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Thousands Of Hours Later, Here Are 30 Old Black & White Photos Of Famous And Ordinary People That I Colorized
Hi, my name is Mario Unger. I live in Austria with my wife and I have 2 grown-up children. I work as a photographer, photoshop artist, musician, and mentalist on stage.
I am submitting my work to Bored Panda for the second time. I'm very glad about this and want to share the latest colorizations I have done.
If you want to stay updated, please follow me on social media.
More info: Instagram | Facebook | unarts.at
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Actress Marie Doro, 1902
Final score:
45points
RELATED:
#2
Ella Fitzgerald, 1946, Photography By William P. Gottlieb
Final score:
42points
#3
Actress And Singer Svea Textorius, 1910
Final score:
41points
#4
Czar Nikolaus II
Final score:
39points
N 6 years ago
how can you tell specific colors from black & white? Sure a dark color could be black, or dark blue, or dark purple... But to be so specific? I just dont get it. LOL
Charlotte Sandoval 6 years ago
From what I've read on the subject, a ton of work goes into the research. The artists go to museums, look up sources, talk to people who remember the era, etc. There's a lot that happens behind the scenes
Load More Replies...
Dajana Jovanovic 6 years ago
In this example, military uniforms are portrayed through paintings in museums, Ermitage for example keeps the family portraits of Romanov. Plus maybe they've kept his uniform.
#5
Oscar Wilde, 1882
Final score:
35points
#6
Christmas Truce, 1914
Final score:
35points
#7
Female War Workers Feed The Charcoal Kilns Used For Purifying Sugar At The Glebe Sugar Refinery Co., Greenock, Scotland, 1918
Final score:
35points
#9
Albert Einstein, His Wife Elsa And Charlie Chaplin At The Premiere Of "City Lights" In Los Angeles, 1931
Final score:
31points
#10
Photographer's Assistant, 1900
Final score:
30points
#11
An Eleven-Year-Old Frida Kahlo By Guillermo Kahlo, June 15, 1919
Final score:
30points
#12
Sir Winston Churchill
Final score:
28points
#13
Georges Méliès, Montparnasse Station In Paris, 1920s
Final score:
28points
Chicago Kitty 6 years ago
It's amazing but in the black in white photo, I didn't even notice the shopkeeper. In the colorized photo, he's the first thing I noticed.
#14
Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, Photo By Joel Bellviure
Final score:
27points
#18
A Young Mexican Farm Worker Plays Guitar And Sings In A Coachella Valley Labor Camp, 1935. Photographer Dorothea Lange, Gelatin Silver Print, Collection Of Oakland Museum Of California
Final score:
24points
#19
An Old Navajo Brave Huddled In A Blanket, Ca. 1901
Final score:
24points
#20
Destitute Pea Pickers In California. Mother Of Seven Children. Age Thirty-Two. Nipomo, California
Final score:
24points
#23
Two Nasa Engineers Test A Scale Model Of A Saturn I Rocket In A Wind Tunnel, 1960s
Final score:
21points
#24
Sigmund Freud By Max Halberstadt,1920
Final score:
21points
#25
Peter Tchaikovsky
Final score:
21points
Belandriel 6 years ago
Every time I see colorized black and white photos, I always feel like a hundred years was just yesterday and a lifetime is gone in a blink of an eye...
#26
The Three Polar Stars, 1913
Final score:
20points
#27
North American B-25s Flies Past Mount Vesuvius Which Erupted On The 18th March 1944, Destroying The Village San Sebastiano & San Giorge, Killing 57
Final score:
20points
#28
Launch Of Steamer Frank J. Hecker, September 2, 1905, St. Clair, Michigan
Final score:
19points
#29
Samuel Morse, 1865
Final score:
19points
#31
Billie Holiday, 1947
Final score:
15points
#32
First Of Fair Sex To Obtain Motorcycle License In The Capital Washington, D.C., September 15, 1937
Final score:
15points
Koalamonster 6 years ago
I would love to have met her. Wonder if she has descendants and if they're as badass as she was.
