How to Colorize Black and White Photos
To colorize a black and white photo, first repair any damage and fix contrast. Then add color, either by hand-painting on separate layers for full control, or with an AI colorization model for a fast, natural starting point. Judge the result by whether skin and known objects look believable.
Clean the photo first
Colorizing locks in whatever is underneath. If the scan is scratched, faded, or flat, fix that first: repair damage, set black and white points, remove any cast. Then add color to a clean image.
Two methods
Hand-colorizing means painting color onto separate layers, region by region, at low opacity so the underlying detail shows through. It is slow and gives you complete control, which matters when you know the real colors of a uniform or a house.
AI colorization runs a model that reads the scene and applies natural color in one pass. It is fast and usually believable for people and everyday scenes. You take its output as a starting point and adjust anything that looks off.
Skin is the test
Viewers forgive an odd wall color and notice bad skin instantly. Keep skin tones slightly warm and not too saturated. Avoid uniform pink; real skin varies across a face.
It is interpretation, not recovery
A black and white negative never recorded color. Any color you add, by hand or by model, is a plausible guess. That is fine, as long as you treat the result as a faithful interpretation rather than a document of what the colors truly were.
Check against the original
Toggle back to the black and white version regularly. You want to confirm you have added color without softening detail or flattening contrast.
Doing it on iPhone with Aion
Aion’s Add Color treatment applies a natural, period-plausible color pass on iPhone, with a before and after view so you can compare before saving. Repair the photo with the other treatments first.
