Giving colors to old pictures -

[ICametoLurk]

A couple of researchers from the University of California trained a Convolutional Neural Network to predict the colors in black and white images.



research paper



https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.08511.pdf



files



https://void.cat/#Jtu4v94xWmFnCnTaw...e0bfea6cba27:10da71fc9fc9ca4fba043c64cbba243f



How do I use this?



First of all, this neural net runs on python with opencv and imutils so you'll have to start by installing those libraries first. You can just use pip for that:



pip install opencv-python



pip install imutils



install pip if you don't have it



How do I run the model?



Just type the following in a console, inside the folder containing the .py files:



python bw2color_image.py \



–prototxt model/colorization_deploy_v2.prototxt \

–model model/colorization_release_v2.caffemodel \



–points model/pts_in_hull.npy \



–image images/your_image.jpg



After that you'll be shown with two windows, one showing the original image and the second showing the colorized image, you just have to press any key to close both windows but remember to right click on the image if you wish to save it.



WARNING: Video files can be very heavy to process



But if you want to give it a go then you should just run:

python bw2color_video.py \

–prototxt model/colorization_deploy_v2.prototxt \



–model model/colorization_release_v2.caffemodel \

–points model/pts_in_hull.npy \

–input images/your_video.webm

This one should give you a look at the colorized frames, those frames will be stored in a folder called frames and you can join them to make a video with the "make_video.py" file, just remember to adjust the framerate.

LET'S GET TO COLOR

POST YOUR RESULTS

 

[millais]

This will make those people who digitally hand color old photos chimp out. Especially in the military history groups, they are always critiquing each other for not picking the exact right shade of color for uniform/clothing and camouflage paint scheme, and citing Osprey Publishing reference volumes to lord it over one another.

 

[sasazuka]

Eh, I looked at that Python site and couldn't make heads or tails of what I need to install on my laptop to make it work.

Are the results better than what the Algorithmia "Colorize Photos" site delivers?

Using that Algorithmia site.

Spoiler: Original Color Photo

Spoiler: Photo after I greyscaled it in GIMP

Spoiler: Re-colorized photo from Algorithmia

It thought the green Hot Wheels Corvette was orange.

 

[Notan Alte]

Just used a bit of it. It could use some work, but it looks pretty good so far.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

This will make those people who digitally hand color old photos chimp out. Especially in the military history groups, they are always critiquing each other for not picking the exact right shade of color for uniform/clothing and camouflage paint scheme, and citing Osprey Publishing reference volumes to lord it over one another.

I consider myself a Classical Liberal but people who miscolour panzers should be sent to a concentration camp.

 

[MysticMisty]

It looks like something meant to visualize what some colorblind people see to non-colorblind people.

 

[UnKillShredDur]

Didn't George Lucas sue to stop this shit years ago?

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

Oscar Wilde in his university days. I ran it through a website. The picture's okay.