(Genuine) question, and no snark intended: why do so many people want to change history?
Black and white photos are - for many of us - part of our shared historical record. Is there really a need to improve (=change) them? Can't we appreciate them exactly as they are, without modifications?
Some use picture to imagine how life was back then.
Life wasn't black and white.
Same with the facial expressions in old photos.
People look pretty serious but that's just because of the technology pf photography back then.
People were as silly and joyful as nowadays.
> Some use picture to imagine how life was back then. Life wasn't black and white.
Life (time) doesn't tend to stand still, either, yet we are able to appreciate photographs.
Would we really benefit from old photographs being AI-animated into "videos"?
Perhaps I'm showing my age, but the older I get the more I feel at one with life's imperfections. I'm fine without filters and HDR ... or colour ... or motion.
I think that the filters, HDR, or the guesswork restorations of old media are similarly life's imperfections - just that the life is more current, compared to the original date of taking these photos.
> People look pretty serious but that's just because of the technology pf photography back then
This is a known misconception. People on old pictures are not smiling because they liked it this way, not because of long exposure times. Same for paintings. Except for Mona Lisa, you were supposed to be dead serious when being immortalized on picture for generations to come.
It depends on the photo, obviously, but colorization can also give a new dimension of contrast to a photo, even if the colors aren't strictly accurate, by separating out the foreground from the background better.
>Is there really a need to improve (=change) them?
Yes, there is. They offer a specifically degraded perspective into the past - namely, the loss of color. I do appreciate them as they are, and I also think that the effort to use them as inputs for current technology is also very interesting. I think that seeing these photos, the past in color, helps to humanize the subjects of the photo, and see them, and their environment in a more accessible, realistic way.
I'd like to present this collection of real color photographs that date far back - I think they are really interesting to look at, because we're so used to the black and white version of the clothes, technology, buildings from back then.
Black and white photos are - for many of us - part of our shared historical record. Is there really a need to improve (=change) them? Can't we appreciate them exactly as they are, without modifications?