43 Comments
User's avatar
DawnTrader's avatar

Wow, that is surreal. Absolute sorcery, but in a good way. Thanks for sharing, I look forward to stunning my 80 something parents with your idea and prompt. My mother's uncle was shot down in WW2 at the age of 23, but there is a single old photo of him in his uniform.

Makes you think about where this tech is going. Won't be long before you can talk to old photos of your ancestors from generations past. Buckle up.

Ruben Hassid's avatar

It’s awesome. You should totally restore the photo.

I do think there is a “limit to tech”. How could we talk to your grand uncle without having his voice? You mean we would generate it on the spot (so it can’t be exactly right).

My kids (and whatever future generations) will totally be able to talk to me. I have so many videos of me talking on the internet.

Denise Sommer's avatar

Wow, such a wonderful idea with the photo of your grandmother, touching ✨ I wanted to try it myself, but here in Switzerland the feature isn’t available yet 😕 Totally get that Google has to follow each country’s regulations, but it’s still a bit frustrating…

Ruben Hassid's avatar

so frustrating… I’m French, but live in Israel, so I have access to it.

I hate the EU regulation over AI.

Pj Maher's avatar

It is available in Switzerland as I live here and have been trying this out. There are limitations on what Nano-Banana and Veo can do.

Denise Sommer's avatar

Thanks for sharing, Pj – I’d be really interested to hear how you managed to get it working in Switzerland. I’m on the Pro version and got as far as having a black & white photo colorized, but then I hit a wall: when I go to ‘Create videos with Veo’, a new chat opens and I’d expect to upload the picture there (hidden behind the +), but that option is greyed out with a tooltip saying ‘not available’. Maybe that’s what you meant with the ‘limitations’?

Pj Maher's avatar

Hi Denise,

In Google AI Studio I select "Generate media" and under "Explore models" I then select Veo and attach an image (I am using jpeg images) and then I enter a prompt and it creates the video - the video is not that great to be honest, but it does depend on the prompt details. I suggest to check out https://youtu.be/TGaoZpvs1Fo?si=Bba59FxjR4EBI_8v - this is from Futurepedia who make really good videos (I have nothing to do with them, I just find their videos really helpful and they have a lot more detail)

Fanny Astikasari's avatar

Dilemma, but it's super touching tho ✨

Rowdy's avatar

This prompt: "Restore an old black and white picture I took. I want it now to have natural daylight colors, as naturally as you can. Make it seem like an iPhone took the picture. And turn it into a photo instead of a photo of a photo. Don't change any elements in the photo itself."

It does not colorize the photograph...

Ruben Hassid's avatar

well, it does for me - have you tried several times?

Rowdy's avatar

No I just added the text “colorize it.” to it and now it colorizes it. Maybe Gemini automatically colorized it for you because because of some memory?

Sweet Chili Truths | Shubhdeep's avatar

I will be using this

Ruben Hassid's avatar

let me know how it goes

Carl Lens's avatar

Sadly, the animation feature does not appear available in the Netherlands.

Ruben Hassid's avatar

EU regulation :((( i feel you, i'm french

Eva's avatar

Hi, I dont see an option to create a video with Veo, I upgraded to Google AI Pro and still cant see it :(

Ruben Hassid's avatar

weird... are you in EU?

Anisha Jain's avatar

This is AMAZINGGG. Can’t believe how far we are in terms of AI advancements already!

Gaurav Punjabi's avatar

You rock Ruben.

Although I need some assistance whenever I use AI like I did for my mom it actually doesn't give as neat and clean as yours.

I am sure something more in the prompt to add.

Ruben Hassid's avatar

It's not about the prompt, it's about generating it 10x times

Gaurav Punjabi's avatar

I am sure I am missing on something although I tried the restoration image of a random picture from Google it worked until there.

Since I don't have an updated plan could not animate although I tried Google AI studio to animate

David Nestoff's avatar

Well imagined. That’s a very cool (and genuine) use case.

John Price's avatar

This is great! Thanks for sharing.

Ruben Hassid's avatar

You're most welcome

khadija ubaid's avatar

Hi,Ruben thats a great udea.I have a question.From converting edit photo into animated video what prompt did you use ? Please share that prompt so that i will try and see my garandma alive for a moment

Ruben Hassid's avatar

everything is on the article :) could you find it?

khadija ubaid's avatar

Thank you so much Robin i got the answer in your article.

RIM's avatar

Awsome

Paul Morgan's avatar

Amazing

And …

Ednor (Andy) Rowe's avatar

That is as good as “hand coloring” of a black & white photo which used to be done … My 96-year old Mom has a photo of her on the beach, which her Dad did at the publishing company he worked at in the depression- hand colored & looking really good from the swimming suit to her face, when she was like 13

Max Erdmann Sanchez's avatar

This is one of the most beautiful usecases of AI. Thank you for sharing this with us!

On a site note; could this be a business use case ? Greetings

Laura Brindusa Squire's avatar

Thank you I will do this too. How amazing.. I will stun my parents. Thank you again