#33
Grace Kelly In "Rear Window", 1954
Final score:
15points
#34
Preparing Spring Flowers For Market, Henry Peach Robinson And Nelson King Cherrill, 1873
Final score:
15points
#36
Henry Fonda And Sylvia Sidney In "You Only Live Once", 1937
Final score:
14points
#37
Lauren Bacall And Humphrey Bogart In "The Big Sleep", 1946
Final score:
14points
#38
Lilli Lennartson In "Pelleas Och Melisande", 1906
Final score:
14points
#40
A Life Guard, Brighton Beach, NY, Ca. 1901
Final score:
13points
#41
A Frostbitten Lieutenant Foehles Shortly After Landing From A Flight In 1916
Final score:
13points
#42
John Wayne And Gail Russel In "Angel And The Badman", 1947
Final score:
12points
#44
Antietam, Md. President Lincoln And Gen. George B. Mcclellan In The General's Tent, October 3, 1863
Final score:
12points
Adrienne Vedeloff 6 years ago
I was told that I was related to Gen. Mcclellan. Love seeing this in color. Thank you.
#46
Actress Kay Aldridge
Final score:
12points
Koalamonster 6 years ago
Reminds me of Kiernan Shipka... don't know why because they're not all that similar overall.
#47
Ugo Sivocci In Alfa Romeo 20-30 Es At The 1922 Targa Florio
Final score:
11points
#48
Golf In Bathing Suits, 1926
Final score:
11points
#50
An 8th Air Force B-17 Makes A Bombing Run Over Marienburg, Germany, In 1943
Final score:
9points
#51
Clam Seller, New York, 1900
Final score:
9points
#52
Portrait Of Mary Pickford, Signed 1914
Final score:
8points
#55
The Officer Eslie Williams And His Henderson, Washington, D.C., August 1922,
Final score:
8points
#58
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (As 'New Woman'), 1896
Final score:
8points
#59
Geronimo As US Prisoner, 1905
Final score:
8points
#60
Mae Marsh, As A Belgian Girl, And A.c. Gibbons As A German Soldier, In Goldwyn's All-Star Liberty Loan Picture, Stake Uncle Sam To Play Your Hand, 1918
Final score:
8points
#61
Ray Weishaar, Winner Of 100-Mile Race, Norton, Kansas, October 22, 1914
Final score:
7points
#63
Nadar Alexandre Dumas Père (1802-1870), 1855
Final score:
7points
#64
Maxwell Car, 1916
Final score:
7points
#65
Bristol Beaufighters From (No. 227 Squadron RAF) Attacking A German Ship In The Aegean Sea Near The City Of Kos, 03-10-1943
Final score:
7points
#66
Judge Jeremiah Black, Ca. 1870
Final score:
7points
#67
Portrait Of Leonard Bernstein, Carnegie Hall, New York, Between 1946 And 1948
Final score:
7points
#68
Home-Cinema (Kinetoscope), 1895, Created By Thomas Edison
Final score:
7points
#69
"Plague Of The Zombies", 1966
Final score:
6points
#70
Orville Wright, 1874-1928
Final score:
6points
#71
Mountain Warfare, Probably 1916
Final score:
6points
#74
Col. Charles Lindbergh, 1902
Final score:
6points
#75
Dana Pond Is Painting A Series Of War Portraits. The First To Be Completed Is A Portrait Of General Tasker H. Bliss. In The Background There Is Of One Of The Versailles Paintings Of Napoleon At The Battle Of Wagram, 1919
Final score:
6points
#77
Gustav Mahler, Ca. 1909
Final score:
6points
#79
Austro-Hungarian Imperial Soldiers Sit On The Toilet In 1916
Final score:
6points
#84
Photograph, 1913
Final score:
4points
#89
Mathew Brady, Ca. 1875
Final score:
3points
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What do you think ?
