Should we colour black and white photos?

[BillyF]

I have so many copies of this photo, large and small, but I`m pretty sure there`s no description on them. They had been married 73 years when my Mum passed away.

[chempat]

Some time in the early 1960's I was talking to a girl of around 12 who had a Saturday job in a photographer's shop/studio.

She was learning how to hand colour photos amongst other tasks.

I just accepted this without any further useful questions.  I think she had brought in 2 photos to show people what she had been doing.

[Ian Nelson]

I find that colouring artificially is necessary to delineate objects when Sharpening has reached its limits and Contrast fails to show where one object ends and the other starts.  The low resolution jpegs which blend grayscale to the point of losing definition need colour to show the shapes of otherwise undetectable edges.   Badly faded old photos benefit from colour and I usually overcolour them because it is a doddle for anybody interested to turn the Hue down to what they think is acceptable.
Here's an example, Threlfallyorky's mum and her companion and little lambs eating ivy.   The lady on the right was better lit and defined and even though I isolated the dark haired lady on the left and tried to improve her to the same level as the one on the right ... in grayscale it still didn't look good enough, but added colour Helped to define them, not perfect, but an improvement, I think ....

[lhow2000]

I would rather the b&w myself but like others have said there’s nothing wrong with having a colour version of the photo too if ya want. All boils down to personal preference in my opinion. Cheers

[Trishanne]

I do like colouring the photos I have restored. I sometimes find the use of colour defines some details in areas that are not obvious in a black and white  photo.  Like Carol, I do not use a colourising app or a photo enhancing app. I try to get the correct colours by researching images where possible and then hand colouring the photo which can sometimes take a lot of time.
I would hope that whoever posts the photos would  keep their original photo along side the restored and coloured versions. I also agree with Carol that the continued use of the colourising and enhancing apps could mean that this great restoring feature  on Rootschat could eventually lose its  true value.
Pat   

[Gadget]

How many restorers use layers?

Sorry - I pressed before I'd finished!

When I started using PS in the 1990s, there were no facility to layer, and be able to get depth. etc. in different areas, changing various aspects. In those days, it was a bit like painting by numbers.  Gradually PS improved and introduced different features, including the ability to use layering - a bit like stacking transparent sheets on top of each other, treating various parts of the image in different ways.

[Handypandy]

How many restorers use layers?

All the time.

[Gadget]

How many restorers use layers?

All the time.

I can tell you do Andy - your restores have depth. I posted before I meant to  and have added more to my previous post 

[Latchfordian]

Thank you for the many replies to my post, all of which I found interesting. The consensus of opinion seems to be to colour the B+W photos if you really want to but never get rid of the originals. Very sensible advice. Thanks again.