Black and white photo to colour without losing faces

A black and white photograph holds the light, the crease and the faces. It does not hold the colour of a coat, a garden hedge or the wallpaper in the front room. Taking a black and white photo to colour is not a new portrait. It is the same print, mended, with a careful guess at how the day looked.

You can do that online, from the shoebox, in about a minute. Photograph the print on a table, away from the window, then see it mended. You look at the preview first. You pay only if you keep it.

That is the whole decision, really. Will they still look like themselves, and is the colour a guess you can live with?

What matters when you colourise a black and white photo

Three things decide whether you will still know them.

The faces. A service that smooths or improves a face is no use for a family album. Every face in the mended version should be compared with your original. If a face has drifted, the original face should be kept, cleaned up, with only colour added. Small faces at the back of a group are the ones that wander.

The colour. Colour on a black and white print is a best guess at how the photo looked on the day. It is never a record of the real colours. A red coat and a green one can look the same grey. Anyone who says they can recover the real colours of a 1950s wedding is more certain than the photograph.

The damage. Black and white photo restoration and colour are not the same job, but they belong on the same print. Tears, creases, folds, dust, stains and fading should be mended first. Colour poured over a crack is only a colourful crack.

If you cannot see those three things before you pay, wait.

How to add colour to a black and white photo

How to add colour to a black and white photo is simpler than the loft suggests. You do not need a scanner. You do not post the print. Ages Ago does not take photos by post or scan them for you.

1. Lay the print flat, out of the sun. If it is torn and you still have both halves, lay them together and photograph them as one picture.
2. Photograph it square-on, so all four corners sit in the frame.
3. Upload it and wait about a minute.
4. Look at the faces, the mended tears and the colour.
5. If the colour feels off, try again: warmer, cooler, or stricter with faces. Each photo gets two tries.
6. Keep the version you want, or leave it. Nothing renews.

That is also how to add colour to black and white photo prints that have gone sepia. Sepia and black and white both get a repaired version in their own tones, and a repaired-with-colour version if you would like one.

What to look for in a black and white to colour photo converter

If you are comparing tools, this is what is worth asking before you upload anything precious.

What to look for	Why it matters
A preview before you pay	You can judge faces and colour first
Every face compared with your original	Group photos are where faces drift
Colour called a best guess	Black and white never recorded hue
Damage mended as well as colour added	Restoration and colour are different jobs
No subscription	A shoebox does not need a weekly plan
Warmer, cooler or stricter with faces	One pass is rarely the only useful one
A repaired version in the original tones	Some prints should stay black and white

A black and white photo to colour online should also say what it will not do. A face torn away cannot be put back. A badly blurred photo stays soft. Nobody should add a person, take a person out, or change a smile.

Old black and white photo restoration, then colour

Old black and white photo restoration is often the reason you opened the tin. The colour is extra.

Tears, creases, cracks, scratches, water marks and mould spots can all be mended, as long as the picture is still there underneath. Anything missing, such as a corner torn away, is filled in plainly from what is around it, never with a new face.

You can keep the repaired black and white file and never use the colour. Family historians often do. The colour version is there if you want it for a frame, a shared album or a present.

Faded colour prints from the 1970s to the 2000s are a different case. Those still have colour in the paper, even when it has gone orange or pink, and that cast can be corrected without repainting the scene. A true black and white print has no hidden hue waiting underneath.

How colour is guessed

If you want to know how to change a black and white photo to colour without being misled, start here: the original never recorded hue.

Sky, grass and a winter coat can share one grey. Colour is guessed from what things usually looked like at the time. That is why we call it a best guess, and why warmer or cooler is worth a second look. You may remember the room. The photograph cannot settle an argument about a jumper.

We do not recolour one thing on request, such as a dress. Warmer and cooler change the overall colour only. Every face is still compared with your original.

Faces, groups and what happens if it is not them

Group photos are fine. With more than four faces, small faces are kept from your original, cleaned up, and the page tells you while you look at the preview. The preview comes with a short face report: how many faces were found, and whether they match.

If it does not look like them after you keep a photo, you have 14 days. On the order page you can ask for a stricter version, made at no extra cost. If that still is not right, you can choose a credit back or your money back. That can be used once in 90 days per account and per card.

We only repair the photo you send. We never change anyone’s age or expression.

What you pay, and what you can skip

The preview is free. Keeping a photo costs £5.99, or one credit from a pack. There is no subscription and nothing renews. Credits last 12 months from the day you buy the pack. Unused credits can be refunded within 14 days of buying it.

You pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. There are no gift vouchers.

When you keep a photo you get the full-size file and a short clip of the old print turning into the mended one. Files are kept for 90 days, with an email before they are deleted. The free preview has a visible watermark. The photo you keep does not.

Prints are optional and go to UK addresses only. The file can be downloaded and printed anywhere. If you need a picture for an order of service this week, keep the download and take it to a local printer.

A few things that will not work

• A face missing from the print cannot be invented.
• Photos with nudity, including a baby’s bath photo, cannot be mended.
• This is not for passports, ID or official documents.
• Only use a photo that is yours or your family’s, or one you have permission to copy.

Photograph the print. Do not send it in the post.

If you are choosing a photo for someone else

A younger relative mending grandparents’ photos as a present has the same task as the keeper of the shoebox: keep the faces, mend the damage, treat colour as a guess you can warm or cool.

If you need a photo for a funeral or a memorial, the same rules apply more quietly. You need one clear picture, ready to download today, that still looks like them. We will not make them look as they did later in life.

See your black and white photo in colour

If the print is in a biscuit tin, that is enough. Photograph it on a table, away from the window. Ages Ago will mend the tears, add colour if you want it, and compare every face with the original.

Colourise a black and white photo and look at the preview before you decide. You can start from the same print on the mend page. Keep it only if it still looks like them.