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Chop Suey Canyon (Colorized): 1916

Submitted by scottr on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 10:19am.
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This image has been severely cropped from the original on Shorpy in order to function as computer wallpaper. The license plates have been given historically accurate colors. I did a search for 1916 Michigan plates and found a couple of pictures, which I sampled directly to get the RGB values. The natural elements of the picture I've also probably gotten reasonably close. Purists who know those old cars, on the other hand, will probably find mistakes. Were the tires really that shade of tan? Maybe, maybe not. And so on with the rest of the image. If I thought a color looked believable, it was in. So, please don't judge me too harshly on historical details. I tried a couple of new techniques on this picture, involving colors blending into one another (which in the past has been quite hard to do). I tried this on the street, sidewalks, dirt, and the trees, and was fairly pleased with how they turned out. I also tried something similar on the buildings, but it didn't work, and I didn't end up using the techniques there. View full size.

This image has been severely cropped from the original on Shorpy in order to function as computer wallpaper.

The license plates have been given historically accurate colors. I did a search for 1916 Michigan plates and found a couple of pictures, which I sampled directly to get the RGB values.

The natural elements of the picture I've also probably gotten reasonably close. Purists who know those old cars, on the other hand, will probably find mistakes. Were the tires really that shade of tan? Maybe, maybe not. And so on with the rest of the image. If I thought a color looked believable, it was in. So, please don't judge me too harshly on historical details.

I tried a couple of new techniques on this picture, involving colors blending into one another (which in the past has been quite hard to do). I tried this on the street, sidewalks, dirt, and the trees, and was fairly pleased with how they turned out. I also tried something similar on the buildings, but it didn't work, and I didn't end up using the techniques there. View full size.

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Thanks!

Submitted by scottr on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 2:36pm.

@Lennyd: Thanks! I also use Recolored. :-) It definitely is time consuming; this image took somewhere between 25 and 30 hours to complete. The secret to good colorizations with Recolored, I think, is to really pay attention to your saturation levels; lower is generally better (although too low will wash everything out). My saturation levels are rarely above 100 and generally more like 20 or so (and sometimes just 3 or 4 - even my greys actually have slight tints).

@loribl: Thank you! The type of picture you describe is exactly what I'm shooting for. I dislike unrealistic/hallucinogenic colorizations; photo-realism is always my #1 goal with these pics (although there's always a few things I think I could have done better once they've been published). Each pic might not be perfect, but I'm getting closer every time.

@ElStellino: And I totally appreciate it. Thank you very much.

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What program?

Submitted by Lennyd on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 11:08am.

You did an incredible job of colorizing this. I use a program called re-colored and I know it takes a lot of patience to do a good job. Can you tell me what program you used ?

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Just yesterday?

Submitted by loribl on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 1:42am.

This is amazing. I can see myself stepping into this photo and walking down the street; it looks THAT real. Just change the cars and it could be a contemporary shot. Incredible.

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I honestly think that's amazing.

Submitted by ElStellino on Mon, 12/26/2011 - 3:03pm.

I am a member since 2 minutes ago and I went through the registration process just to communicate this. I really enjoyed this picture, well done! Bravo!

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