The lost art of coloring photos

It occurred to me that over 10 years ago I did all of my work by hand, and the invention of wondrous programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and all other related programs now has me working on the computer at least 90% for any project. Working on a computer is great; its fast, doesn't waste materials and all mistakes can be quickly corrected. Still there's something to be said about working by hand on something, the happy mistakes that happen and a larger area for experimentation that can produce unexpected results. One such experimental project was hand coloring a photo with various materials and seeing the different outcomes, many of which can't be replicated in a digital format.


Top row: acrylic ink & black pen, gel pens, watercolor pencil crayons
Middle row: traditional watercolor, various black & brown pens, acetone markers
Bottom row: Pebeo Vitrail paints and outliners, oil paint sticks, photo dyes

Basically all photo retouching and coloring is now done in Photoshop and other similar programs. It can eliminate mistakes such as this, a brush mistakenly dropped or a stray drip of blue.




But there's a mysterious look to older photos done by hand that somehow doesn't quite come out when the same process is done in a computer, maybe its the photo itself; it's age, the camera that took it, or maybe its because doing it by hand doesn't give you the option of putting the color on another layer behind the original black and white. All the touching up has to be done on the surface.



When I worked at the art supply store we only had one set of actual photo tinting dye in stock and no more was ever going to be ordered again. A true sign of the times. I did a search for a photo tinting kit image today and this was the best one I could find:



And I did find some kits still being sold, but no surprise they were all on sale. That is an undeniable indication that they are going to be discontinued. Most of my search turned up programs and tutorials for tinting photos on the computer. I love traditional photography and am fully aware of how the digital industry is taking over, what really makes me sad is I know that all traditional processes will completely disappear within my lifetime.