unzercharlie

unzercharlie t1_iw0ir1u wrote

Reply to comment by Raxsah in Website that automatically colorizes old black-and-white photos by t-bands

I completely understand the sentiment, and I love the idea of someone seeing a loved one in color.

I did a restoration for my grandparents, but I was able to say "what color was that jacket?" and "what color was that dress?" and "what color was that truck?" They loved it and I loved doing it. I googled to find the original colors everywhere I could.

Colorizing something and just guessing the colors, or letting AI guess the colors, is something else entirely. I get doing it to learn colorization, or as a fun experiment, but I still believe it's the equivalent of a coloring book, and ruins a perfectly good black and white photo, which is a more accurate representation of history.

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unzercharlie t1_iw0cm85 wrote

Reply to Website that automatically colorizes old black-and-white photos by t-bands

I've done dozens of photo restorations and I am so against arbitrary colorization. It's bastardizing the source material. Sharpen it, fine. Reduce noise, fine. Correct imperfections, fine. Adding color to a photo like a coloring book is so pointless. I honestly don't understand why anyone wants to do it to a photo that means anything to them.

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