Attempts colourizing NASA Apollo B/W photos with AI

[dutchsteammachine]

Greetings,


I have been thinking about setting up a machine-learning system that has been trained with colour Apollo photos. Once a data model has been generated I will try and have it colourize the black and white Apollo photos.

Last week I finished building a new monster computer with an RTX 2080 Super.
The RTX lineup contains special Tensor cores which accelerate deep-learning.

Deep-learning/machine-learning/convoluted neural networks have been used to automatically colourize B/W photos by using hundreds of thousands of colour photos as a reference. Its even possible to colourize B/W video this way.



One such program is DeOldify: https://github.com/jantic/DeOldify
And this website: https://colourise.sg/

I don't know if it will work with the amount of colour photos avaible, but I will be giving it a shot. Generating a dataset from the colour photos may take several days. DeOldify advices the even higher end RTX 2080 Ti with 11 gigabytes of video memory, I got the model just below it with 'just' 8 gigabytes.

I think DeOldify is by far the best documented and wildy used image-learning program. So this is the one I will be using.

To get an idea of what deep-learning can achieve, here is a model trained on 1.3 million photos:
https://colourise.sg/

Hopefully we'll be able to get some interesting results.

More later.

 

[swchris]

Not to diminish your efforts, but to me re-colorizing b/w pictures is akin to faking history. I'm hating the colorized versions of old films (movies or documentary).

 

[dutchsteammachine]

After two days of hard work and troubleshooting, including making a dual boot for Ubuntu to run Anaconda with Jupyter Notebook the rendering system has finally been setup.

For now I have been trying out the different settings and colourizing normal photos with the pre-made models.

Hopefully I can look into training a model with Apollo photos in the following weeks.

Some of the more decent results so far from my collection:

It generally likes colouring buildings.

It also seems to enjoy the sky, I do like the results. Its smart enough to keep the clouds white!

It does alright at differentiating between articles of clothing, animals and humans. Like some other AI I have tried it is quick to make clothing/faces red or blue. It doesn't always work.

I have noticed that contrast, clarity and brightness of the image are a contributing factor in how it renders colours. I am sure the type of film (Orthocromatic, Pancromatic) is also a contributing factor.

 

[pentaxuser]

They all look fine and congratulations to you for your efforts but I am unsure how this thread fits into what I understand to be the analogue section of Photrio. However this one seems to come under the Mixed Workflow Discussion which I thought meant Hybrid and I haven't even ticked hybrid but surely this is not even hybrid but belongs in the digital section?

pentaxuser

 

[dutchsteammachine]

I was not sure where to put this.

It's mostly digital, all post is done on a computer and they aren't printed. I don't know how to change the analog-hybrid-digital setting when I make a post.

Sorry. Who can I request to move it?

 

[AgX]

In the last photograph

The road is greyish.
Why? The software seemingly expects tarmac or some gravel
Even then the grey road has a blue tint.

This example shows the shortcoming. Any such software can only assume. Even you (and me) not having been at those places at those times can only assume. Likely it will be a more informed assumption. But still...

 

[AgX]

They all look fine and congratulations to you for your efforts but I am unsure how this thread fits into what I understand to be the analogue section of Photrio. However this one seems to come under the Mixed Workflow Discussion which I thought meant Hybrid and I haven't even ticked hybrid but surely this is not even hybrid but belongs in the digital section?

The way threads are classified is a mess, partially because Sean set up a contradictory system.

See my thread here:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/wrongly-classifying-threads.163379/
Sean did not react.

As indicated in that tread I bowed and ticked "hybrid" too, not to miss analog topics any longer.

 

[pentaxuser]

The way threads are classified is a mess, partially because Sean set up a contradictory system.

See my thread here:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/wrongly-classifying-threads.163379/
Sean did not react.

As indicated in that tread I bowed and ticked "hybrid" too, not to miss analog topics any longer.

Based on what you say it sounds as if I may be missing some analogue topics by not ticking the hybrid box. In your experience am I missing any important analogue topics?

Things do seem to be more mixed up now. In terms of providing a solution to a film problem we first have to determine if it is a scanner problem as usually what we are shown is what I initially assume to be prints but is in fact reverse scans of negatives. A pity that photos of the negatives are not used. At least that way a potential scanning problem does not arise.

In what is termed an analogue section but in reality seems to be more and more half analogue only and does not involve darkroom printing it would certainly be helpful to the OP and proposed solutions if the OP were to declare a hybrid status.

pentaxuser

 

[dutchsteammachine]

I never see any workflow type boxes when I make a new thread. I always get "*NOTICE* THIS IS AN ANALOG WORKFLOW CONTENT AREA.
PLEASE ENSURE YOUR POST CONTAINS ZERO HYBRID OR DIGITAL CONTENT" But never see any boxes to check. because the forum topic claims.

So i always assumed this was in error. At the top next to the Photrio logo I have all workflows checked.

No longer see an edit option at my first post, cant change it myself anymore.

 

[reddesert]

The raw material here is digitized versions of analog photographs, so hybrid is appropriate. The photographs are vintage and this is the "antiques" section where vintage photographs are often discussed.

[Edit to add: this antiques forum is in the "general discussion" area where all workflows are explicitly allowed.]

To the question of whether colorized photographs are faking it. I often find the practice to be kitschy. However, a powerful argument for it is made by Peter Jackson's recent film on World War I, "They Shall Not Grow Old." It is made almost entirely from colorized vintage photographs and movies (yes movies during WW I), and with a voice-over that is re-recordings of the reminiscences of WW I veterans, no contemporary talking heads.

Jackson's argument (my paraphrase) is that our standard view of the war through B&W still photos makes it seem like a far-away dead historical event, and that bringing color to the movies and pictures reinforces that it was a vivid experience that happened to people not unlike ourselves, now only just beyond the grasp of living memory. IMO, it works both artistically and as history.

I highly recommend seeing this movie for anyone interested in these issues of historical representation.