Stuart Humphryes facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stuart Humphryes
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Stuart Humphryes, known as BabelColour
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| Born | 10 December 1969 Hampshire, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Other names | BabelColour |
| Occupation | Photo enhancer & colourisation artist |
| Years active | 2005–present |
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Notable work
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Stuart Humphryes, also known as "BabelColour," is an artist from England. He is famous for making old photos and videos look new and colorful. He published a book called The Colors of Life in 2023. He first became well-known for adding color to old episodes of the TV show Doctor Who. He started his "BabelColour" name when he launched his YouTube channel in 2006.
Contents
How Stuart Humphryes Makes Old Photos Look New
Stuart Humphryes is best known for making old color photos look much better. These include special types of old photos like Autochromes and Paget plates. He has helped many people learn about the autochrome process. Over 200,000 people follow his Twitter page to see his amazing photo enhancements.
Humphryes has explained how he improves old photos. First, he removes any physical damage or flaws from the digital image. He also fixes or rebuilds any parts of the picture that are missing. Then, he cleans up dirt, spots, and color stains. He adjusts the brightness and how strong the colors are. He also balances the colors and reduces any "noise" or graininess. Finally, he uses smart computer programs (called neural networks) to make details clearer while removing grain.
Stuart Humphryes in Books and Magazines
Stuart Humphryes' work has been featured in many magazines and newspapers.
- In 2025, five issues of Best of British magazine had covers that Stuart Humphryes had enhanced and colorized.
- In October 2024, a Dutch photography magazine called Digifoto Pro published an 11-page interview about his photo enhancement work.
- In August 2024, Best of British magazine (issue 337) printed an article written by Humphryes. It was about his uncle's appearance in a 1964 BBC documentary.
- In May 2024, Vice Media Group featured an interview with Humphryes about his photo enhancements. This appeared on their Instagram and website.
- The January 2024 issue of the UK magazine PrintWeek had a three-page story about Humphryes and his work.
- On October 12, 2023, The Times newspaper wrote about Humphryes' enhancement work and his new book.
- On October 3, 2023, The Guardian newspaper featured his photo enhancements. This was to celebrate his book The Colors of Life being published.
- In September 2023, Humphryes released his large art book, The Colors of Life. It contains over 200 of his enhanced autochromes and paget plates. The book was published by Gestalten in Germany.
- In January 2023, Radio Times interviewed Humphryes about his past work on Doctor Who. They also asked his thoughts on new colorizations for the show's 60th anniversary.
- On July 18, 2022, the Portuguese news magazine Visão published an interview with Humphryes about his photo enhancement work.
- On September 3, 2021, The Times published a two-page article about how colors can trick our eyes. This was inspired by a popular tweet from Humphryes, who they interviewed.
- In August 2021, The Simple Things Magazine featured Humphryes' autochrome enhancements. They suggested following his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
- The June 2021 Doctor Who Magazine (issue 564) included a four-page article written by Humphryes. It was about his search for and restoration of missing photos of director Christopher Baker.
- In March 2021, the French youth magazine Topo featured his photo enhancement work. They focused on the French origins of the autochrome process and its use during World War I.
- The December 2020 and January 2021 issues of Wild West magazine in the US included Humphryes' restoration work. He used special computer programs to rebuild and enhance the face of Billy the Kid from his only known photograph.
- In October 2020, The National newspaper printed a story about Humphryes and his autochrome work. It focused on the Gulf region and included an interview and galleries of his restored images.
- In May 2020, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the Royal Mail released special coin packs. These packs included colorization work by Humphryes.
- In February 2019, the London Evening Standard featured his colorization work. Humphryes said he likes to use bold, bright colors to make his work look like real life.
- In August 2018, the Edinburgh Evening News interviewed Humphryes about his work restoring old color film from Edinburgh in the 1930s.
- In 2015, Humphryes colorized the cover of Mark Iveson's book Cursed Horror Stars.
- In 2012, Humphryes wrote an essay for the book You and Who, which was about Doctor Who. The book's editor praised his writing.
- In 2005, Humphryes added color to "Tele-snaps" (still images from TV shows) for Nothing at the End of the Lane magazine. He was also interviewed about his colorization work.
Adding Color to Films
Stuart Humphryes has also worked on adding color to old black-and-white film footage, especially for Doctor Who.
The Daleks' Master Plan
In 2005, Humphryes worked with James Russell to add color to old 35mm film from the 1965 Doctor Who story The Daleks' Master Plan. This colorized footage was used in a documentary called "The Dalek Tapes." This documentary was included on the 2006 DVD of Genesis of the Daleks and the 2022 Blu-ray of Destiny of the Daleks.
The Mind of Evil
In 2009, Humphryes and Russell looked into adding color to the first episode of the 1971 Doctor Who story The Mind of Evil. This episode only existed as a black-and-white film print in the BBC Archives. Their test work led to Humphryes being hired in 2011 to colorize the entire episode. The colorization was done by Humphryes' hand-coloring and special computer software. Between 2011 and 2013, Humphryes was the main artist working on colorizing The Mind of Evil for the BBC.
Screenings of the Colorized Episode
The newly colorized Mind of Evil was shown for the first time at the British Film Institute on March 10, 2013. Humphryes was there to answer questions about how he added the color. The colorized episodes were also shown at the Flatpack Film Festival in Birmingham and the Belfast Film Festival in 2013.
After its DVD release in 2013, the colorized version became the standard one. It was shown on TV in the US on Retro TV and KBTC Public Television. It is also available to watch online on BritBox and was streamed by Twitch several times. It was released on Blu-ray in 2021.
