Automatic Colorization of Old Photos

MyHeritage has made a free photo colorization tool available. It can be found at https://www.myheritage.com/incolor. Once you are logged in using either a paid subscription or a free account, you just select a photo to upload and around 10-15 seconds later, it has been colorized for free. It will have have the MyHeritage logo added to the lower right-hand corner. You then have the option to share it via social media, copy a link to the colorized photo or download it. The tool allows you to add color to an unlimited number of photos if you are a MyHeritage subscriber. If you only have a free membership, you are limited to 10 photos. If you have a large number of photos to colorize, it could make sense to subscribe.


I didn't realize there was a limit for free accounts so I didn't choose the photos I colorized very carefully. Still, most of them turned out really good. I'm impressed with how the tool created realistic skin tones and landscapes. The only flaw I found was that it made my parents' eyes brown when both my mother and father had blue eyes. In addition, my aunt had some green carry over from the landscape onto her face. Here are my results:

My parents, original.

My parents, colorized. Note my parents had blue eyes,
not brown as the colorization shows.

My great-grandparents, Elizabeth Dunzinger
and Alois Panther, original.

My great-grandparents, Elizabeth Dunzinger
and Alois Panther, colorized.

My parents with my oldest brother, original.

My parents with my oldest brother, colorized.

My grandparents, Benedict Panther and Elizabeth Menke,
along with four of their daughters and one grandson, original.

My grandparents, Benedict Panther and Elizabeth Menke,
along with four of their daughters and one grandson, colorized.

My dad, original.

My dad, colorized.

My mother and four of her sisters, original.

My mother and four of her sisters,colorized.

My mother and three of her sisters
on my mom's first day of school, original.

My mother and three of her sisters
on my mom's first day of school, colorized.

A Menke family reunion, original.

A Menke family reunion, colorized.

My mother with the milkers and her sister pushing the cart, original.

My mother with the milkers and her sister pushing the cart, colorized.
My aunt's face appears to have some green color that bled over from the grass.

Definitely check out this neat new tool but be sure to hold on to your original files so you can revert to the original black and white should you need to in the future.

--Matt