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Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Colorizing My Black and White Family Photos Using MyHeritage In Color™

I shared the MyHeritage press release for MyHeritage in Color in my last post.  

Here is the process to perform the task:

1)  Go to https://www.myheritage.com/incolor where you will see:



2)  Click on the orange "Upload photo" button and select a black and white photograph from your family photo collection.  The photo you selected is uploaded and colorized in seconds.  The screen shows:

3)  In the dual photo (black/white on the left, color on the right) there is an icon for black and white or color.  You can choose either one to share on Facebook, share on Twitter, copy a link to the clipboard, download the photo to your computer, or go to your photos (on MyHeritage).

4)  To download the colorized photo, click on the "Download photo" link and the selected photo will be put in your Downloads file folder on your computer.

Here is the original black and white photo from my collection:


Here is the colorized photograph from MyHeritage In Color:

This photograph is of me as a toddler in about 1945 with my grandfather, Lyle L. Carringer in the cornfield on the Carringer property in San Diego.

Note that there is a small MyHeritage logo in the lower right-hand corner of each colorized photograph (except the above photo for some reason).

There is a minimum photograph size limit - each photo dimension must be at least 300 pixels.

5)  More colorized photos from my collection using this technology - I have only black and white photographs of these pictures in my collection:



My aunt Geraldine and grandmother Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver arriving in San Diego on the train from Leominster, Mass. in July 1942 for my parents wedding.


A three-generation photograph of my great-grandmother Georgia (Kemp) Auble, my mother, Betty Carringer, and my grandmother Emily (Auble) Carringer in 1920.


My great-grandparents Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer with my mother, Betty Carringer in about 1920 in front of their San Diego home.


Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer in San Diego in about 1940.


The Austin Carringer family home at 30th and Hawthorn Streets in San Diego in about 1900.  My grandfather, Lyle L. Carringer is the little boy with his mother in the photo.  I don't know the horse's name.


My grandparents Frederick Walton Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond at their wedding in June 1900 in Leominster, Massachusetts.


The James and Hannah (Rich) Richman family of Putnam, Connecticut in about 1895.  My great-grandfather Thomas Richmond is at the top left.


The wedding photo of Linda's parents, Lee and Edna (Schaffner) Leland in 1937 in San Francisco.


Randy sitting on Santa Claus's lap in about 1948 in San Diego.


The first Christmas card from Randy and Linda (Leland) Seaver in 1970.

As you can see, it favors black, white and shades of gray.  For instance, I am sure that Santa Claus had a red suit on when I sat on his lap in 1948 - but it colorizes as black.

Note my right hand in the last photo.  The colorizing is imperfect.  Gilad Japhet of MyHeritage saw this photo on Facebook and corrected it for me using a future improvement feature (not shown above).  He called the imperfection "zombie skin" - it must be a technical term used by the developers.

Obviously, the colorized photographs are only as good as the original black and white photos, and there may be errors because the colorizing process tries to determine the color of different objects using the shades of gray in the photos.  Considering the process and limitations, I think it does pretty well!

Thank you to MyHeritage for releasing this wonderful new colorizing feature.  The photos are more realistic than black and white photos.  

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Disclosure:  I  receive a complimentary subscription from MyHeritage for publicizing MyHeritage events and products.  I have accepted financial considerations from MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree in past years for services rendered and for conference luncheons.

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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