An article in Digital Photography Review called attention to a new website that allows you to quickly and easily add color to old black and white photographs.

Engineers with GovTech Singapore’s Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Division have launched a website called Colourise.sg that uses deep learning AI to colorize black and white images. The website doesn’t require any technical skills from the user and is free to use. Colorized results are delivered in seconds and, more often than not, are very realistic.

Of course, I had to give it a try. I started with this photo of my great-grandparents on my dad’s maternal side, James Grant Montgomery (or Montgomerie) and his wife, Janet. The little girl is my grandmother, Jane Galt Montgomery, who was born in 1885.

And then here’s the colorized version that the website produced in just seconds. I don’t know how accurate these colors are, but it certainly adds life to the photo.

Here’s another. This is my Hawaiian grandmother, Heleualani Yonge, at the stove in her kitchen in Waipahu. In the mid-1940s.

And in color:

Not all the photos turned out as well.

Here’s a scene on Waikiki Beach during WWII. Most of the photo converted well, but Duke Kahanamoku’s forearm and leg appear black, and a few other parts of the photo similarly missed out on the color.

Anyway, the website is definitely worth experimenting with.