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These photos show the street life of 19th century London – in color

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Colorization of old images is a topic of discussion among historians, photographers, and retouchers. Some love it, some hate it, but it seems to me that no person is indifferent about it.

If you ask me, I love colorized photos when they’re done with great skill and historic accuracy. And Tom Marshall of PhotograFix (previously) certainly has it both. The topic of his latest project is the street life of 19th century London – a set of photos taken in the mid-1870s. Tom carefully colorized them, giving them a new dimension and making them look as if scenes from Charles Dickens novels came to life.

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These colorized photos pay a tribute to animals of the First and Second World War

If you have a pet, you know how important animals are in our lives. They keep us company, give us their love and trust, and keep us sane even during the most difficult periods. Tom Marshall of PhotograFix recognizes the importance of animals and their role in human lives. So, he has colorized photos of animals that accompanied or helped the soldiers in the First and the Second World War. The photos not only give these lesser-known heroes a new life, but also remind us of the importance of animals in the toughest of times.

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The controversial history of colourizing black-and-white photos

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The ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) image colourization were recently brought to public attention when several historical images were altered using digital algorithms.

Irish artist Matt Loughrey digitally colourized and added smiles to photos of tortured prisoners from Security Prison 21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-79. His photos were published in Vice and prompted outrage on Twitter.

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Colorization artist under fire for photoshopping smiles to genocide victims

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Colorization artist Matt Loughrey recently came under fire for a serious “Photoshop crime.” He shared some of his work with Vice Asia, showing his colorized images of Cambodian genocide victims. But it was soon discovered that he added smiles to them, which caused quite a stir.

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Photographer restores and colorizes vintage photos of 26 US presidents

James Berridge of JBColourisation has already demonstrated his impressive restoration and colorization skills. In his recent project, he embarked on a demanding task to make a large chunk of US history more relatable to the 21st-century folks. He restored and colorized 26 presidential portraits. All of those photos that were photographed in black & white now have their restored, colored version.

After he finished the process, James shared a video that, for the first time, shows all US presidents in color. And in another video, he spoke more about his process, the challenges he faced, and why he decided to start this project in the first place.

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MyHeritage photo enhancer shows you what your ancestors really looked like

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We’ve seen some pretty epic examples of manual photo restoration and colorization. But there’s now a website that promises equally impressive results. MyHeritage uses neural networks to restore your old photos and give them color. And judging from the examples, it truly does a pretty good job for artificial intelligence.

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Russian colorist receives multiple suspensions from Facebook and Instagram for sharing “dangerous” images

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Olga Shirnina, also known as Klimbim, is one of the leading colorization artists who gives new life to historic images. However, her work has been banned from Facebook and Instagram several times now. Since September last year, her accounts have been suspended multiple times for posting images that depict “dangerous organizations.”

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Mother and baby reunited after 116 years in this incredible photo restoration

Photo restoration and colorization gives new life and new dimension to damaged old photographs. A recent video from James Berridge of JBColourisation shows just how impressive this process can be. He used a heavily damaged diptych of mother and her baby from circa 1903, with the damage splitting the image apart. In his timelapse video, you can see how he fixed it and “reunited” the mother and her child after 116 years.

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This website restores and colorizes your vintage photos in no time

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Colorization and restoration of old photos is a painstaking and time-consuming process, especially if you’re working with heavily damaged images. Computer vision team of Mail.ru Group has introduced an AI-powered tool that will make his process simpler and easier. They’ve even launched a website where you can test it out and restore the vintage photos from your old family album. Or any other vintage photos, if you prefer.

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