Now it is fashionable to wear B&W filters; that is, they make photos appear in black and white, or grayscale. But years ago, there were simply no color cameras. Just like television. Even today, surely you have at your fingertips old pictures of your grandparents, for example, which were made in black and white. Well with your device you can turn them to color easily and with an app. We explain how.
There is a technology that makes this possible, and it is called Artificial Intelligence. Thanks to it, an app can recognize a scene and its elements and, consulting its corresponding database, apply colors these elements and completely compose the scene. They may not be exactly the colors that were present at that time, when the photograph was taken, but it is a technological leap that allows us to partially recover those images that could not be taken with color. For all this, obviously, we will start by downloading the app that is free, it is called Colorize, and you have it available at the end of this article.
Apply filters to black and white photos with Colorize Images
For all this, obviously, we will start by downloading the app that is free, it is called Colorize, and you have it available at the end of this article. Luckily, there are simple apps that do just that: coloring old black and white photos. One of them is Colorize Images, extremely simple to the point that you only need to press a button and wait. The result is very good in some cases, while in others there is not much difference between the original photo and the result.
Choose your black and white photo and recover its colors
Once the application is downloaded and installed, grant the storage permissions so that the app can take an image from your device and then save it, having applied the corresponding changes. The first thing the app will tell you is that, from your gallery, choose What a photo in black and white do you want 'color'. And by doing so, it will automatically be processed in a matter of seconds and you will be able to see it with colour. When this happens, at the bottom you will find a tab to see the before and after; that is, the original black and white photo, and the color image processed by the application.
Save or adjust your colored image
In the lower right corner you have a circular icon with something similar to a pencil. If you click here you will find the settings. Before that, in the upper right corner you can save the photo if the changes have convinced you. If not, then yes, in the lower right corner press to access the Expert mode, where you can change a series of parameters so that the restoration of the photograph is tried again taking into account your manual configuration.
Here we can modify the render factor in 45 different points and, if we want to, modify the contrast. With these two values we would then click on the button retry colorization. Changes will be applied automatically according to the settings you have chosen. And if you think you are right, and you want to apply these same parameters to the next photographs that you upload to the application, you can access this section of the Expert mode of the application and, in this case, click on the button Save values as default.
Colorize! Another option for coloring black and white photos
If you have old photos at home, you can use not just one, but different applications to give them new life. Another one is Colorize !, which stands out for being very simple and free in its basic version. After opening the app, all you have to do is click on the image shown to choose the photo you want to color from your gallery. Then it is the turn to press Start to Upload.
The processing of the photo is carried out on the application's servers, so that as soon as the upload is finished you are shown a task identifier code. It is really irrelevant for you as a user, although it is there if you later want to consult the previous tasks.
La app does not tell you when the processing is ready, so you must press Check the Status to do it manually. In our tests, most of the tasks were completed in a few seconds.
If everything went well, a download window will appear. Press Preview to see the result of your image. In this preview you can apply filters similar to those of Instagram to give it a slightly different touch.
If you like the result, press Save to Album so that the resulting photo is saved on your mobile. Also, you can use the share button at the top of the window to send a link to the resulting photo to other applications.
No more third-party apps: Google Photos now colors old photos
It is a function that has been working for the Google gallery for some time. This option, through Artificial Intelligence, identifies the scene in the photo and interprets the colors to color it automatically. In fact, the function is also called Colorize, which will allow us to convert the old black and white photos to color images. Colorize It works very simply, at least in appearance (the AI training must not have been very simple).
When clicking on the color option, a notice will appear that explains how this new implementation works. The description is easy: Colorize mode analyzes black and white photos and adds color automatically. By accepting, the coloring process begins, it will take a while, but we will not have to wait long. At the end we will see the photo in color. The results are pretty good, but we can finish modifying the photo with editing, although it is true that it makes a somewhat vintage effect that lacks a bit of that sepia tone that does not end up being an exquisite result.
It is good that there is an app that can be used to transform photos from black and white to color.