Stuart Humphryes facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stuart Humphryes
|
|
|---|---|
Stuart Humphryes, known as BabelColour
|
|
| Born | 10 December 1969 Hampshire, England
|
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | BabelColour |
| Occupation | Photo enhancer & colourisation artist |
| Years active | 2005–present |
|
Notable work
|
|
Stuart Humphryes (born 10 December 1969) is a British artist who works with pictures and videos. He is famous for making old photos and films look new and colourful. He is also a popular creator on social media.
Stuart is best known by his online name, "BabelColour." He started using this name in 2006 when he launched his YouTube channel. In 2023, he released a book called The Colors of Life, which shows many of his amazing photo enhancements. He first became well-known for adding colour to old episodes of the British TV show Doctor Who.
Contents
How Stuart Makes Old Photos Look New
Stuart Humphryes is famous for making very old colour photos look much better. These old photos are often from early methods like Autochromes and Paget plates. He has helped many people learn about these old photo types. More than 200,000 people follow his Twitter page to see his enhanced Autochromes.
Stuart has explained how he makes these old photos look so good. Here are some of the steps he takes:
- He removes any damage or flaws from the digital image.
- He fixes or rebuilds any parts of the picture that are missing.
- He cleans up dirt and spots.
- He removes stains or colour that has bled into other areas.
- He adjusts how bright and colourful the image is.
- He balances the colours so they look natural.
- He reduces "noise," which is like graininess in old photos.
- He uses special computer programs (called deep learning neural-network algorithms) to make the picture clearer and show more details.
Stuart's Work in Books and Magazines
Stuart Humphryes' work has been featured in many magazines and newspapers.
- In 2024, Best of British magazine published an article he wrote. It was about his uncle's appearance in a 1964 BBC documentary.
- Vice Media Group also featured Stuart and his photo enhancements in May 2024. This appeared on their Instagram and website.
- PrintWeek magazine in the UK published a three-page story about his work in January 2024.
- The Times newspaper wrote about his enhancement work and his book in October 2023.
- The Guardian also featured his photo enhancements in October 2023. This was to celebrate his book, The Colors of Life.
- In September 2023, Stuart released his large art book, The Colors of Life. It contains over 200 of his enhanced Autochromes and Paget plates.
- Radio Times interviewed Stuart in January 2023. They talked about his past work on Doctor Who and new colourisations for the show's 60th anniversary.
- The Portuguese news magazine Visão featured Stuart and his photo enhancement work in July 2022.
- The Times published a two-page article in September 2021. It was about a visual trick called colour assimilation, which Stuart had made popular with a tweet.
- The Simple Things Magazine featured his Autochrome enhancements in August 2021.
- Doctor Who Magazine published an article written by Stuart in June 2021. It was about his search for and restoration of missing photos of director Christopher Baker.
- The French youth magazine Topo featured his photo enhancement work in March 2021. They focused on the French origins of the Autochrome process and its use during World War I.
- Wild West magazine in the US included his restoration and colourisation work in late 2020 and early 2021. He used special computer programs to improve the face of Billy the Kid from an old photo.
- The National newspaper featured Stuart's Autochrome work in October 2020.
- In May 2020, the Royal Mail released special coin packs for the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. These packs included colourisation work by Stuart.
- The London Evening Standard featured his colourisation work in February 2019. Stuart said he likes to use bold, bright colours because that's how real life should be.
- The Edinburgh Evening News interviewed Stuart in August 2018. They talked about his work restoring old colour film from Edinburgh in the 1930s.
- In 2015, Stuart colourised the cover of a book called Cursed Horror Stars.
- In 2012, Stuart wrote an essay for the book You and Who. The editor praised his writing.
- In 2005, Stuart colourised pictures for Nothing at the End of the Lane, a Doctor Who magazine. He was interviewed about his work there.
Adding Colour to Films
Stuart Humphryes has also worked on adding colour to old black-and-white Doctor Who episodes.
The Daleks' Master Plan
In 2005, Stuart worked with James Russell to add colour to parts of the 1965 Doctor Who story The Daleks' Master Plan. This colourised footage was later included in a documentary and on a Blu-ray release.
