One recent trend that has made historical photos more accessible and alive for some is digital recolorization. This is a fascinating field of photography that helps modern viewers truly imagine what things might have looked like decades or even centuries ago.

But digital recolorization is not as simple as it sounds, and it’s far from the first type of recolorization (or colorization, for that matter) that people have ever done.

The earliest type of widespread photo - the daguerreotype - was revolutionary in the world of visual arts. However, people were almost immediately disappointed that the process couldn’t capture color. The science of photography, still in its infancy, could not satisfy the public’s demand for color quickly enough.

While scientists, chemists and inventors puzzled over how to capture color, artists took matters into their own hands. And why not? If trained artists could create near-picture-perfect copies of still-life scenes, then coloring a black-and-white photograph couldn’t be that hard, right?

We’ll leave that judgment up to the reader, but we do know that attempts were already being made in 1839 - the year that the daguerreotype was invented. Artists’ experiments began by hand and involved powdered pigments, transparent paints, and all sorts of other colors applied directly to the photographs.

As color photography evolved through a number of iterations to the color film and digital sensors of the modern era, the concept of re-coloring black-and-white photos never disappeared. Though this was also often done by hand, the invention of Adobe Photoshop revolutionized the art of digital recolorization.

The current edition of Photoshop even has a tool called a Neural Filter, which can be used on a black and white photo to let Photoshop take its best guess at the required colors and colorize the photo itself. There might be some tasks, however, where this approach might not work.

One fascinating aspect of some recolorization projects was the historical research involved in getting the colors right. A sufficiently scholarly approach could have photographers and artists recreating historic fabrics or processes to ensure that they could accurately reproduce the shine of a princess’ exotic silk or the vibrant colors of a coat of arms.

The thought of achieving color photos by chemical means may seem archaic to younger users of modern DSLR cameras and smartphones, but the last great analog color photography processes (including Kodachrome and Agfacolor-Neu) involved complex chemical processes and special development processes in laboratory conditions.

Photography enthusiasts may regret the loss of these and other fascinating photographic processes, but look on the bright side - our grandchildren will get to see color photos and videos of us!

The Historical Pictures and Old Memories group on Facebook has nearly 20,000 members as of this writing and posts photos almost every day, so if you enjoyed this journey through the past, be sure to give them a follow!