Colouring Old Photos

One of my favourite hobbies would have to be colouring old photos. To put some colour into the cheeks of an image over 100 years old suddenly brings them to life and lets you see them in a whole new (colourful) light.

I use Adobe Photoshop to colour them, each colour is a separate layer. With up-close portraits I use a combination of colours for the skin; the usual flesh and blush tone, but also blues, yellows and even greens!

When I first started, it was landscapes that caught my fancy, especially streetscapes of my hometowns of Perth and Fremantle.

Corner of Wellington & Barrack Street, Perth, c.1906

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But when I started on portraits, especially those of my ancestors, it was truly amazing to be able to see them in a new way. Just adding colour seemed to give them a more multidimensional texture that also gave a feeling of knowing them just that little bit better.