[iforgotpassword]

I've to admit I have no clue about machine learning, but what I notice is that this seems to have preferred colors for things that can actually have many different colors, most notably clothes. They're almost always this blueish slightly purple color here, even the samurai. Don't get me wrong, this is still awesome and I might try this on some old photos from my grandparents. I'm just wondering if and how one can prevent these things from picking this one ideal color for something and instead have it randomize a bit, since obviously you can't really know what color some jacket really was. (except maybe if the picture is a black and white photo of a PAL TV program.)

[hk__2]

> since obviously you can't really know what color some jacket really was.

That’s why colorizing companies employ historians and researchers. You can have a pretty accurate idea of this color with enough research, but it takes time (and thus money).

[theoh]

That might work when the job is colorizing Hollywood productions, but for documentary photos, it's not going to be possible in most cases. You just won't have any leads at all about the origin of the garment, apart from whatever you can observe of its style. An expert can certainly suggest a few colours that don't look anachronistic, but that doesn't make the end result historically "accurate", just plausible/convincing.

[dehrmann]

Is there enough money in colorizing old movies to bother?

[dsfyu404ed]

The Seneca Native in 1908 example seems the most absurd to me. I know the software has no notion of a "fabric" or "clothing" but it's very rare for brown or beige things to fade to blue (or vise versa). In real life things when transition from brown/beige to another color that other color tends to be a red orange or yellow. I know from the known issue that it likes blue but it still seems very odd that it chose to fade from brown to blue like that.

[samstave]

Take a look at the two most famous indian textiles from the 1800s which sold For millions/appraised for millions.

They were chiefs blankets.

They were blue/had no red

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cGlS05233Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJw2qCnhea0

[onemoresoop]

To me the Seneca native's skin on the hand seems a bit to reddish. I find these photos to have very high saturation. I think this could be adjusted and get subtler effects. It's still amazing that this is possible with no human intervention but at the same time, from a different perspective, I find that the originals have their own charm that I would leave it like that.

[draugadrotten]

Is it unthinkable that the seneca girl actually had her hand painted red, for decoration or as a symbol of something? Perhaps her father/brother etc was a fighter and this was a way to keep spirits up while he was in the war?

[blackflame7000]

If you compare the tone of her hand to her face in the black and white image you can clearly see that the colors are different.

[david_draco]

This is mentioned in "known issues" and near "Generator Loss"

[citnaj]

Author here. Yes, it drives me nuts :)