News about the episode's colorization was featured on the BBC evening news on June 12, 2013.
Terror of the Zygons
In February 2012, Humphryes was hired to colorize black-and-white footage from the 1975 Doctor Who story Terror of the Zygons. This was for a special "director's cut" version of the story on DVD. The black-and-white film had been found and returned to the BBC in 2008. Humphryes had to work quickly, so he used some faster methods, like adding flat colors to certain things like clothes.
How Film Colorization Works
Most ways of adding color to films use methods like masks or layers. However, Humphryes uses a different method. He colors each individual frame as a complete picture. This makes the final result look very realistic, but it takes a lot of work. For example, to get 20 minutes of video, he needs to fully color about 7,000 key frames. This means he colors about 1 out of every 5 frames for PAL video. According to an interview, it took him 18 months to color all the key frames for the first episode of 'The Mind of Evil'.
Stuart Humphryes on YouTube
Stuart Humphryes started "The BabelColour Channel" on YouTube on August 10, 2006. His videos were mostly about Doctor Who. He stopped uploading in March 2018 but announced in 2022 that he was working on new content. He currently has 74 videos, which had over 10 million views by September 2020. The Houston Press said his work is "almost unrivaled in popularity." The BBC's AfterShow and the Edinburgh Evening News have called him a "colorization and compositing legend."
Many of his videos have been recommended in Doctor Who Magazine and SFX Magazine. Two of his videos were listed in the "Top Ten Doctor Who Videos on YouTube" by The Stage. He was also nominated by Digital Spy for "8 Most Amazing Fan Videos on YouTube." The Houston Press even called him one of "5 Fans Who Do Doctor Who Better than the BBC."
His video tribute to Nicholas Courtney was shared by The Guardian. His Christmas tribute was included in the Metro's article about the Doctor Who Christmas Special. His "Every Doctor Who Story" video has over 1.6 million views and has been recommended by many websites like io9, BBC America, BuzzFeed, and The Verge.
In September 2017, the Radio Times wrote about Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat appearing in Humphryes' 11th Anniversary YouTube video. This story was covered by many other news sites.
His YouTube videos have featured contributions from important people involved with Doctor Who. These include producers Steven Moffat and Philip Hinchcliffe, comedian Jon Culshaw, actors John Levene, Nicholas Briggs, and Nathan Head, and many others.
The Ten Doctors Web Series
Between 2009 and 2015, Humphryes released a four-part web series called The Ten Doctors. This was an unofficial Doctor Who story. It used old footage from TV shows and movies, combined with new dialogue and special effects. The third episode was shown at a Doctor Who convention before it was released online. The trailers and episodes have been viewed over 950,000 times on YouTube. The series has been recommended by SFX Magazine and the Doctor Who Fan Club of Australia. Humphryes has been interviewed about this project many times. The first episode was even nominated as one of the "8 Most Amazing Fan Videos on YouTube" by Digital Spy. The series is now private.
The Timeless Doctors Fan Film
Humphryes started working on a new project in 2019, originally called The Ten Doctors Re-Imagined. The next year, the name changed to The Timeless Doctors. This project grew into a brand new two-hour Fan film. It features a large cast, including Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks, and comedian Jon Culshaw as the Third Doctor. It also includes actor John Guilor, who played the First Doctor in the BBC's 50th-anniversary story. Three former members of the Doctor Who production team also appear in the film.
The four trailers for this project were recommended in Doctor Who Magazine in 2020, 2022, and 2023. A Doctor Who book from 2021 also promoted the upcoming fan film.
The project's use of AI to improve video quality led to Humphryes being included in an article about neural networks by Digital Trends.
The Almost Doctors Web Series
In 2017, actor and screenwriter Mark Gatiss suggested that Humphryes create a web series called "The Almost Doctors." This two-part series used new voice work to tell the story of actors who were considered for the role of Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s. The series used special editing and computer effects to place these actors into modern Doctor Who episodes. In June 2017, the BBC's AfterShow promoted the series. BBC America called episode two "exceptional." Both episodes were also recommended in Doctor Who Magazine.
Webcasts
In April 2020, Humphryes was thanked in the credits of two Doctor Who webcasts made during lockdown. One was a 13-minute mini-episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures called "Farewell, Sarah Jane." The other was a sequel to "The Girl in the Fireplace" called "Pompadour," starring Sophia Myles.
TV Appearances
In 1996, Stuart Humphryes was a contestant on two episodes of the TV quiz show Goldmaster on UK Gold. In 1999, his role as a backup contestant for the BBC1 game show Whatever You Want was reported in Doctor Who Magazine.
More About Stuart Humphryes
Stuart Humphryes earned a degree in Design Communications from Suffolk College.
Even though he is well-known for adding color to photos and films, Humphryes does this as a hobby. He has worked for the British Red Cross for 14 years and currently works for the London Borough of Merton since 2007.
Between 2006 and 2008, he created work for the BabelFish Colourisation website. In 2012, he started his own colorization website.
In 2014, Humphryes helped researchers for the BBC2 documentary series 'The Secret History of My Family'. This show was broadcast on March 10, 2016. The first episode told the story of his ancestor Robert Gadbury and his family, tracing them from London in the 1830s to Tasmania today. Humphryes is a distant cousin of Albert Ogilvie, a former leader of Tasmania.
Images for kids
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Stuart Humphryes, known as BabelColour
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Humphryes on stage at the British Film Institute
