MyHeritage yesterday released a fun product, called MyHeritage in Color, that quickly and easily colourizes black and white photos.
Once I saw the link in the MyHeritage Blog post about the new product, I didn’t even bother to read the instructions. I’ve tried another online colourizing product, but I think this one may be the easiest to use and fastest to produce results.
Even someone with very limited computer skills should be off and running with MyHeritage in Color within a minute or two.
with MyHeritage in Color. He is likely related to the Isabella Young-Joseph Craig family.
While I’m a huge fan of great black and white photography, colourizing old photos of family members gives them life. It gives them a new perspective.
Colourizing photos can make old photos more appealing to young people.
Getting started
Once you upload a photo from your computer to MyHeritage in Color, you’ll be asked to sign up for free to MyHeritage to colourize your photos. If you already have a MyHeritage or MyHeritageDNA account, and you haven’t logged in earlier, simply select the Log in option on the bottom of the popup.
Colourizing a photo typically takes a few seconds, depending on its size and level of detail.
You can download the colourized photo by clicking the Download button. The photo can also be shared on Facebook or Twitter.
Cost
But — before you get too excited and start colouring photos willy-nilly, as I did, there eventually is a cost.
Anyone can colourize “several” photos for free. MyHeritage, however, doesn’t indicate what they mean by “several.” After reaching the limit, a subscription is required. I colourized nine photos and haven’t seen the limit yet.
Users who have a complete subscription with MyHeritage can colourize an unlimited number of photos. Non-subscribers will notice a watermark of the MyHeritage logo on the bottom right of their colorized photos, whereas complete subscribers are able to produce colourized photos that are logo-free.
Improves faded colour photos
When looking for photos to colourize, don’t limit yourself to black and white photos. I tested MyHeritage in Color with faded colour photos. It made the faded colours more vibrant.
Blue is the new red
One problem I noticed is that most, if not all, colourizing products tend to make a lot of clothing a shade of blue, and that’s the case with MyHeritage in Color.
I tested MyHeritage in Color with photos of me when I was a little girl. I wanted to see if it detected that my hair was red.
I selected a photo of me sitting on Santa’s lamp. My hair colour was fairly accurate, although more strawberry blond than it actually was. Still, the colour was acceptable.
The problem was Santa’s suit. It wasn’t red. Instead, MyHeritage in Color coloured Santa’s suit navy blue.
Despite the hiccup with the colour of Santa’s suit and until I reach my limit, I will continue to play with MyHeritage in Color.
It’s definitely worth a try.
Learn more in the MyHeritage Blog post.
