DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

This tool turns old photos of your ancestors into creepy animations

Feb 26, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic 4 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

MyHeritage has introduced some interesting tools that add a new dimension to your old family photos. It offers colorization and image enhancement, and both are AI-powered and available at a click of a button. Now there’s Deep Nostalgia, a new tool that lets you animate your photos. I tried it out, and I’m not sure whether I’m more impressed or freaked out by it.

As the name suggests, Deep Nostalgia relies on deep learning to turn your still images into animated videos. Gizmodo compares it to the Live Photos feature in iOS and iPadOS. I have something similar on my Huawei phone and I can take an “animated photo” of some sort. I’ve never found a purpose for it, but that’s a different topic.

However, the point of Deep Nostalgia isn’t to select the perfect shot like Live Photos or create an animation from a video. It rather wants to turn your old photos into animated videos to help you “connect” more with your ancestors. In these videos, people seem as if they’re looking around before they strike a pose for the camera.

If you’d like to test out the tool, you need to have a MyHeritage account. I already have it because I tested Photo Enhancer a while ago, so I logged in to try out Deep Nostalgia. I just recently downloaded this photo to my computer, so I thought I could use it first.

It shows my late grandma and grandpa, and their three children who are all, thankfully, alive and well.  The one on the left is my mom, by the way.

It’s worth noting that Deep Nostalgia didn’t recognize my grandpa’s face, most likely because his head is turned to the side. So when you upload photos, make sure that people’s faces are turned towards the camera. Other than my gramps, the AI recognized and animated everyone else in the photo.  In this article, though, I won’t upload the animations. I don’t have a permission from my mom, auntie, and uncle, and the animated photo of my late granny freaks me out.

So, to show you the result, also used a photo of my very alive self, and here’s what it turned out:

Then, I downloaded this photo of Emile Henri Pied from Europeana’s gallery. He was a soldier who died in combat during World War I. This is the original image and the animation I got from it:

I wanted to enhance the image with MyHeritage’s enhancer and then make an animation, but this blurry mess is what I got. Very odd.

The enhancement job is pretty awesome, though

Playing with Deep Nostalgia was so much fun when I used photos of myself and my living family members. Some of the results are hilarious, but some are actually quite good! Especially if you take into consideration that these are all animations made from old still images in a few seconds.

However, when I used photos of deceased people, it totally freaked me out. I found it to be a very unpleasant experience and I think it will give me nightmares tonight. But if you feel like it will bring you closer to your ancestors or your idols from history, then go for it.

[via Gizmodo]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Creator Turns Old Photos From The Library Of Congress Into Creepy GIF Animations MyHeritage photo enhancer shows you what your ancestors really looked like Artist takes months and thousands of photos to make these stunning stop-motion animations This photographer uses vintage photos to create hilarious animations

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: animate, Animated Photo, animation, MyHeritage

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Canon wants to make its concept desktop surveillance camera as not-creepy as possible
5 corrective face-posing tips for shooting non-models »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • International Photography Awards reveals breathtaking 2022 winners (mildly NSFW)
  • 7artisans launches a 24mm f/1.4 lens for only $109
  • DIYP Quiz: So, you think you know film cameras?
  • Jollylook Pinhole SQUARE DIY pinhole camera kit shoots Instax square film
  • The “Digitally Analog Polaroid” runs ChatGPT code on a Raspberry Pi

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy