Tweet Color from Black-and-White: colorized photos

Gagman asks: Where are Lon's hands?

Don't you remember, Gagman? Lon had them amputated in THE UNKNOWN. OK, it seemed to me that he tucked them into the sleeves but I'll super enlarge the b/w to see if there are any digits.

Update - super enlarging I can make out a right thumb just above the sleeves in the center of the photo. The rest of the hands seem to be under the sleeves. You have good eyes, Gagman!

Bob,

Lo! I have good eyes? Sure haven't heard that one before. My vision is awful! This rare Photo of B C is from a 1922 issue of Picture-Play. Don't think I have posted it before on these boards.




Betty Compson-"Young and Pretty"

Anybody know what movie this is from?




Margaret Livingston-"Planet Of The Lobby Monkeys"

By the look of the beauty to the right, it just has to be a Hal Roach Dippy Doo Dad comedy, doesn't it? (only kidding!)

SteveR

This is a first for me: the first issue of THE KING OF KINGS (1927) lobby cards was in color but a later reissue was just sepia-toned. I scanned the sepia lobby card below and removed the tint to render the card in b/w:


Then applying various layers, I "restored" it to look like one of the original color issues:


For comparison, here is one of the original color set:

Hi Bob, looking good with King of Kings.
You missed part of the girl on the right side, her back and neck are missing your flesh tone.
Same with the girl in der mittle, I know it's "hairy" because it's lost in shadow, but, you also missed part of her flesh.
Maybe this is still your work-in-progress and probably already caught my throw, and if so, you're off to a good start.
I'm not too crazy about your bright red and green drapery, too garish & takes away from the girls. Just tint it down.
And if you wanted to match the original lobby card (which I like the colors of), try some yellow &/or blue and you got it.
Practice makes perfecto! Nice job, Bob, keep it up my friend!

SteveR

Steve, how about this?

Bob,

Wow! Fantastic! Are you kidding me. How did you get that much Color? That Jacqueline Logan just Knocks me out! What a gorgeous woman! Woof!

Here is a new Colleen Moore photo I just found the other day. The other still is perhaps Anna Q. Nilsson, or maybe Betty Compson. Not so sure that it is either one? Any ideas?




"Wonderful, Boisterous Colleen!"




Anna Q. Nilsson?




Dorothy Sebastian-"Sweet Bird Of Paradise"




Gwen Lee-"Circus Girl"

[Danny Burk]

I think #2 is Mae Murray.

Danny,

I originally said May Murray too. Must not be her.? It's for another contest. Thanks. I'll let you know how it turns. out. Posted three other mystery stills in another thread a minute ago. Would appreciate your help.

Bob,

You missed a few things on THE KING OF KINGS poster. I've filled those in, trying not to change your work to much. One thing that shot out was the column in the background. There were also some bits of clothing here and there, etc that I noticed as well. See what you think?

SUPER BOB!!! I knew you had it in you! Great job!
And Gagman...wow, you've stepped up to the plate! I'm happy to see you using more color! Way to Go!
One gripe, and I know Colleen Moore did have two different colored eyes, but you made it too obvious.
It looks too freaky with two different colored eyes; peeps might think you messed up, so maybe throw just a tint and a hint of brown in her blue eye.
Great job guys, I've enjoyed watching you progress and hope you both keep it up but don't ruin your eyes (your own eyes that is)!

SteveR

Bob,

I also tinkered with the other Lobby-card a trifle. For the most part it was great, but I could not abide by the yellow sword in Saint Peter's hand. Well, Ernst Torrence hand. ! Had to fix the blade. I noticed some other bodies in the background. Haven't gotten to those much yet. Will work on it a little more this evening.

Gagman, both LCs are better for your contributions. The St. Peter/Ernest Torrence is an original color so the yellow sword isn't my idea. I'm sure C.B. thanks you!

Betty Compson-"Leopard Parka"




Belle Bennett-"Big Blonde Hair"




Unidentified Actress (Actually, this is supposed to Be Viola Dana???)

HIS HOUR (1924)-"Amorous Escapades"

Here is a young Bebe Daniels, I'd guess circa 1919. My problem here is that I couldn't tell where the skin on her back ended and the dress began. Basically I guessed:


This striking portrait of Rudolph Schildkraut in THE KING OF KINGS (1927) is from an original 8x10 that was folded into quarters. If you look closely (or maybe not so closely) you can spot where I airbrushed out the white crease marks:

Bob,

Wow! both of these are excellent! Keep up the Great work. My lone gripe is the Green foliage behind the gate. It still does not have the proper hue.

