Boeing Stratocruiser, The Jumbo Of The 50s, Brought To Life With Colour
By Geoffrey Thomas Wed Feb 7, 2024
The Boeing Stratocruiser, the jumbo of the 50s, has been brought to life with colour. It is an art in itself – bringing ageing black and white photos back to life with brilliant colour.
In his latest efforts, the 24-year-old Frenchman Benoit Vienne has worked on the famous jumbo of the 1950s the Boeing Stratocruiser.
For Mr Vienne, colourization is a passion that started years ago when playing historical video games. That passion was ignited when he discovered colourized photos on the internet.
“I was so impressed by the feeling a colourized photo can bring.
“A lot of young people feel a bit disconnected when they see a black and white photo but when it’s colourized, the feeling is completely different.
“When you see a colourized photo, you feel close to the people. You connect.”
But it is far from a simple process taking hours of meticulous work.
“Colourizing a black and white photo can take a lot of time and sometimes you have to repair it first, says Mr Vienne.
“The aim of the colourist is to bring back to life a moment that was captured through a photo. When you colourize, you bring back people to life, it’s a sort of second life for them.”
“Of course, most of the colourists (including myself) are trying to respect the colours of the past. When you are colourizing a photo of a soldier or an aviator, you have to respect the colours of the time.“
But first Mr Vienne had to master Photoshop – an art in itself.
“I started to colourize in early 2015 but it was tough to use Photoshop because it was the first time that I was using the program.“
But months of practice had paid big dividends with Mr Vienne colourizing hundreds of military photos of British, French American, and German soldiers and civilian portraits and weddings.
For AirlineRatings.com Mr Vienne has colourized hundreds of airline interior and aircraft pictures that have proved very popular with the website’s millions of followers.
Many of the Boeing and McDonnell Douglas colourized images have also been donated back to Boeing’s Historical Archives.
“A lot of young people feel a bit disconnected when they see a black and white photo but when it’s colourized, the feeling is completely different.
“Colourizing a black and white photo can take a lot of time and sometimes you have to repair it first, says Mr Vienne.
“The aim of the colourist is to bring back to life a moment that was captured through a photo. When you colourize, you bring back people to life, it’s a sort of second life for them.”
But months of practice had paid big dividends with Mr Vienne colourizing hundreds of military photos of British, French American, and German soldiers and civilian portraits and weddings.
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