still have the initial photo. Providing the restoration and photo enhancement is done correctly it is often possible to enlarge your photo to a size that would be suitable for a large frame.
It is difficult to estimate the time involved when it comes to photo restoration as each photo has to be viewed separately. Some photos can be restored in a matter of minutes with single click computer enhancement software as where other can take a few hours painstakingly covering each area correcting tears scratches and missing parts.
So why not look through your old photos that were once your pride and joy to see if you can have them repaired, altered, coloured or manipulated. This especially applies to relatives that may have passed on so that they can be commemorated and remembered as they should be.
Photo Manipulation
Jul/090
When it comes to digital photo enhancements, many people stop at fixing red-eye or making changes to the brightness of the photo. In reality, there are many different photo manipulation options that you could consider.
When you take a snapshot, it is not the end of the photography process. In many instances that is just the beginning of where you could go with your photos. The images in the photo can be enhanced, removed, or rearranged in any way you can envision.
Many times, that is the hardest part of the photo manipulation process; envisioning what is possible with your photos. You need to be able to see the images in your photographs as a part of a larger work of art. It can mean adding or removing images that are in the photo, or it could mean completely altering the look of the photo by changing the background. Instead of standing in your living room, you could change the scene to a tropical paradise.
Another thing you could do is to take a collection of photos of friends or family and create a collage with them. It could be individual pictures on a scenic background, or you could even create a group shot that would give the appearance that everyone was together for a sitting.
Another creative way to rearrange you photos is to do a “then and now” type of project. You could take images of your children and toddles and put them in a collage with images of the same children when they were older. It would also work well as a Wedding Anniversary gift by taking a photo of the couple on their wedding day and combining it with a current photo of the couple.
The basic idea is simply cutting an image out of one digital photo and pasting it into another. The images are then blended so that it is not noticeable where one edge stops and the other starts. It will create a seamless image that looks like it was all one shot. It also requires a lot of care when cutting the images. You need to be sure to get the entire image you want without getting any of the unwanted background.
Having a quality photo manipulation project requires a skilled digital photo restoration specialist. There are not any computer programs that can completely automate the process. It still requires a person to make decisions about what to use, what to discard, and where to place images for the final photo.
The chances are good that you already have a great collection of photos that could be used to create a new photograph. Using photo manipulation techniques you could transform some of your average photos into a work of art that could be framed and displayed. That way your memories could be moved out of a storage area and put in a place where you will be able to see and enjoy them.