I feel like this topic is one that can be debated from here to eternity. It’s a fun discussion where everyone is right. Which has more emotion, black and white photographs or color photographs?

I wanted to bring this up because while testing ColouriseSG for a video (below) I chose to use a photograph with great meaning to our family and to many others around the world.

The photo you see here was taken on the day that my wife’s grandfather was liberated from the Allach concentration camp (a sub-camp of Dachau) in Germany. In fact, he’s in this photo wearing a long coat.

Inmates waving a home-made American flag greet U.S. Seventh Army troops upon their arrival at the Allach concentration camp.
Inmates waving a homemade American flag greet U.S. Seventh Army troops upon their arrival at the Allach concentration camp.

As you can see, the photo is filled with emotions like joy and pain, but it’s also filled with hunger and grit.

When I came across ColouriseSG I knew I had to test it with this photograph. Not only for my curiosity but to bring some new life into a photo that has impacted our family in so many ways for years.

ColouriseSG is free to use (for now) but only allows for photos to be uploaded one at a time. While the process of colorizing photos is fast (it does it in seconds), bulk processing is impossible.

The other thing with the software is they specify it works best with large files. So instead of using the scan of the image which we have in our family, I searched the web and was delighted to find a very large scan of it on the Holocaust museum website.

When I uploaded the image to ColouriseSG I kept my eyes closed. When I opened them I immediately smiled.

The photo I have been looking at in black and white, for so long, is now in color, and it took no work on my own part.

I can see how dirty the people were, what color clothing some of them are they’re wearing. I can see how accurate the homemade American Flag was and so much more.

Their smiles come to life when they’re in color.

So this brings us back to the beginning. Looking at the color version below, which has more emotion in your opinion? Comment and share your thoughts.

Color version of the liberation photo.
The color version of the liberation photo.

Look at ColouriseSG in action