Alex K Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 As a collector of awards decorations and medals I sit there looking at my little baubles for many hours. sometimes I stray to other forums, As it happens I visited the GWF (Great War Forum) and came across some very nice colourised B/W photo's which gave a degree of reality to the period, soooo, I thought I'd have a go, as it's a bit different, attached are two of my first attempts, Any comments appreciated. The first is Witzigheer, and the second is Molders. I have others but at this moment of time can't vouch for the ownership of the photo's so won't post.regardsAlex K
Mike Dwyer Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 I'm sure someone, somewhere, will find fault, but I think they're absolutely stunning! I'm strictly an Imperial guy, but those are nice photos. :jumping:
censlenov Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Out of curiousity what program do you use i wouldn't mind trying it out myself on some photos of medal recipients i have in my collection. I just got a new computer and its really beefy so i'd really like to try it out.CheersChris
Daniel Krause Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 That looks simply GREAT!!!!!!!!Best regardsDaniel
warfootage Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 same here, what program do you use Alex?By the way your results and effortd are superb. well done.Just make sure you water mark these pritty well as some people on ebay trying and rob them and sell as original color shots. Believe me it has happened many times already !Best wishes.Ian :-)
Paul R Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Very very nice!! I have never seen such a great job with the colorization process!! I really like the effect on the leaves in the first photograph!
Theodor Posted July 21, 2008 Posted July 21, 2008 Very nice! Here is one from me - the Balkans are ready to meet the "Fortresses" in the winter of 1943/44 :catjava:
Alex K Posted July 21, 2008 Author Posted July 21, 2008 (edited) Out of curiousity what program do you use i wouldn't mind trying it out myself on some photos of medal recipients i have in my collection. I just got a new computer and its really beefy so i'd really like to try it out.CheersChrisThanks for the comments, these are literally my first attempts at this sort of thing, I use Adobe Photoshop v 4.1. this is an OLD programme first designed for us with windows 95. It does however still work with my current Windows XP set-up albiet with a few kick starts sometimes. Attached is another one, this was litrerally my first attempt, it took about an hour to complete, The original photo was from one of our members website, and thanks to Robert Noss for his excellent Photosammler website. (Robert hope you don't mind that I used your photo and changed it but your portraiit photo's and great. If you wish me to delete, please let me know)regardsAlex KEdit attached with Pips correct colour Edited July 22, 2008 by Alex K
Alex K Posted July 21, 2008 Author Posted July 21, 2008 Very nice! Here is one from me - the Balkans are ready to meet the "Fortresses" in the winter of 1943/44 Nicely done looks totally authentic to meregardsAlex K
Alex K Posted July 21, 2008 Author Posted July 21, 2008 I'm sure someone, somewhere, will find fault, but I think they're absolutely stunning! I'm strictly an Imperial guy, but those are nice photos. Really looking forward to doing some imperial, just got to have the info on colour of uniforms and insigia etc ready before I have a goregardsAlex K
Alex K Posted July 21, 2008 Author Posted July 21, 2008 (edited) Really looking forward to doing some imperial, just got to have the info on colour of uniforms and insigia etc ready before I have a goregardsAlex Kedit deleted by myself as it didn't add to the value of the postingAdobe Photoshop is great at creating the impossible, How many TR collectors wouldn't mind finding this lot in the bottom of a box!! :speechless1: Edited July 23, 2008 by Alex K
Guest Darrell Posted July 22, 2008 Posted July 22, 2008 Interesting picture of Moelders. I thought it was common knowledge that he was awarded the 3/4 Ring RK. Don't appear like one of those in that picture. :unsure:
Alex K Posted July 22, 2008 Author Posted July 22, 2008 Interesting picture of Moelders. I thought it was common knowledge that he was awarded the 3/4 Ring RK. Don't appear like one of those in that picture. Not a 3/4 as far as I can seeregards
Paul R Posted July 22, 2008 Posted July 22, 2008 The Heer photo turned out great!! The shoulder board pips are supposed to be gold toned though!
Alex K Posted July 22, 2008 Author Posted July 22, 2008 The Heer photo turned out great!! The shoulder board pips are supposed to be gold toned though!I new I'd missed something!!thanks, I'll add them just to comlete itregardsAlex
Alex K Posted July 22, 2008 Author Posted July 22, 2008 The Heer photo turned out great!! The shoulder board pips are supposed to be gold toned though!Paul photo re-attached with correct pipsregards
Alex K Posted July 22, 2008 Author Posted July 22, 2008 (edited) Just for fun, the original image showing it's ageregardsedit Given the concerns with regards to E-bay and "Original colour photo's" I've decided to delete the image sorry.regardsAlex Edited July 22, 2008 by Alex K
Hauptmann Posted July 23, 2008 Posted July 23, 2008 These photos are spectacular! You've done a terrific job on these. I remember my uncle (WWII vet I've posted about before) had the hobby of taking old family photos, getting them deplicated at photo shops and then coloring them in in water colors, oils, etc., in order to colorize them. He did really well. But I can only imagine how happy he would have been being able to do this type of work on a computer system. He wanted to bring such images and memories from the past to life and you folks have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams! Keep up the great work guys! And many thanks for sharing! Dan
Alex K Posted July 23, 2008 Author Posted July 23, 2008 This gets quite addictive, another of General Geyr Von Schweppenburg. I actually quite like this one as the facial expression seems to indicate a level of resignation. Once again thanks to Robert Noss. Please delete if required.regardsAlex K
Alex K Posted July 23, 2008 Author Posted July 23, 2008 (edited) I've seen many extremely well executed water colour colourisations done this way, my own parent's wedding photo's were done in just this watecolour way (Still have them), but? must have taken ages. The beauty of computers (fortunatley or Unfortunatley) it can be done in seconds. It just needs a degree of familiarlity with the software. Having said that, I would'nt dream of colourizing my parent's photo's as I have both B/W and colourised. I remember my own parents in brilliant true colour when they were alive. The whole point of colouring B/W photo's is that it it brings a degree of reality into what otherwise may be just an uninteresting old photo which doesn't "Hit you in the eye". After all, the world does not and never did exist in black and white whatever the period, Life was lived in colour regards Alex K Edited February 4, 2013 by Nick
Chuck In Oregon Posted July 23, 2008 Posted July 23, 2008 I am really enjoying this thread and seeing what you guys are doing.? I have been doing a lot of work on repairing old photos from Russia and Georgia.? I started from (knowledge+experience = zero) but I've been learning along the way.? It has been very satisfying to bring some of those photos back to life from their damaged (and some very damaged) states.? Now I'm wondering how some of them would look in color.? You can do so much with the photo editors.? There are some good tutorials on YouTube about, for instance, making pop art sketches out of photos, just to name one technique.? That's ahead of where I am but it's something to think about. Thanks for this great thread.? Gloat: Now I'm off for a week of fishing the Kenai River combined with intensive woodturning challenges on-site at a friend's cabin right on the river with a huge woodturning studio.? Is life good or what?Chuck
Alex K Posted July 23, 2008 Author Posted July 23, 2008 Colouring old photo's is great when you're stuck in your little "Study" for that read manky little box room. Your vacation sounds absolutely great from where I sit. I assume there is plenty of nothing around except nature, water and fresh air. I'm drooling. regards Alex
Eric K. Posted July 24, 2008 Posted July 24, 2008 These look great!! I have a nice SS photo lot that I would like to try this on.Eric
Hauptmann Posted July 28, 2008 Posted July 28, 2008 Hi all, Alex, I hope you don't mind me posting this one here... but thought you might want to play with it a bit. It's one I just picked up and hoping it arrives in the next few days. Not from the period but it's from the 1959 film "The Young Lions". A young Marlon Brando... but in the uniform and that pose I simply couldn't resist! Have fun! Dan
Alex K Posted July 28, 2008 Author Posted July 28, 2008 (edited) Hi all,Alex, I hope you don't mind me posting this one here... but thought you might want to play with it a bit. It's one I just picked up and hoping it arrives in the next few days. Not from the period but it's from the 1959 film "The Young Lions". A young Marlon Brando... but in the uniform and that pose I simply couldn't resist!Have fun! Dan Hi Dan, Nice photo, looks like fun colourizing it, bit of a challenge, a larger higher res scan would help. don't mind colourizing and sending to you as a PM, you can post it or do what you want with it.regardsJust for fun, don't know if it quite works. Interestingly if you look at the poster, the uniform seems wrong, either that or the poster printer got it wrong, but he's wearing General coloured insignia, don't suppose it matters in a B/W film.regardsedit B/W photo addedAlex K Edited July 28, 2008 by Alex K
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