Artist Breathes New Life Into Photos Of US Presidents Who Lived Before Color Photography (26 Pics)

"I first became interested in colorization upon seeing Marina Amaral's amazing work in this field," Berridge told Bored Panda. "I think, like a lot of people, my initial opinion towards colorization had been rather soured from seeing lurid colorization attempts sadly made to old black and white movies. However, with Amaral's work, I could really see the benefits which a respectful colorization could bring to a picture, adding life to history in a way which could also add artistic, entertainment, and educational value."

But Berridge's own journey into colorization started entirely as an afterthought. "Just over 2 years ago, I was trying to restore an incredibly damaged [Japanese Policeman] picture for my Photoshop portfolio. Having restored it, I decided that I might as well give coloring it a go. I thought that would be an interesting additional challenge for myself and something else to put in my portfolio."

Berridge has never really been someone who finds it easy to relax but when colorizing a picture, he's able to zone out and the hours just fly by. He said that's probably what he enjoys most during the whole process. "I've never been fishing but I imagine it's the same emotional experience," he explained. "With colorization, it's just you and the picture and however many hours of work it needs before you can say it's completed. I've worked on pictures which required over 20 hours of work before now so if I didn't enjoy the process, I'd certainly be in trouble!"

Everything begins with finding the right image. To Berridge, at least, and that's most of the battle. "Generally speaking, I look for fairly flat images with a lot of potential dynamic range and avoid those with very dynamic shadows and highlights," he said. "This also has the added advantage of generally avoiding using images where the clear artistic intent was for the image to be presented in black and white."

"I then work to adjust the contrast to bring out as much detail and depth in the image as possible, before working to remove any scratches or other damage which has occurred to the image over time. The colorization itself is usually fairly straightforward, with the most challenging part being the search for accurate color reference sources. For my first colorization, I had to spend multiple hours trying to establish what color uniforms Japanese policemen had in the early 20th century for example."

"Aside from research sometimes being tough, the only other particularly difficult part of the process is how terrible a picture usually looks up until it's maybe 90% finished," Berridge added. In fact, he can spend many hours working on an image and still really not know how good the image will finally look until the last few tweaks to the lighting. Imagine how much you have to trust the process in order to work under such uncertainty.

"Experience has taught me to keep going through those times of self-doubt as some of my favorite colorizations have come from images which I almost abandoned mid-process," Berridge said. "I'd really recommend people give colorization a go for themselves. So many parts of the process have enriched my life in ways I never expected and I’d love other people to join me in this journey."