Colorized Photos of Lincoln

[Jim Page]

Donna, I've looked for a description of the process used in the Color of Lincoln images and haven't seen any info at all.

I know something about computers and color. I worked, when at Martel Labs, on classified remote sensing using a wide variety of natural, infra-red and digital coloring; I worked on the six-pack cameras which took the first color images of Mars; I worked on the large-format color camera that blew up on the space shuttle Challenger, and I developed the first computer-colorizing process for Marvel Comics back in the late 1980s, which the firm I then worked for patented. I also did computer graphics work using early versions of digital-image manipulation for the Reagan, GHW Bush and Clinton administrations.

I can't understand how any color info is available or stored in any of the Lincoln-era images, except as a variation of tone or density.

Can you explain or point me to where this process is explained? It looks to me like skilled photo manipulation to add color, but that's not "very different from the art form" or process of adding color using a Photoshop-like program.

Please know I'm not disputing anyone's claim here; I just would dearly like to know more about it.

Thanks much!

--Jim