Old photo in, color out: colorize_photo is not a general edit
Colorize an old black-and-white photo is one agent job. colorize_photo restores color on a grayscale plate. A prompt-based photo edit is a different job.
Old photo in. Color version out. Colorize an old black-and-white photo is that job: colorize_photo on a grayscale or faded still. Attach the plate. Optionally set saturation. Get a colorized image. Using it as a general "make this nicer" edit, or running a full image-edit model because you wanted grandma in color, spends the wrong generation: either a colorizer on a file that was already in color, or an edit model inventing a look the archive brief did not ask for.
The tool requires image_url. Optional saturation and output format. There is no text-only colorize. No prompt paragraph will replace the scan. The finishing route colorize an old photo is the same restoration job on the editing surface.
Restoration, not restyle
"Colorize this" on a 1950s portrait is this page. "This print faded — restore the color" is this page. "Make the sky more dramatic and put her in a modern kitchen" is edit a photo with AI. Colorize will not move furniture. An edit model will not treat archival hue as the contract; it will treat your prompt as the contract, and you will spend an image generation on a scene change you did not mean.
Do not colorize a video by calling this on nothing. This is a still. Do not colorize by generating a new text-to-image "in the style of an old photo but in color" — that is a new picture, not the plate. The archive job is identity of the scan plus hue. A new generate is a different person in a different room.
Priced per generation, shown before you confirm. Saturation is the one creative lever. If you regen because you wanted "a bit less candy," set saturation on the next call instead of rewriting a novel prompt this tool does not take.
Attach the real file
A screenshot of a screenshot, crushed blacks, a color JPEG you thought was silver. The model colorizes what you give it. A plate that is already color will not become a better grade through this job. A grade is an edit. This job is hue on gray.
FAQ
Can I colorize with a text prompt and no image?
No. image_url is required. Describe-the-photo text-to-image is a new still, not a restoration of the scan you have.
Is this the same as edit-a-photo-with-ai?
No. Edit follows a prompt: wardrobe, background, cleanup. Colorize follows the existing drawing of the plate and adds color. Wrong tool, wrong credits, wrong identity risk.
Does saturation replace a grade?
No. It is a strength knob on the colorize pass. Fine-tuning look after the fact is a different edit, on the colorized keeper.
Can I run this on a video frame?
Extract a still, then colorize the still. The capability is a photo job. A video colorize fantasy is not a hidden parameter.