colorization of Lewis Powell's mug shot

[L Verge]

(08-27-2018 06:31 PM)civilwarincolor Wrote:  

(08-27-2018 07:42 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  I like the colorized pics too. Are the choices of colrs to use “best quesses?” Or how is a particular color to use decided on?

Speaking from my experience I do a great deal of research for the colors I use. The colors I use have a couple of factors:

1. Standard items. Such as uniforms, grass, brick, sky, etc. We know what they are and can find the color easily. For uniforms I have have images of period uniforms (both Union/Confederate) as well as modern reproductions (which helps with faded uniforms to get the right shades). I keep a variety of Confederate uniform colors since the consistency varied through the war more the Union.

2. Things I can find. There are times when working on an image that I fill find that the items still exists and I can get a picture of it. Examples of this are things like Brady's chair that he posed people in for photos, eye color of historical figure, etc. Sometimes this is just a description. The Surratt house was kind enough to put me in touch the the biographers for each of the conspirators and I was able to get clothing notes from them. The image for Michael O'Laughlen (for example) has his vest being green with purple stripes as referenced from the trial documents. I would not have realized this without the Surratt house.

Other times I have reached out to an expert and they have shared their findings. For example the Lincoln Funeral Car. The original car was destroyed in a fire however some of the windows had been replaced and the ones that had been removed survived. A university professor obtained a paint sample and had run a rather intense study showing the colors used on the original car.

I managed to track him down and convinced him to share the report so I could match the color. He did ask that I keep the report, sample images, study and his contact private, which I have done.

One of my earliest (and best finds) was a member that sent me a reproduction sample of the cloth from Lincoln's chair at Ford's Theatre so I could get the proper shade.

On numerous occasions I have reached out to a museum and asked about the color for a certain item to see of they could give me some idea and when I show them the B&W photo they let me know that the item exists in their collection and they will send me a photo so I can get it right.

Once you get past those there is a large amount of "best guess". This includes things like civilian clothes for non-historical persons, color for jewelry, buildings, etc. For these I will try to do something that is appropriate to the period, but will often decide to do something with a little more color if possible. For example, if I feel the item was probably black, I may make it brown or dark blue, just to add color to an image. If I have several people in civilian clothes I may mix the colors up so that I do not have a bunch of people all next to each other in one color.

Hopefully with the combination of these things that I can bring back much of the color so that you can visualize yourself at that time vs. just looking at a period photo.

Hope that helps answer how I choose color.

David

Thank you for all that information. Once you decide on the colors to use, how long does it take you to colorize just one photo (of medium size)? BTW: Did you once give a program on your process at a Surratt Society banquet?