Gagman, this time the green foliage looked OK to me but maybe I'm just getting used to it. Please have o go at it if you are so inclined. I'd like to see your take on the green. Thanks.

Bob,

Here some Bebe Daniels that I did a couple, three years ago.

Terrific, Gagman. I think the most noticeable difference between your work and mine (other than my occasional lapse into poor choices) is that you tend to favor pastels whereas I go more for the primary colors. The difference makes a nice contrast.

Here's another one from THE KING OF KINGS:

Bob,

Wow, that one has a Two-Color Technicolor look to me. Although Jesus sash would have probably been Red. I mean H. B. Warner's Sash would have probably been Red.

This is from the lost LEGION OF THE CONDEMNED



Gary Cooper and Fay Wray- "Scenic Gardens"

Here's another young Bogart, circa 1937 I'd guess:

Bob,



Esther Ralston-"Precious Undies"




Esther and Clara Bow-"The Society Baby"-From CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927)

That's a fairly risque photo of Ralston. I met her in 1978 - she looked good for her age but nothing like your photo!

Bob,

Yeah think so? Well, wait till you get a gander at these than. The first one is from a 1925 Photoplay Shoot.




Esther Ralston-"Oh, Baby!"




Esther-"Long, Long, Legs"




Esther-"Wrapped Tightly"

And to think she was Peter Pan's mother!

As I mentioned in another post under Silents, I'm working with 8x10 negatives at this point. Scanners with a light unit in the cover are great for processing color or b/w negatives but typically they are only 2.5 inches wide, although the length is fine. These dimensions work for smaller negatives but are very restricting for 8x10s. To work around this, I scan the neg in three or four sections then line up the pieces into a hopefully seamless portrait. I'm bedeviled by two problems - the first is matching up hands and fingers with shoulders and arms. You'd think that matching one area would take care of the other but it doesn't always work out that way. The second problem is differing contrasts for different sections. Even where the join is seamless, the contrast level say on a back wall will differ making it look like it was pieced together.

I found a partial solution in the Photoshop photo fix feature. Here are some examples. First the individual sections:




Here is a basic assembly, You see the different textures over the window and the problem I had matching the arm and vest with the hand and fingers. I could match one or the other but not both:


A combination of colorizing, uh, painting, and photo fix helps smooth out some glaring problems but not all. Can we start a rumor that Wally Reid only had three fingers on his right hand?

Wallace Reid in FOREVER (1921)

[Danny Burk]

Bob - I don't know the type of scanner software that you have, so what I'm saying may not apply in part.

First, re: mismatches, it sounds like one portion is slightly skewed in relation to the next. If you make sure that the film (or film holder) is perfectly parallel to the edge of the scanning window during each pass, this should help. Or, is there a chance that the scanner is giving you slightly different resolution on each scan? That would cause distance A to B to differ from the same A to B points on the adjoining scan.

To stitch pieces, here's what you can do (maybe you're already doing this): create a new file in PS that's more than big enough to hold all of the pieces. Then copy/paste each piece into the new file; this will create separate layers. Move them around using the Move tool, and for fine tuning, use the arrow keys. After you're satisfied with lining them up, you can flatten all layers, then crop the resulting single layer as desired.

The problem with differing contrast is that the scanner is setting exposure automatically, and does so differently for each pass. Does it have a setting for manual exposure? Even if you let the first portion do auto exposure, you should then copy the numerical readings that it's giving for shadows/midtones/highlights (these will be figures between 0-255), and apply the same settings to each successive piece. This will solve the mismatches, and you can then fine-tune exposure after everything is stitched and flattened.

Regards,
Danny

Thanks, Danny. I have an Epson 600 scaner and I think I can set a manual exposure to gain a more uniform contrast. I don't know if this is off the wall but I paste the sections in Word, then save as a pdf. Then open in Photoshop and save that as a jpeg. I spent a couple of hours with the Reid neg but the Jolson photo below worked out in a few minutes:




And the finished product:

Josephine Dunn and Al Jolson in THE SINGING FOOL (1928)