Bring an old black-and-white family photo to life in color
Tsugunori Katayama, a retired company executive in Japan born in 1953 who teaches smartphone and AI skills to older adults, found many childhood photos while clearing out his late parents' home. He scanned black-and-white pictures from more than 60 years ago and asked ChatGPT to turn them into natural-looking color photos, and the memories came back vividly.
What they did
After his parents died, it took him a long time to clear out the family home, and the old photos were the hardest part. Many were from his childhood in Nakoso, in Fukushima Prefecture, all in black and white. He used a photo-scanning app to copy the paper prints onto his smartphone, then gave each one to ChatGPT and asked it to make the black-and-white photo into a natural color photo.
How it went
He was amazed to see his father, mother, and siblings in color, with the clothes, skin, sky, and surroundings filled in. He knows the AI guessed the colors, so they may not be what things really looked like then. Even so, the color made events from more than 60 years ago feel close, as if everyone were still there. His parents and one of his siblings have since died, and looking at the colored photos gave him a feeling that they were still living together. His post is in Japanese.
Worth knowing
AI-colored photos are a guess. Colors, and sometimes small details like faces or backgrounds, can come out different from the real thing, so keep the original black-and-white photo and the scan, and label the new copy as AI-colored if you share it or put it in a family album. Ask relatives before sharing photos of them online. Some apps and chatbots may keep uploaded photos, so check the privacy settings first.
Try it yourself
Copy this into ChatGPT (or any AI assistant). Replace the parts in [brackets] with your own details.
Here is a scan of an old black-and-white family photo, taken in [place] around [year]. Please turn it into a natural-looking color photo. Keep everyone's faces, expressions, and the background exactly as they are, and use colors that would have been typical for that time and place. Don't add, remove, or sharpen anything else. If you have to guess a color, keep it soft and realistic. [attach photo]
Source: 片山嗣規 (Tsugunori Katayama), note (Tsugunori Katayama's blog), Sep 30, 2026. Read the original →
First-hand account by the person who did it. Summarized in our own words.
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