Have you ever looked at an old black and white photograph, and wondered what it would look like if it were taken in color?
“Black and white is abstract; color is not. Looking at a black and white photograph, you are already looking at a strange world.”
Since we discovered how to record light over a century ago, our first attempts at image manipulation was to overcome the limitations of black & white camera technology, so we could see the photograph in color. After all, color is the primary way we perceive the world around us.
Back then, skilled artisans laboriously experimented with a variety of methods – from painting to mechanical printing – to add the color back into an original black white photograph manually, giving the photographs a stylised, but not realistic look.
Today, this craft known popularly as colorization, uses digital tools to laboriously restore the damage accrued by time, before grafting on dozens to thousands of individual layers of color onto the original black and white photograph, rendering them into color with a realism that we couldn’t achieve previously, and giving us a glimpse into what the original photographer saw through their viewfinder.
At Dynamichrome, a great deal of historical research is undertaken to uncover an authentic representation of history as they saw it, making the past come alive in a way that it couldn’t before •
A Real Conversation Starter
Own a piece of history in your own home with stunning colorized photographs that make the past come to life, now available as archival prints made in England •
The Discovery of Tutankhamun
The Griffith Institute
SC Exhibitions
Dynamichrome was commissioned to restore and colorize thirty of Harry Burton's iconic photographs, recording Howard Carter’s now legendary discovery of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the early 1920s •
History As
They Saw It
Chronicle Books
With over 120 historic black-and-white photographs thoroughly restored and rendered in color, History As They Saw It illuminates some of the most iconic moments in history, from the sinking of the Titanic to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge •
“The sea of colour has
been lost to history…
until now”
The Craft of Colorization
Do you ever wonder how we do it?
We’ll take you through every stage, from appraising a damaged photograph to grafting on layers of color and final adjustments •
First World War Galleries
Imperial War Museums London
ISO Exhibitions
As part of a £40 million pound transformation, the First World War Galleries now include a trench experience featuring full 1:1 sized colorized photographs from the IWM archives •
“Incredible & Beautiful”
The Making of
Resistance is Futile
The Manic Street Preachers
Columbia Records
Columbia Records commissioned Dynamichrome to digitally colorize an original hand-tinted photograph from Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz's famous Japanese portraits of the Meiji era •
100 Years, 20 Photographs, 1 Location.
SC Exhibitions
5th Avenue, New York
Unwrapping Times Square combines over a hundred years of archive and contemporary photography into a single seamless and surreal panorama •
“Stunning”
Collaborators
We’re fortunate to work with some of the world's leading cultural brands; from archives and museums to music and movies •