Colorized Photographs

The desire for color photographs has been around since the introduction of the medium. Before it was possible to actually capture true-to-life colors in the photograph itself, the practice of hand-coloring was the only method of simulating a more realistic image.

Hand-coloring was practiced in Europe as early as the 1840s, but it had become perhaps most prominent in Japan by the 1880s. In those days, the artists had various types of materials for adding color, such as pigments applied with glues and colors made with aniline dyes. The work was very time consuming, and some of the photos could be very detailed, requiring a great deal of effort and care to apply the colors in the most lifelike way possible. With all of this work, photos became beautiful works of art. However, ironically, the colorized photos tended to look much more like paintings than photographs, because with the artists literally applying color with their hands, paintings are essentially what they had become.

Yokohama Park
Stillman, E.G. Collection
ca. 1890
Hand-colored albumen print
Harvard Fine Arts Library

Close-up of Yokohama Park photo

Today, we can of course use computers to digitally apply color to black and white photographs, making it easier than ever before to bring those photos a step closer to full-color reality. We can take photographs from the 19th and 20th century and eliminate the barrier between the past and our modern eyes. If done successfully, color can bring new life to those photos and portray a vibrant new perspective.

I have personally taken an interest in colorizing old black and white photographs. It is a way for me to essentially pull the old photos into the present so that I can attempt to see the image how the photographer might have seen it through his own eyes. However, like in the 19th century, the process can still be very tedious. While it is infinitely easier to apply the color digitally, it is that very freedom that demands a more realistic image.

While the technique might seem straightforward, such as applying green to the grass and red to the lips, there is actually much more to consider. Ambient light plays an important role in the overall color of the elements in the photo. Skin is also not simply one solid color, as it is semitranslucent. The thickness of the skin, as well as the presence of blood, veins, and cartilage are just a few factors that determine the colors across the landscape of the human complexion. Observing these types of components, as well as the varying sources and intensities of light, it is easy to see how complex colorizing a seemingly simple portrait can become.

"War is Hell"
Horst Faas
1965
Film photograph

My colorization of "War is Hell"

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The type of medium also determines the potential "realism" for the colorization of a photograph. For example, film and its many variants capture light with subtle yet different biases towards lights and darks, and each have their own characteristics, such as grain pattern. Glass negatives sometimes provide difficulty in achieving color realism because they (and the lenses used) tended to capture light in a kind of surrealistic way. (An example of a photographer using color filters used to capture color information on glass plates is Prokudin-Gorskii). When coloring a glass plate negative, I attempt to simulate a more film-like quality, because colored film photographs are more familiar to our modern eyes. For me, it helps add that extra bit of realism that creates a more powerful connection.

Lewis Powell, Lincoln Assassination conspirator
Alexander Gardner
1865
Glass plate

My colorization of Lewis Powell

Colorizing photos digitally has brought a new dynamic to the practice. A colored image today can potentially be created with far more realism than previously possible in the times of hand coloring. While we of course have long had the ability to capture photographs with inherent color, we perhaps now take it for granted. It is easy to forget that the photos of the past were taken in a full-color world, and it is wonderful to be able to take a glimpse into that world and take one step closer to experiencing it as it once was.

The Falling Soldier
Robert Capa
1936
Film photograph

My colorization of The Falling Solder

Source:

"Hand Coloring Photographs" Early Photography of Japan. Harvard College Library.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/collections/epj/hand_coloring.cfm