How to Colorize
Black and White Photos

For the first century of photography, black and white was the only medium available. While monochrome images have a classic, artistic appeal, we live and remember in color.

Colorizing old photographs bridges the temporal gap, helping us connect more personally with ancestors and historical figures by presenting them in the natural spectrum we see every day.

In the past, manual colorization required artists to paint colors layer-by-layer in software like Photoshop. This could take days of work and relied on guessing the colors.

FixMyPhoto's AI colorizer uses neural networks trained on millions of paired color and black-and-white photos. The AI analyzes textures, shadows, and objects (like grass, clothing, skies, and skin) to predict and apply historically plausible colors instantly.

Colorizing your family memories takes only a few simple steps:

1. Scan or photograph your black-and-white print in high quality.
2. Upload the file to FixMyPhoto.
3. Select the 'Colorize Photo' tool.
4. Download the generated color image and share it with your family!

While AI gets the overall colors right about 90% of the time, historical details like a specific color of a military uniform or family car might require minor manual edits.

A great workflow is to use FixMyPhoto to do the heavy lifting of skin tones and background coloring, and then use photo editing software (like Photoshop or GIMP) to brush in any specific custom color corrections.