Krantz, I hope you don't mind if I hijack your thread for a moment.
Here's an Abbott I threw together. Leaving aside Abbott, here, there are many colorizing programs and many of them are free. I can't speak for others (and I'm a MAC guy), but I initially learned to colorize using
Instant Photo Color. It's virtue is that it is very simple. It's like using your cursor like a crayon or a paint brush. It's "fault" is that it's very simple--very limited. You can only do so much with the colors and you'll be outside the lines a lot (you can clean it up some, but it can still look sloppy). But, because it is so d**n simple, it's a good learning program.
Then I downloaded
GIMP. GIMP seems a lot more intimidating because it has more bells and whistles and it can do a lot more. So, at first, I continued with Instant Photo Color and I would occasionally
try different things in GIMP. Then I would try something else in GIMP. Early on, I'd get frustrated when I couldn't get it to do what I wanted (usually my fault). But you go back and try again later. Over time, it got to be more like, "Oooh, I wonder what this does.....
Cool."
For a period of time, then, I used IPC and then "refined" it in GIMP. And, now, I work almost exclusively in GIMP (I still do my initial flesh tones in ICP because I have my own technique, which I like even though it's unnecessarily complicated).
The key to all of this, in my opinion, is patience. You weren't born walking and you didn't learn to walk without falling down again in a day. And, even after colorizing for years, some of my stuff still sucks. There's a board game called Othello, the slogan for which is
"an instant to learn, a lifetime to master." Don't strive for perfection; strive to learn...from your own mistakes and successes and from what you can see in the work of others. Of course that's just me. I'm your basic idiot. Some of the folks who do the colorization thing are beyond talented...they are artists. And I'm sure some of them had a natural inclination and picked it all up very quickly. But that's part of what makes me a good example. Because I'm an idiot. And, nonetheless, I have had the patience to keep at it and the interest to learn and get better at it and, at this point, I feel I do fairly well...usually. And, if an idiot like me can do it, anyone should be able to. But I have little patience for people with little patience. Just sayin'.
OK. Sermon over (you didn't think the Abbott would be free, did you?). Now, Abbott, here, is more of a photoshop deal (done in GIMP), but the uni is partially colorized (also in GIMP). It has plenty of faults and would have taken me a third of the time if I hadn't been in such a hurry. One fun fact...I noticed the shadows were wrong (a common problem I have matching body parts). One person's head, another's body...you gotta watch that. I had to remove the shadow from one shoulder and put it on the other. First time I've ever done that. Still learning.