[Leica] Photoshop Colorize Filter Experiment

[Aram Langhans]

I am at my father-in-law's so I get to play around with the latest 
versions of PS and LR.  I am still using CS6 and LR6.  Not sure if 
anyone noticed the new neural filters that have been added a while 
back.  One of them is colorize.  With one click it will take a B&W and 
turn it into color.  I thought I'd give it a try.  I just did the one 
click thing and did not play around much with the adjustments, and I 
accepted what it did without choosing if I was satisfied or not.  I 
think that if you say that maybe it will try again and maybe learn what 
you like.  Maybe a different experiment later.

Since all his shots are color, I downloaded a few B&W shots from the 
internet and gave it a try.  The first one is a famous Ansel Adams shot 
in Yosemite from Tunnel view.

untitled-2-3 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2-3.jpg.html>

untitled-2-4 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2-4.jpg.html>      
Not bad.  This one I did lower the contrast.

Next a Grand Canyon shot

untitled-2 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2.jpg.html>

untitled-2-2 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2-2.jpg.html>  I 
did play with this a small amount.

So I said, what about people?  Here is a market shot.

untitled-2-5 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2-5.jpg.html>

untitled-2-6 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-2-6.jpg.html>

My wife said how did it know she was in a blue coat?  Of course, it did 
not, but make some kind of choice.  So, I though I would try something else.

I took a few of my father-in-law's photos and converted them to B&W and 
then colorized them to see what PS chose to do and how close to reality 
was it.  Original color images are first followed by PS colorized versions

My nephew had a gray outfit on and of course PS did not know it was gray 
from the start.

untitled-9808 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-9808.jpg.html>

untitled-9808-Edit (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-9808-Edit.jpg.html>

Here we all are at Tunnel View in gray shirts.  I wondered if they would 
still be gray.  They were but my sister-in-law's skirt was changed from 
blue to some sort of red.

untitled-0216 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-0216.jpg.html>

untitled-0216-Edit (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-0216-Edit.jpg.html>

And finally what about a flamingo?  Can PS get the feather colors correct?

untitled-0288 (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-0288.jpg.html>

untitled-0288-Edit (leica-users.org) 
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/misc/ce/untitled-0288-Edit.jpg.html>

So, you can draw your own conclusions.  For me, I am amazed at what it 
can do. Having done a bit of computer programming way back in the dark 
ages, I am just blown away at the complex calculations that must be 
going on.  And if it is an original B&W with no reference for you to 
compare, I think it did a pretty good job of making some plausible color 
choices, and with some tweaking you might be able to make it look no so 
much like faded Kodachrome but a new photo.

Comments welcome

Aram


-- 
Aram Langhans
(Semi) Retired Science Teacher
& Unemployed photographer
  
“The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin himself would ever have dared dream.”
    James D. Watson