Colorizing/Color Correction

On this page you will find photo samples of :

Creative or Partial Coloring

Sepia Tone Demonstration

Total Coloring

Colorizing and Decorating with Photos

Albumen Gelatin Silver Repair

A Generation of Damage Photographs Color Correction and Repair

Understanding Digital Color Issues

Uneven Exposures

If you have a photograph about circa 1930s-40s, that appears to have been painted and you don't like it....wondering what can be done...maybe it would have been better off black and white? You are not alone.

Scanning photos that are embedded in or mounted on something? There is only one and you wish you could share it?  Well....if we can scan it... we can restore the image and you can have copies to share.

Tintypes that darken with age can be lighten and enhanced.

Do you have a portrait photograph of your dog?  Look for some like these to include in your family tree or create a special place in your scrapbook or wall.

Circa, 1945. Refrigerator magnets are fun and easy to recreate yourself.

Adding creative coloring is less expensive than coloring every detail..

Circa 1950. Removed fade, colored birthday girl and mischievous brother, cropped and enlarged.

This is the original photo used to create a Tintype effect in the photos below.  Adding sepia tone is used to blend away uneven or blotching problems with vintage photographs or having fun like this one.

What many people call black and white, are not all, they are shades of the same color. The only one that comes close to the description of black and white is actually the grayscale.

Total Colorizing

Circa 1925. Even after restoring the crack and turning it to a black and white, it was hard to see the flag in her hand. Coloring it greatly improved this photo.  See a puzzle of this photo.

Collect a subject you enjoy and restore them.  Group them together like these baby photos.  Go directly to Decorating with Photos under "Custom Gifts" from here.

This moon photo was restored then colored and enlarged but if you notice even the stars have been re-arranged to make a more balanced pleasing photo.  The stars were crowded around their heads

To display a not so attractive photo by bringing it up to date.

Can you just remove the yellow and it's okay"? Most of the time photos like these, fall into the badly damaged category and here is why.

Here is the same photo with yellow removed and now you can see what damage needs to be repaired.

Restored, cropped and sepia tone added

Totally colorized and sky added.

Sometimes a photograph can be brought back by doing one adjustment to the entire photograph and yet in other photographs some the first routine adjustments don't produce much results and then all the details must be worked on individually to get a good result.  Making this restoration very time consuming.

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1960s

Color Correction. Circa 1960's.  Restored color. An era of photos ruined due to the unstable chemical  photographic processes. 

After taking a photo with a Polaroid camera you had to swipe it with a chemical to stabilize it and if you did not put enough on, like this one, the parts that had insufficient chemical faded away.  As  you can see we managed to salvage it!

When restoring the color to these faded photos your perception is key.  Color is subjective.  What one person calls cherry red (may have a hint of orange in it), is fire engine red to someone else (which may have more blue to it).  What color is on your screen and what color comes out on your paper or the color of your photos on the screen of the Photo Lab you send it to, are different.  You will never achieve the exact color you think you remember.  

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Tintypes brought back to life. If you can see something, there is hope as you can now see.  Results vary with each photograph depending on the degree of deterioration and under or over development. 

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Circa 1911. Developed from glass negatives. Removed fade, add sepia, enhanced subjects.

Circa 1950. Removed yellowing, writing, and small crack.

Uneven Exposure

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Circa 1922. If it can be scanned....it can be restored. The original was an orange yellow fading on a ceramic round button with an oval surface and about 3 inches wide by a 1/2 inch thick. We corrected the color and make it a 5x7.

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This image is the original scan of a paper weight.  You can see the beveled edge with chips in it.  Scanning it enables the owner to share it with family members.  

This image has been enhanced and can be taken a step further by restoring more details to the dresses, upgrading it to a higher level of restoration.

Painted Photographs

Our desire for color shows in colored tintypes and cabinet cards of the 1800's and it was very popular in 1930's and 40's to paint photographs.  too.  They may or may not have been pleased with the results at the time but once done to the original they had to live with it, if they didn't have the negative.  Now with digital restoration you don't have to live with it, with or without the negative.