Warbird Colorization

This photo comes from the San Diego Air and Space Museum “Commons” archive. The photo is part of the Stan Abele Collection and was posted in the commons section to gather knowledge from other researchers. More Warbirds and photos from the Stan Abele collection can be seen here. 

This photo was not incredibly difficult as far as colorization goes, more so in the lighting and restoration. If you look closely at the original black and white, you will see that a great deal of the details in the Clouds is lost in the photo. In order to fix that problem and give the photo more of a three dimensional feel, I adjusted the shadows and lighting, the levels, and fiddled with the contrast a bit.I used a few small filters on the clouds to give them the finishing definition that allows them to stand out.

My full size colorization and the full size original black and white photo can be found below.

Author: MetaColor

All photo colorization found within Metacolor is completed by hand using a Wacom Graphic Tablet and Adobe Photoshop CC software. All website design, writing and photo colorization/restoration found within Metacolor.org is the sole work of Wayne Degan.