Bored Alchemist 6 years ago
I've always wondered how these artists found the right colour to restore these photographs
Nancy Jenuwine 6 years ago
Excellent! Great skills - especially removing the scratches (pic. 21)
vita ariztegui 6 years ago
lot of work in the GENTRIFYING direction. most colours are artificial. just a personal interpretation of yours, mario, here in the XXI century.
misteriosa 6 years ago
I think these are very well done and I upvoted all 89 of them, love them all. My personal preferences are a little bit in those that seem realistic as if they are seen now, but I prefer normal photographs with true colors as well. That doesn't take away the quality of the others though, I really enjoyed going through the whole thread. Good luck in your further work :)
Tahani 6 years ago
Very beautifully done! I am curious however, how do you decide on fabric colors? Sure military outfits and the like would have been described, but for regular garments? Is there a way to tell given the grayscale or is it just whatever you think suits best? Thanks!!
Mario Unger (Post author) 6 years ago
Just personal taste and feel for colors :)
Load More Replies...
Fred Baumann 5 years ago
I'm a new co-editor of the Military Postal History Society Bulletin, published for 300+ members. Sadly, the last editor died in December. I have a column with a letter from a sergeant "at the Vesuvius Aerodrome southeast of Naples" to his family in California. It is the scene in your "North American B-25s Flies Past Mount Vesuvius Which Erupted On The 18th March 1944." I first saw it with (c) mario unger @ mediadrumworld.com, which is how I found you! Your image is so dramatic and powerful I had to ask if you might consider allowing us to use it and credit you as you wish in our “new” journal. If you allow, we would love to make it front cover photo. That’s not much honor for a highly skilled artist, but it is all I can offer. (No one has paid me yet!) If you agree, we would love to feature your work again. I also like your image of a World War I U.S. soldier with a Christmas box, rolling a smoke!
Ana Miranda @ Lisbon, Portugal 6 years ago
Wow! Fantastic work. Colours bring things to life. Congrats Mario
Bored Alchemist 6 years ago
I've always wondered how these artists found the right colour to restore these photographs
Nancy Jenuwine 6 years ago
Excellent! Great skills - especially removing the scratches (pic. 21)
vita ariztegui 6 years ago
lot of work in the GENTRIFYING direction. most colours are artificial. just a personal interpretation of yours, mario, here in the XXI century.
misteriosa 6 years ago
I think these are very well done and I upvoted all 89 of them, love them all. My personal preferences are a little bit in those that seem realistic as if they are seen now, but I prefer normal photographs with true colors as well. That doesn't take away the quality of the others though, I really enjoyed going through the whole thread. Good luck in your further work :)
Tahani 6 years ago
Very beautifully done! I am curious however, how do you decide on fabric colors? Sure military outfits and the like would have been described, but for regular garments? Is there a way to tell given the grayscale or is it just whatever you think suits best? Thanks!!
Mario Unger (Post author) 6 years ago
Just personal taste and feel for colors :)
Load More Replies... Fred Baumann 5 years ago
I'm a new co-editor of the Military Postal History Society Bulletin, published for 300+ members. Sadly, the last editor died in December. I have a column with a letter from a sergeant "at the Vesuvius Aerodrome southeast of Naples" to his family in California. It is the scene in your "North American B-25s Flies Past Mount Vesuvius Which Erupted On The 18th March 1944." I first saw it with (c) mario unger @ mediadrumworld.com, which is how I found you! Your image is so dramatic and powerful I had to ask if you might consider allowing us to use it and credit you as you wish in our “new” journal. If you allow, we would love to make it front cover photo. That’s not much honor for a highly skilled artist, but it is all I can offer. (No one has paid me yet!) If you agree, we would love to feature your work again. I also like your image of a World War I U.S. soldier with a Christmas box, rolling a smoke!
Ana Miranda @ Lisbon, Portugal 6 years ago
Wow! Fantastic work. Colours bring things to life. Congrats Mario
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