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"How can I colorize black and white photos for free?" If you are curious about giving old photos a new light and adding realistic colors to your black-and-white photos, you've come to the right place. Keep reading to unlock the best ways to colorize black-and-white photos.
In this article
1. Colorize Black-and-White Photos Online for Free with PicWish
Availability: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Rating: 4.4 on Trustpilot
PicWish is a solid online photo editor that offers several AI features, like the AI Background Generator, Watermark Remover, and AI Face Swap. It also offers a solid selection of standard photo editing features. It is available for all major platforms and has a rather intuitive interface, regardless of the platform you choose.
It takes simple steps to turn a black-and-white photo into a colored one for free online with PicWish; follow the steps below.
- Open the page and click on Upload Image. Then, select a black-and-white image that you want to colorize.
- Preview the result, use the Unblur feature if you want, and click on Download Image to complete the process.
The final image will have a watermark, but hey, it's free.
2. Make Black and White Photos Colorized with Photoshop
Availability: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Rating: 5.0 on PCMag
As we all know, Photoshop is a photo-editing powerhouse. The first version was released in 1990, making it a pioneer in the image-editing software world. The newest version of Photoshop is a complicated piece of software, but if you master it, you will be able to create full-blown digital art. Colorizing an old black-and-white photo in Photoshop will take some steps, but it is worth it because it provides comparatively good quality.
Here are the steps to convert black and white images to color photos with Photoshop.
- Open the Photo you wish to edit in Photoshop. We will use this Photo.
- Select it in the Layers section, and then press CMD + J if you are using a Mac device or CTRL + J if you are doing it on Windows. This will duplicate the image in another layer. Then, right-click on the image in the Layers section and click on Convert to Smart Object.
Note: The previous step is done so that we can always revert back and check the original photo. - Next, go to Filter > Neural Filters, and this will open new editing options for you.
- Now, locate the Colorize option and turn it on.
- Enable the Auto-color image feature and preview the results.
You can choose to adjust the results further to your liking.
Learn how to turn color photos into black and white with Photoshop if you are curious about it.
3. Turn B&W Photos into Color on Mobile with The Colourise App
Availability: Android
Rating: 4.5 on Google Play
There are many apps for colorizing black-and-white photos on your phone. We chose the Colourise by Photomyne app because it offers quick, good results. It just needs a single tap to automatically add color to your monochromatic Photo. However, a lot of people have complained about its cropping image features.
Here's a quick tutorial on how to use this app to colorize black-and-white photos.
- Open the app and tap on Add Photo. Then, simply select a black-and-white photo that you want to colorize. The app will take care of everything automatically.
- You can now preview the results.
Turning black-and-white photos into colorful ones is a great way to bring reality and life to them. There is also a new way - that is transforming a black-and-white photo into a colorful video with AI! Curious about how it works? Keep reading!
Another Way to Modernize Black and White Photos
Availability: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Rating: 4.5 on Software Advice
Yes, Filmora is primarily an excellent video editing tool. The sheer number of video editing features and AI tools available is staggering. It is slowly climbing up the ranks and becoming a go-to solution for professional video editors.
In terms of colorizing photos, you can use the AI Image to Video feature, AI color palette, color adjustments, HSL slider, adding filters, and more in Filmora. In this part, we will focus on its AI image-to-video feature, which provides plenty of preset popular AI filters to transform and animate image styles so you can directly share them as a short video on social media platforms.
Let's see how it works to colorize the black and white photo with AI and turn it into a short video.
- Download and install Filmora on your phone.
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- Open the app and navigate to the Image to Video feature.
- Go to hot > tap on "color my memory" > click on it, then upload your black and white picture.
- Wait until it finishes colorizing the old photo, and tap on save if you are satisfied.
- Let's see the result.
See the magic? You can literally bring those old photos to life and give them new color. This feature also works on the PC's AI Image to video generator, and the steps are quite the same but the interface is a little bit different. Here are the steps.
- Download and install Filmora on your computer.
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- Tap on New project > Media > AI Media > Image to video > select the old photo story template.
- Upload a photo > then click generate to start.
- Preview the video and export it.
Explore More Photo Editing AI Features in Filmora
This is not where the list of useful AI features for photo editing in Filmora ends. Actually, we have prepared two more AI features for you to check out. One can help restructure the photo's color palette, while the other can transform old photos into anime or paintings. Check them out below.
- Colorize a photo in various ways.
- 100+ advanced photo/video editing features.
- Powerful AI for effortless content creation.
- Intuitive, professional yet beginner-friendly.
- Works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.
Add Color to Black-and-White Photos with the AI Color Palette
AI Color Palette allows you to change the color of your photo by adding a reference image, which can colorize your black-and-white photos to some degree.
When the image in the timeline is selected, you need to click on Color, activate the AI Color Palette, and then click on Add to upload a reference image. Click on Local File and import a reference image. Then you are done, click on Generate.
Transfer Black and White Image Styles with the AI Image Stylizer
This AI feature lets you upload a black-and-white photo and select from several presets to transform it into something completely different. It happens instantly, with just one click. It works both on the Filmora app and on desktop.
If you are using the app version, you can select the image > go to style > navigate all photo styles, and tap one to apply.
If you prefer a pc version, simply import the image > drag it to the timeline > navigate to the Image section, select AI Tools, activate the AI Image Stylizer, and pick a preset.
Conclusion
As we have learned from this article, there are many ways to add color to black-and-white photos. Whether you are looking for free online methods or using an app or software, you can explore all the solutions in this article. However, if you also want to animate those photos, try Wondershare Filmora!
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