The Mind of Evil
In 2009, Stuart and James Russell worked together again. They looked at how to add colour to the first episode of the 1971 Doctor Who story The Mind of Evil. This episode only existed in black and white. Their test work led to Stuart being hired in 2011 to colourise the whole episode. He worked with a video restoration company to complete this for the BBC.
Screenings
The newly colourised Mind of Evil was shown for the first time at the British Film Institute in March 2013. Stuart was there to answer questions about how he added the colour. The episodes were also shown at film festivals in Birmingham and Belfast.
After its release on DVD in 2013, this colourised version became the standard one. It has been shown on TV in the US and is available on streaming services like BritBox and Twitch. Clips of the colourisation were even shown on the BBC evening news in June 2013.
Terror of the Zygons
In 2012, Stuart was hired to colourise black-and-white parts of the 1975 Doctor Who story Terror of the Zygons. This was for a special longer version of the story on DVD. He had to work very quickly, so he sometimes used simpler colourisation methods.
How Film Colourisation Works
Most ways of adding colour to films use special layers or sections. However, Stuart's method is different. He colours each individual frame of the film as a complete picture. This makes the final result look very realistic. But it also means a lot of hard work! For example, he had to fully colourise about 7,000 key frames to make 20 minutes of video. This took him 18 months for just one episode of The Mind of Evil.
Stuart's YouTube Channel
Stuart Humphryes started his YouTube channel, "The BabelColour Channel," in August 2006. It mostly features Doctor Who content. He stopped uploading new videos for a few years but has announced new content for the future. His 74 videos have been watched over 10 million times. Many people, including the Houston Press and the BBC, have called him a "colourisation 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."
His tribute video for actor Nicholas Courtney was shared by The Guardian. His "Every Doctor Who Story" video has over 1.6 million views and has been recommended by many websites like io9 and BBC America.
In September 2017, Radio Times featured the appearance of Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat in one of Stuart's YouTube videos. This story was covered by many other news sites.
Stuart's YouTube videos have included contributions from famous Doctor Who people. These include producers Steven Moffat and Philip Hinchcliffe, actors like John Levene, and voice artists like Nicholas Briggs and Jon Culshaw.
The Ten Doctors
Between 2009 and 2015, Stuart created a four-part online series called The Ten Doctors. This was an unofficial Doctor Who story. He used old TV and movie clips and added new dialogue and special effects. The trailers and episodes have been watched over 950,000 times on YouTube. The series has been recommended by SFX Magazine.
The Timeless Doctors
Stuart started working on a new project in 2019, which was first called The Ten Doctors Re-Imagined. This later became The Timeless Doctors. It is a new two-hour fan film. It includes famous voices like Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks and Jon Culshaw as the Third Doctor. It also features former Doctor Who producers and directors.
The trailers for this project have been recommended in Doctor Who Magazine multiple times. The project also uses special computer technology (AI upscaling).
The Almost Doctors
In 2017, Stuart created a two-part online series called "The Almost Doctors." This series looked at actors who were almost chosen to play Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s. Stuart used editing and special effects to put these actors into Doctor Who scenes. The BBC's AfterShow and BBC America praised the series.
Webcast Work
In April 2020, Stuart Humphryes was thanked in the credits of two Doctor Who online videos made during lockdown. One was a short The Sarah Jane Adventures episode called "Farewell, Sarah Jane." The other was a sequel to the episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" called "Pompadour."
TV Appearances
In 1996, Stuart was a contestant on the TV quiz show Goldmaster. In 1999, his role as a backup contestant for the BBC game show Whatever You Want was reported in Doctor Who Magazine.
About Stuart's Life
Stuart Humphryes studied Design Communications at Suffolk College.
Even though he is well-known for his colourisation and photo enhancement work, Stuart does this as a hobby. He works as a Local Government Officer for the London Borough of Merton, where he has been since 2007. Before that, he worked for the British Red Cross for 14 years.
From 2006 to 2008, he created work for the BabelFish Colourisation website. In 2012, he started his own colourisation website.
In 2014, Stuart helped researchers for a BBC2 documentary series called 'The Secret History of My Family'. This show was about his family's history.
