I have a minor obsession with golden-age Hollywood cinema. I love the focus on clever plots and dialogue rather than special effects. I love how talented the actors and actresses were to be able to shoot long scenes in such few takes. I love the way they take me back in time with authentic phrases and terminology of the period like "heel" and "taking a powder".
Before anyone doubts my intentions in coloring such cinematic treasures I'd like to make it clear that I don't have a problem with black and white film. In fact, I've enjoyed viewing over a hundred new black and white movies in the past two years (2016-2018).
But at the same time I don't think it's an unforgivable sin (as many purists seem to believe) to wonder what these images and films looked like in full color. I recently became enthused with the idea of automating the coloring process through computer software. In fact, I have documented all of my experiments and detours in this Google Doc.
The images posted on this site are projects I have completed with a manual coloring process of my own creation (I implemented object masking and hue/saturation adjustments). I have been developing this software to better understand the manual process and see if it provides any other useful insights toward the ultimate goal of automating the process. To access and use the software in its latest form you may download it from my GitHub repository: https://github.com/psoder3/pauls-coloring-studio
Paul Soderquist
paulsoderquist3@gmail.com