Tweet Color from Black-and-White: colorized photos

Gagman,

What color tie do you think Doug Sr should have? I tried to give Clara a tan but I had to eliminate the rosy cheeks first. Not all that good:


I tinkered with the Garbo a bit more but it still doesn't seem right. BTW, I superimposed her signature on the photo.


I can't take credit for the smoke effect on the Chaney. It was there on the b/w negative and came through the color transfer beautifully.

Lo! on my monitor Clara is suddenly Nubbin! I was hoping for Pat Savage, not Josephine Baker! Can you post the Garbo in Black and White. I'll take a crack at it.

41 years ago today Harold Lloyd passed away on March 9th 1971 at his home of Greenacers.



Harold And Mildred,-"A Sandwich And A Soda"

Gagman,

The underlying b/w skin tone on the Clara photo is causing the tanning problems. Compare to the Fairbanks photo where Doug Sr. really has a natural tan.

As you requested, here's Garbo in/bw. Good luck!

Bob,

Thanks. If you want me to post the still with Clara and Clive in Monochrome I will, but I think it is great big?

Here She has a little more pigment, and a hint of a tan.



"Spying Hula!"




Richard Arlen and Fay Wray

It's been a while since I attempted a colorization, but I thought I would give it a whirl again with this photo of Mary Philbin I bought a short time ago. The typed description on the back of the photo indicates that this picture was done for director Paul Fejos' "Erik the Great." A quick perusal of the imdb shows that the movie was released as "The Last Performance." I wish that I had re-read the typed description before I colorized the photo because it describes Mary's dress as being a "gown of blue taffeta." Oops! So much for historical accuracy.

Little Caesar,

Nice job but the photo has a haziness that I tried to sharpen up a bit. I lightened Mary's face w/o changing the skin color. i don't know if the shade on the dress is blue taffeta but it's a nice shade. Oddly, I got this shade by making the dress yellow, then using the color converter to turn it blue. I made the shoes a different shade which may or may not be a good idea. I was tempted to make the background a light pink but left it alone.

Little Caesar,

Nice job but the photo has a haziness that I tried to sharpen up a bit. I lightened Mary's face w/o changing the skin color. i don't know if the shade on the dress is blue taffeta but it's a nice shade. Oddly, I got this shade by making the dress yellow, then using the color converter to turn it blue. I made the shoes a different shade which may or may not be a good idea. I was tempted to make the background a light pink but left it alone.

Looks nice. I'm not sure if the haziness is from using a low resolution auction scan (I still haven't gotten around to buying myself a scanner) or from my monkeying around with the settings (I was going more for a "lobby card" look rather than a "Technicolor" look).

Interesting I don't think I have ever seen that Mary Philbin pic before. Have my suspicions the the dress was white, Tannish, Rose, mauve, or some lighter color. Why do both of you have her necklace yellow? In any event, Welcome back Little Caesar. We really need more patrons here so nice to see you visiting the thread again, and contributing.

Here are a couple more productions stills from HULA. Ironically, in the first one I made Clara's dress a little louder than usual. Almost the same hue as Bob's Mary.



"Poor Table Etiquette"



"One Wreath To Many"



And now for something completely unrelated. Oh, oh! Poor Harold has been abducted to sea, and now Bebe the dastardly Pirate girl looks to have her way with him!



"Hmm, You'll Do For A Pinch, Err, I Mean In A Pinch Matey!"

Gagman,

I've never seen a photo of Clive Brook smiling. Beautiful photo too!

Here a 1928 portrait of Joan Crawford that I scanned from an 8x10 inch work negative:

Lo! looks like Joan was attacked by two giant Coconut Macrons!

Here's are two of the better Crawford pics I have.




"High Steppin"




Joan with Ramon Novarro-ACROSS TO SINGAPORE (1928)

Bob,

Here is a photo I am really struggling with. So I thought that you might want to give it a go? Coops hands are to dark and I can't seem to lighten them. Clara's face is to white. Extra glare on her right that I don't like. It is a great still though from CHILDREN OF DIVORCE found by Mitch Farish and posted on the TCM-CFU boards. Didn't see that glob of red in the corner until after I posted this. Will try to get rid of it.







Meantime, this is the last still of this latest batch from HULA that I could find. I thought I had at least 3 more. Could not locate them for some reason.



"Something To Pout About"

Thanks for the welcome back (even though I've never actually been away ). Here's another photo I've been working on. Consider it a work in progress. I'll say one thing - I wouldn't mind being in Harold's shoes at that point!

Little Caesar,

Lo! This has always been one of my favorite stills and I have never worked on it before. Haven't seen this large of a version before, or even close. Coming along pretty well. Need more green on the tree's, on Harold's lips shouldn't be blood red. HOT WATER to me is an underrated film. About as funny as anything Harold ever did. Yeah, Jobyna was something!

Gagman,

How's this?

Bob,

Looks great. I like the shade of Clara's hair better in my version. Everything else you seem to have me beat. Not wild about the color of the dress, but I struggled to do much with it. Little gold or silver sequins all over it. Somehow I cut off the greenery in the background. Did not notice it until after I had posted the photo. Your Skin-tone is greatly superior to mine. But that is usually the case. Hey, you are getting much better with your greens!

