Can YOU tell the difference between black and white and colorized movies/shows?

[Deja Q]

(Oh, one of the above pictures is a cheat... :evilgrin: )

[sarge43]

1. Colorizing a B/W is the same as coloring an original

Rembrandt etching with crayons.

[bridgit]

2. yep, some of the colors will flutter at the edges, or when colored fields...

transition across the screen interacting with other fields...but they're getting better :thumbsup:

[Deja Q]

3. Also keep an eye on the grays - especially teeth and eyes and some backgrounds.

They still betray their monochromatic origins.

I've seen some truly splendid stuff, but it's still way too easy - even given how accurate they otherwise are; native b/w film is still considerably different to the native color capturing process.

[bridgit]

4. very true, they have that sort of 'tron' quality to them...

it's like the software skips right past the orig b&w

[Scout]

6. yup, the teeth never look right ... they always seem blue-ish to me n/t

[poiuytsister]

5. The cinematographers adjusted all the lighting for b/w

it looks totally artificial when colorized. None of the colors look right, like porn, hard to describe but I know it when I see it.

[Cobalt-60]

7. They never finish the job

as others have stated, teeth and small details are often neglected.
I might as well be looking at B&W TV through one of those old blue over brown filters they used to call color tv "converters".
Colorization can be done. But it will never look right.
As other others have pointed out, the lighting was optimized for black and white.
I think the worst job I have seen is on old World War II stock footage.
They don't actually clean or restore the monochrome image first, but rather crudely paint sea, sky, and some machines.
It's a pity because we often know precisely what color everything in the military footage was.

[sarge43]

9. "....precisely what color everything in the military footage was."

In the 1948 film Command Decision the army uniforms were colorized modern green. :wtf:

[Cobalt-60]

10. I saw that

I much prefer standard black and white.
But there is a proven process ....
The Surveyor spacecraft had B&W cameras but produced color photos of the lunar surface.
On its foot was a color wheel that was used as a colorization key.
Every shade of grey corresponded to a given color.
Computers did the conversion.
A similar process could be applied to motion pictures, particularly the stock footage.

[trackfan]

8. They still haven't perfected color photography,

so why do they want to go and fuck up good black and white film by "colorizing" it. I think all color photography is basically "colorization". It certainly isn't a near reflection of reality.