Little Caesar,

I think there's too much blue in your photo. I copied it, stripped out all the color and rebuilt it from b/w. I think the photo is low-res because Harold's face is grainy. You may not like my color choices but I'm assuming that Jobyna's dress is old lace. Also, her face is darker than Harold's and that's odd for man/woman fleshtones. I lightened her and darkened HL a tad but recognize that he wanted a blank sort of look. What do you think?

Gagman,

If I continued the fleshtone into Clara's hair, I would have gotten close to the hair color you gave her. I can't take credit for the quality of the fleshtone - it's all Photoshop. I bet your work would go to another level if you upgraded your software. Don't worry about the time and effort to learn a new program - I never learned it, I just started using it.

Also, let me again urge you to publish your work on Amazon's CreateSpace.com. It costs you nothing to publish and you get a real break in buying copies for yourself. Tonight I just gave the green light to publish my second volume of OLD HOLLYWOOD IN COLOR. I've already published it as a Kindle ebook last week. Here's the cover:

Little Caesar,

I think there's too much blue in your photo. I copied it, stripped out all the color and rebuilt it from b/w. I think the photo is low-res because Harold's face is grainy. You may not like my color choices but I'm assuming that Jobyna's dress is old lace. Also, her face is darker than Harold's and that's odd for man/woman fleshtones. I lightened her and darkened HL a tad but recognize that he wanted a blank sort of look. What do you think?

Not bad looking at all. Again, I'm working with an auction scan, and seeing the results here is starting to put a fire under my feet to finally get a scanner so I can truly do justice (or at least attempt justice) to some of my photos. The color choices are fine for the most part. The green could be a bit more subtle for my tastes, but it gets the job done. I chose blue for Jobyna instead of white because I think she was a bridesmaid (in this scene at least!).

Little Caesar,

Sometimes I make color choices that I suspect were not the original colors. My reason is simply that these photos were not composed for color so such considerations as clashing hues weren't factored in. I like to think if Dr. Kalmus were doing this, what choices might he have made. I've never found it consoling to say, "Yeah the colors clash but I think I got the right ones."

Bob, Caesar,

Hey, I toned down the green in the background a bit, but I still am not happy with it. Never saw Harold with so many freckles before? They just popped up all over the place? Got rid of the scratches on Jobyna's arm.

Another still from CHILDREN OF DIVORCE. Clara is the Cat's Pajamas here!




"Magic In The Air"


Put on your thinking caps. Let's see if you know who the young man is in this photo? It is taken from a 1916 William S. Hart Western. That's Bill of course in the Preacher garb. But can you name the young actor with the abundance of hair standing opposite him in this still. Any ideas?




William S. Hart And which Future Top Star?

Gagman,

That's John Gilbert, then known I think as Jack Gilbert. No question about it - that little kid between Hart and the other guy is Jack Gilbert

Hart looks like he's a preacher. What's the title of this film?

Bob,

Yeah, it is John Gilbert. I expected people would struggle with this one. Everyone got it right away/ It's actually 1916. The title of the picture was The Apostle of Vengeance. Pretty cool name huh? This was Jack's first credited screen appearance. As far as I know the picture is lost.

Gagman,

APOSTLE OF VENGEANCE sounds like a sequel to HELL'S HINGES. After all, it's logical that Hart would stick around to rebuild the town and become its preacher. Might even call the new town Heaven's Gate (what a great name for a western)

Bob,

We need to find some Bill Hart stills. I have very few. Don't even have much in the way of portraits.

This is interesting. Corinne Griffith and D. W. Griffith conversing on the set. She appears to be in costume for the now missing Two-Color Technicolor Dream sequence to THE GARDEN OF EDEN.



"Griffith To Griffith"


I was trying to replicate the look of this earlier cropped photo that I had worked on. Not knowing that D. W. was sitting next to her at the time.

Gagman,

I have a BEN HUR program from 1899 with some nice photos of Hart as Messala. And a 4x5 inch color positive of a Glass slide taken from 1917. Other than that,I have no Hart images.

Well, I finally broke down and bought myself a scanner (I've been needing one for school work anyway). Here's the Harold and Joby picture in a higher resolution scan if one of you two want to tackle it again.


Also, since I know how popular she is around here, here are two Clara Bow images I was able to get a few months ago.

Little Caesar,

Congrats on the scanner. You'll find lots of uses for it now that you have one. Even if you stick to b/w photos, the brightness and contrast controls on the Photoshop software can really revive a dull print. For example, here's your Harold and Jobyna photo after I fiddled with it:

Little Caesar,

I really like the still from THE RUNAWAY. It is not easy to find images from this film. Thanks. Do you have any rare Colleen Moore, Corinne Griffith, or Esther Ralston stills?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!


Bob,

Here is a actress I haven't posted any photos of before. Have you got anything with her?



Lili Damita-"Born Knockout"

Gagman,

I may have a photo of Lili with Ronald Colman from THE RESCUE but for now here's this, not much to color: