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Colorization – First Coat

colorization part 1 hed

By Phil Hecken

If you’ll notice that splash photo, you may say, “that looks familiar.” It should, since it was included in Paul’s always amazing College Football Preview that appeared on ESPN last month. If you scroll down to the “Big East,” under USF, you’ll note this short blurb:

USF‘s white helmet, which in the past has been used as an occasional alternate look, will get more playing time this season. The gold helmet will still be used, but its logo will change from black to green — a major upgrade.

A minor bit in a major article, and probably one no one paid any mind to. But I was pretty proud, since I ‘created’ the new helmet with a colorization technique I’ve learned. Now, I’m far from an expert in the wonderful technique of colorization, but if you have a lot of patience and a few hours to kill, I thought I might take some time today to teach you a few techniques I’ve learned.

Since there are many levels to colorization, both literally and figuratively, I wanted to teach you my technique for doing something simple, like changing a black helmet logo to a green one (as above), to some rudimentary colorization, such as putting Otto Graham in beautiful orange and brown, to more complex black and white photographs.

This same technique can be used to change softball uniforms into monochrome concepts or to fix the Steelers pants or even put some more blue into Big Blue.

Others of you are far better at colorizing than I, but I thought I’d pass along the technique I have learned so that you can try your hand at it. All it takes is patience. Lots and lots of patience.

We’ll start with a very simple colorizing for today, and as time permits, I’ll move on to the more complex ones. As I said, the one techinque I will teach you today will work for ALL of the examples above. Learn the basics, and then you can apply them as you set out on your own.

OK? OK!

~~~

The first thing you need to do is to acquire a program that will let you colorize photos and pictures. Every single one above was done with a FREE program called “GIMP” which is an acronym for “GNU Image Manipulation Program,” which is actually quite similar to Photoshop. You can download it here. Simply figure out which of the downloads is appropriate for your computer. Once you have it installed, we’ll begin.

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Before we begin, you’ll need to have your source image. For this example, I’ll use that same USF helmet you saw colorized in the splash photo. Click on this link and save this picture to your hard drive. Name it “USF helmet” if you’d like, and remember where you saved it. (For those who’ve never downloaded a picture before, and use a windows-based operating system, right click on the photo, select “save picture as” and then save it.) When we open up GIMP, you’ll need to retrieve the picture.

Once you have the picture saved, we’re ready to open GIMP and begin.

What I have done is to prepare a “full tutorial” via a flickr image set. Rather than doing the step-by-step instructions in this main article, it is probably easier (and much easier on those readers who could care less) to just link to those now.

The first link goes to the thumbnail instructions and the second link goes to the individual frame detail. If you click on each image in sequential order, you will receive a step-by-step guide to changing an image.

For this tutorial, we’re going to change the black USF logo to green. I selected this because it only involves changing one color to another — but the techniques described therein will work for colorizing black and white photographs as well as changing one color (or several) to another.

If you are interested in practicing this, just download GIMP, follow the tutorial instructions, and practice, practice, practice. It gets much easier over time.

If you guys liked this, I’ll be happy to move on to colorizing black and white photographs in the next tutorial. But learning the basics as described here will greatly help as you progress.

Hope you enjoyed this, and you’re now well on your way to being able to manipulate (or change) anything, from sports logos, to black and white photographs.

Please post any questions in the comments below. I will actually be away from the computer for a good part of the day (I have to work in the early morning, and most of the afternoon and evening will be spent at the Uni Watch gathering at Sheep Station — more on that below). But I will attempt to answer any questions you have as time permits today, and certainly tomorrow. As always, if you have any questions you do not wish to post in the comments, shoot me an email.

For those of you who wish to “take the plunge,” please post your creations below. Don’t be embarassed if it doesn’t “look right.” This has taken me months of practice and I’m still not very good at it.

Good luck!

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Braves Giants Softball Game

Major League Softball Playoffs

While I was preparing the colorization tutorial last evening, I was expecting to see Game 2 of the National League Divisional Series playoff game between the Giants and the Braves. However, my cable provider inadvertently showed me two teams dressed in softball attire.

What’s that you say, MadameSpeaker? Those were major leaguers out there dressed like that? Aren’t those, like, their BP unis?

Actually, no. The Giants have a black softball top for BP and the Braves have a, um…blue one. Or at least I think they do. I can’t really be sure.

All kidding aside, of course, both teams wore their alternate jerseys last evening. For the Giants, this was not unexpected in the least, as they have been wearing their orange alternates every Friday home game all season long. And although the introduction of the orange top is new this year, they do have a history of orange tops in their past. Even though this is the playoffs, and I am firmly opposed to alternates being worn in the post season, I was neither surprised nor shocked to see them in the orange tops. You’d think the bright “traffic cone” look would keep them from running into each other however.

As stated, the Giants have worn the orange tops every Friday all season long. And when they play Sunday in Atlanta, they’ll break out the caps with orange bills, as they have every Sunday. I would expect the Braves will break out their own “Sunday Red” tops down there. When a team is known to have a specific day for wearing it’s alternate at home, you’d think the opposition would know this too. True, they may not read Uni Watch, but surely they are aware. So it strikes me as particularly disingenuous that the Braves would wear dark blue. Even though I can’t stand alts, one team wearing them is tolerable. BOTH teams really makes a mockery of the solemnity of the playoffs. This isn’t bumble bee Pirates in the 1979 World Series. That was the style then. This is just ridiculous. Lack of stirrups, pajama bottoms and look at me players nowadays are bad enough. Throw in softball tops and games of this importance become almost unwatchable.

I know it will never happen, but there should really be a rule: ONLY ONE TEAM can wear an alternate in any game in the post season. No exceptions. If, as is the case with both teams here, one team has a particular top the have worn on a specific day (Braves wear Sunday red and the Giants wear Friday orange) all season long, it is incumbent upon the road team to wear their gray. Period. Both teams in alts looks bush.

When they play Sunday, you can expect the Braves in red, but fortunately, the Giants do not have a road alt. That won’t look great, but it will look better than what we saw last night.

We know the Yankees will be in pinstripes today, so if the Twins want to wear their navy tops, let them. As far as the Texas Texases, they have two different home alts at their disposal, and the Rays have shown they will wear the Blue alts in the playoffs. Let’s hope we don’t get a red versus blue game there. When the Phillies travel to Cincy, if it’s a day game, the Reds will probably sport their red top (which I happen to like) but the Phillies will be in gray roadies, guaranteed. Again, not an awful matchup.

But for the love of the game, can we please hope that the “alts vs. alts” is a one-and-done?

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all sport uni tweaks

Slowly making it thought the tweak backlog, but keep them coming. If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way. OK? OK! Here’s what’s on tap for today.

Those who’ve already sent in tweaks, they’re fine the way they are, but in the future, because many of you seem to enjoy elaborate write ups, can you possibly try to keep them to 50 words tops per team? (Every one I’ve received since I asked for the ~50 limit has complied so far!) Thanks!

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Starting off the show is Eric Davis, who also led off last Saturday, with some Astrolove:

Phil –

Great job keeping up with the various (you probably get a lot) uni tweaks. I recently sent you a set of 3. I’m adding my Houston Astros variation. More of a total redesign, than a tweak. I’ll be sending more.

Thanks!

Eric Davis
Longtime Uni Watch Fan.

The design was inspired by the attached photo.

~~~

Next up is Brian Shane with a simple, beautiful Nats tweak:

Would it be so bad if this were the Nationals home uniform?

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In a helmet tweak that will no doubt make THE Jeff a happy guy, Jordan Bruner has two concepts for the Arizona Cardinals:

The current Arizona Cardinals helmet has a gray facemask. This is not unusual by itself, but it’s odd considering it is the only gray in their entire color scheme. I have a few proposed changes:

Here is a pretty basic change. I switched the gray to cardinal red to produce a more consistent (and better) look.

I also made a BFBS helmet that allows a little more yellow to be used. I’m not sure if I’d actually want to see them wear it, but it was an interesting idea.

Thanks,
Jordan Bruner

~~~

Our last tweak today is actually not from our submitter, Tony Meyer, but it’s pretty interesting nonetheless. Here’s Tony to explain:

I didn’t make this, but the person who did posted it up at the Music City Miracles blog”¦ We Titans fans have already been discussing it for a little while, but I thought it might strikes some interest for UniWatch readers too.

~~~

Good stuff today. Keep the tweaks coming (and thanks for keeping the descriptions to about 50 words per uni). Back with more next time.

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uni tracking header 1

Back at the beginning of the 2010 season, I announced the 2010 Uni Tracking that a number of us do.

The 2010 Season has concluded now. I actually kept track of the Mets again this year, though, sadly, I haven’t completed my season in review. However, those of you who have should begin sending them in to me. When I have a few spare hours, I plan on compiling them and adding them to the Uni Watch Archives, to be a part of the permanent record.

So, if you’ve been doing your due diligence with your team, send me your end-of-season tracking reports, and I’ll post them as a “sub article” on the weekends. OK? OK! And I promise they’ll make it into the UW archives before the year is out. Please feel free to accompany your tracking with a write up, especially if your team had any interesting trends or patterns. Obviously, the uniforms worn don’t have a direct correlation to a winning record, but as we saw earlier this week, the Mets Police have their own uniform tracker(s) (which looks surprisingly similar to the 2009 tracking I did), the Mets had a better record wearing blue accoutrements and caps, and played their best ball when wearing pinstripes. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

~~~

Today, we have our first full season 2010 tracker to check in. Sean Reed is a Texas Rangers tracker. The Rangers made the playoffs this year for the first time in forever, and stand poised and ready to sweep the Tampa Bay Rays, with a likely date against the Bronx Bombers later this week. They’re also one of those teams with not one, but two, alternates, so they have quite the interesting tracking history. Let’s take a look at Sean’s tracking and the stats:

I enjoy your blog and ESPN stuff. I’ve kept track of the Rangers uniform combos all season in an Excel spreadsheet which I’ve attached. Games in black are wins and red are losses.

Thanks, Sean.

Anyone else who has completed their 2010 tracking, please send me your stats and a writeup. I’ll post them on the weekends, and (eventually) they’ll all become a part of the UW archives, since they’re now a part of the historical record.

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sheep station

Uni Watch Gathering…TODAY

Attention all New York City-area readers. If you’re not already aware, it’s the annual Brooklyn gathering of the UW faithful this afternoon. If you’ve joined us before, you know the scoop. If you haven’t, come on down to the Sheep Station in beautiful Park Slope.

Scotty Turner will be in town (he just flew in from the rainy west coast, and boy are his arms tired, dontcha know), Paul, of course, will be there, and we’re still hoping Wayne Hagin will be joining us. Good food (Aussie fare), stout brewskies and a whole crew of those who obsess over uniforms in one spot. If that’s not an inducement, I’m not sure what is. No, really. It’s a great time.

So come on down. We get under way around three o’clock till whenever. Hope to see many of you there.

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OK everyone, that’s it for today. Hopefully you guys will try your hand at colorization. But if not, I certainly understand. It’s not difficult, but it does require patience.

Good college football, two ALDS clinchers today, and of course, the UW gathering in Brooklyn. It’s gonna be a great day. See you all tomorrow, if I don’t see you this afternoon. Cheers!

~~~

Is my cat an athlete? It can run pretty fast. If I put it on a track with 5 other cats, throw a catnip mouse and declare the first cat to get to the mouse to be the “winner”, is that a sport? — THE Jeff.

 
  
 
Comments (150)

    One thing to keep in mind in regards to the colorization tutorial, is that the semi-transparent layer method only works if you’re working with black, white or shades of gray. If you’re trying to do something like change red to blue, you may have to use other methods.

    true, but i didn’t want to get into that just yet…and if you’d like to assist me with a future one, i know you’re quite good at this (and i’d love to learn your technique), please drop me a line…i merely wanted to establish some basics today

    but this WILL work quite well for black and white photographs…changing red pants to blue (if that’s what you’re into) does require different techniques, to be sure

    please let me know if you’re interested in helping with a future column

    I’ll have to see if GIMP has the same (or similar) option as what I use in Paintshop Pro, but more than likely, sure.

    I didn’t mean to take anything away from your tutorial, it’s definitely a good starting point.

    I’m almost positive that the Braves wore their Navy blue jerseys because they lost to the giants wearing their gray jerseys the day before. I’m a braves fan, and this is a trend that i have noticed the past few years. They don’t always follow this rule though and it annoys me when they don’t.

    Is my cat an athlete? It can run pretty fast. If I put it on a track with 5 other cats, throw a catnip mouse and declare the first cat to get to the mouse to be the “winner”, is that a sport? – THE Jeff.
    I just read the comments from yesterday thanks to this quote. My apologies for being late to the party.
    I have to agree with The Jeff here (which I’ve found myself doing more and more, lately).
    My greyhound was forced to race for the first five years of his life, and he still has lingering effects. Physical and psychological.
    Tonight, at some catholic church in St. Louis, they will be holding mouse races. Is that a sport? What if someone supplies amphetamines like Winchester did to Radar’s mouse?
    If NASCAR is a sport, then so is Russian roulette. And… its participants are the greatest athletes known to man.

    I really don’t see it as relevant whether or not the participants are doing so of their free will or not. There are children all over the world who participate in sports because their parents essentially force them to. Are those kids not athletes?

    Your greyhound was an athlete. Secretariat was an athlete.

    As for auto racing, I couldn’t care less about it, but it is a sport, otherwise any schmuck with enough money could get into it and excel.

    The Russian roulette analogy is a non sequitur.

    I think those kids are athletes because they are humans. Little humans with shitty parents. They can verbalize their dismay despite the fact that their parents won’t listen.
    My greyhound was athletic at one time, but I wouldn’t consider him an athlete. I think athletes have to be human.
    My reference to best scene in the Deer Hunter was a total non sequitur. I’m full of those.
    It’s very difficult NOT to be absurd when talking about NASCAR.

    So, if I put a gun to your head and tell you to run, it makes you an athlete?

    Surely there should be some distinction between someone who voluntarily trains and dedicates themselves to competing vs someone that does so because they’re forced to in one way or another. The aspect of choice should matter.

    Horse racing is exploiting the animal for entertainment. Whether that’s morally right or wrong is irrelevant. Humans have been exploiting animals for as long as we’ve existed. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that the horse doesn’t have a choice. Racehorses are bred for speed. They’re trained to race. They know nothing else. They are… equipment. Yes, it sounds cold and evil to say it that way, but it is what it is. Now if we evolve into something resembling those blue creatures from that CGI movie and have a physical mental connection to the horse as we ride and it does choose to race, then I’ll call it an athlete.

    I concur in regards to the softball look especially during the playoffs, NO ALTS allowed!
    I admit I am not a huge baseball fan but when October arrives I find myself more interested, unless of course the teams are dressed in softball uni’s

    So according to the uni tracker for the Rangers, the team wore its blue jerseys on the road more than the primary grays and also wore the red jerseys at home more than the primary white jerseys. There’s just something wrong about that. At least the Rangers, so far, have had the respect to wear road gray jerseys in both games of the postseason.

    Yes… there is something wrong with that – the label applied to each jersey is incorrect. Whatever jersey the team wears the most is obviously the primary jersey. So, the Rangers just happen to have red & blue as their primary jerseys with white and gray serving as alternates.

    Brian Shane’s Wash Nats uni would be just fine. provided all red letters/numbers & striping has thin blue piping.

    @StLMarty – regarding your mention of greyhounds. Good for you owning one! Long ago, I did some fund raising(as a musician) to rescue Greyhounds. I know how they are treated -and it is bad.They are also a more affectionate dog than one might guess for a breed than can run so fast. Unlike some women I have known ;-)

    “That was the style then.”

    True. But in the same vein, this is the style now. 30 years from now we’ll look back on it fondly, and we’ll celebrate by wearing throwbacks and purchasing really expensive t-shirts featuring the old colors and… well, you get the point.

    Good thing I hit the F5 key, because I was going to post something very similar. Like it or not, this IS the style now.

    I think the only rule we need is: proper contrast. If you can easily tell the teams apart, no further rules are needed. The White Sox/Athletics black vs. black game was absurd and should not have been allowed. The Giants/Braves game? Not that big of a deal to me (although I don’t like the dark number on the dark Braves jersey).

    I like the Braves’ red tops, but if they had worn those last night, THEN we’d have a problem.

    THIS. Seriously, it makes no sense to excuse the same thing 30 years ago because THEN it was the style, but today, when about 5/6 of teams have alts, imply that somehow it’s not.

    I agree about a contrasting colors rule. Although it isn’t strictly necessary for the teams to wear different colors in baseball like it is in hockey or football, for example, it still feels very wrong to have two teams looking identical. Kind of ruins the whole “uniform” concept if EVERYONE is wearing the same uniform, doesn’t it?

    Why don’t we go back to White at home, Gray (or alt colors) on the road the way EVERYONE should see it after that disasterout White Sox-A’s “blackout” this past September. Oh, I forgot, this Bud’s Not for You Selig, interim Commissioner of major League Baseball for Life As We Know It, won’t allow it because of that cash cow.

    The Rangers wear Red, White or Blue at home. If the Rays decide to wear their dark alts we could possibly have a “blue v blue” game in Arlington. Luckily Rangers wear royal blue and rays ( like everyone else ) wears navy blue….

    According to the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers will wear Red at home today because they are 30-9 in Red, even though the starting pitcher, Lewis, prefers White (he’s worn White 13 of the 14 times he’s pitched at home.)

    We’re not going to see Blue at home at all during the playoffs, because none of the four Rangers starters wear it at home. Lee and Lewis strongly prefer White; Wilson and Hunter only wear Red. On the road, Lee and Lewis prefer Grey; Wilson and Hunter prefer Blue. This year, these four guys have worn Blue 27 times, and Grey 26 times.

    I for one am sick of the Blue jerseys, and have immensely enjoyed watching the Rangers win in Grey. I look forward to watching the Rangers win today in Red!

    I actually like the Rangers home white. I think its clean and “organized” ( couldn’t think of a better word )…

    Looking forward to seeing the Rangers win today, wish they wore white to contrast the Rays who will most likely wear Navy…

    Looking forward to Yankees-Rangers in the ALCS….

    The Texas Texans should (when Nolan Ryan approves) restore the script “Rangers” name to the home unis, and make one of the jerseys (red or blue) the road alt.

    Eric and Brian, great tweaks! I know some will object to UCLA stripes on a baseball jersey, but I’m not one of them.

    Jordan, I’d like to see the yellow facemask on the white helmet. The red looks good, too.

    Hmm, red pants on the Titans? Intriguing.

    Great Astros jersey, but isn’t that model about 60 pounds too light to be Carlos Lee? Hunter Pence maybe, but certainly not Lee.

    Watched the 5th down segment on ESPN this morning about the famous 1990 Colorado-Missouri game. Interesting piece, although we needed to hear from one of the Tiger defenders on the field for that sequence. What caught my eye were the Missouri uniforms, which seemed to be patterned after the New Orleans Saints of that era. The helmets were unique in their own right, and I’m hoping someone can fill in the details.

    It seemed as though those helmets had a different design on each side, with the traditional black background. On one side, the “M” was the same as we’ve always seen. But the other side of the helmet, had the “M” in the middle of a football. Is this correct, and why did Missouri have such a strange design in 1990?

    Per the link (scroll down to the Missouri part of the Historical Helmets section):

    *2 The decal shown on this helmet was actually worn only on the right sides of the helmets in 1990, with the left side appearing as on the next helmet. This special decal contained text (not legible at this size) reading “*100* YEARS” (along the top of the football-shape) and “UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI” (along the bottom).

    They should have added a #5 to represent the five downs Colorado got to beat Mizzou that year.

    “I didn’t make link, but the person who did posted it up at the Music City Miracles blog… We Titans fans have already been discussing it for a little while, but I thought it might strikes some interest for UniWatch readers too.”

    Wow. Now that’s a bold concept. Very loud, and a little bit ProBowlish (who watches that anyway?) but raises the idea of taking the light blue out of the shoulders, or tweaking the navy sub-stripes on the pants to light blue. Any GNUers out there?

    Anyone have stats on how teams perform in the postseason in their dark alts, especially at home? So far the home teams in dark are 0-2.

    I would love to see a tutorial on colorizing black and white pictures. That is one thing I have always wanted to play with.

    The method posted today works for black & white photos. The tutorial posted was changing black to green. It’s the same principle when working with a black & white photo. You just need to be a bit more precise with your selections, and the level of transparency required is going to vary depending on the color being used – so you’ll probably want to do each color on it’s own layer.

    “The solemnity of the playoffs.”

    You mean those same mlb playoffs which recently featured a steroid abusing druggie who happens to be the alltime home run leader? Those mlb playoffs?
    Those same mlb playoffs where a dispute over the 2004 last out ball led to a major lawsuit? Over a FUCKING BASEBALL??!! That sure is full of solemnity, yes sir.

    Please.

    Funny how you bitch and whine and blubber like a crybaby bitch about the supposed Pajama pants uni style of todays players but do nothing but give endless jizz swallowing blowjobs to the uni styles of the 20’s 30’s and 40’s which were just as pajamed up.

    Print this bitch.

    Another successful graduate of the Yoshi Jones school of writing. Actually, this one made Yoshi seem quite civil.

    I agree that there is nothing solemn about any professional sport, but you’re just being really mean. You don’t have to be such an EABOD.

    You really don’t know what EABOD stands for, do you? It’s an action, not a thing.

    /unless the intentional misuse of acronyms is a new meme I wasn’t aware of

    I found out two weeks ago. Since then, some of us have been using it purposely out of context.

    When people get hungry, do they EABOD?
    Anyone who seriously uses the term EABOD can NAGRGASIUTA.

    I have a bone to pick witht he author of the piece, and the general hate of “softball tops” in general from this site. I am a regular reader, been here from the inception, but rarely comment. However, the hyprocritcal nature of this continuted assault on colored baseball jerseys has gotten to me. You love the color color on color football game, but deplore the color on color baseball game? The Giants orange is obnoxious, I’ll grant that, but still come down off the high horse. You act they did not have color jerseys back when baseball started, newsflash, they did. The playoffs are special sure, but teams like the Braves alternate their road jersyes depending on wins/losses so it made sense for them to wear the blue after losing game 1. The only time I will agree with you is when it is dark blue and black, or black and black, that should not happen. Furthermore, as Braves fan, I can tell you that I love the traditonal jerseys the team wears. However, I also like it when they wear their colored jersey because it changes things up. I sat through around 14 years of the same two jerseys and the same hat and while I love the classic, having something different, while still keeping tradition, makes 162 games more enjoyable.

    I enjoy grated romano cheese on pasta with marinara sauce but I think it’s terrible on s’mores.

    Does that make me a hypocrite?

    The Atlanta Braves home white and road greys are gorgeous!! Some of the best in the sport and real classic look that just screams BASEBALL! The red is borderline ok and the blue is horrible. It really does seem like a BP jersey with those same color jerseys ( much like the black jersey that the giants used to wear ).

    I am a Yankee fan, so trust me I know what you mean about watching a team wear the same two jerseys!

    I think if the Braves want to break it up from time to time, they should wear this:

    link

    link.jpg

    or this

    link

    running late, cuz my train leaves in about 15 minutes, but who said i like “color on color” football?

    while i do fancy a pastel versus dark solid (see: USC/UCLA) i HATE a, for example, blue on red

    i don’t say one team has to always wear white, but that doesn’t mean i have to see color on color by any means

    and baseball (like basketball and hockey) have different aesthetics than football

    what looks good on a baseball teams DOESN’T LOOK GOOD on a football team…it’s that simple

    please don’t put words into my mouth

    I don’t understand why people have to have “bones to pick” with the writers. This site is dedicated to opinions as much as it is uniforms. Simply make your case without unnecessary digs at the writers. Start your own blog if you can’t take it.

    The number font on the Alabama helmet used for the set of ESPN’s College Gameday seems ton be the wrong font as well as too big.

    Sorry, no screenshot.

    going back to yesterdays ticker about Pitt’s unis. If they continue their trend from last year we will prolly see them in blue pants today. last year they started out with blue pants until they lost to nc state, then went to white until they lost to wvu, and then have worn gold the last 2 road games losing to utah to start the season. I dont expect to see anything but Blue over Gold at home.

    Horrible look. This team has lost it’s entire identity (what little it had) under Brewster. First they brought in white pants, and went white jersey/white pants on the road (last 2 years). They brought in the horrible yellow jerseys. Now white helmets. They had such a classic look under Mason. Next week I predict they replace the maroon with the Texas burnt orange…..

    I really like the helmet tweak for Arizona. Maybe I’m alone with this but I really dislike almost all gray facemasks. They remind me of those generic white helmets/gray facemasks that everyone wore in junior league football. Plus, it throws off the color balance of the uniform to have a big chunk of gray out of place. Blahhh. I’d love if the Colts switched back to the blue facemask and the Giants to the white.

    You’re in the minority on here, but I’m firmly on your side.

    I’ve ranted quite a few times about my hatred of gray masks.

    The Cardinals helmet with the red mask looks great.

    The only reason a team should wear a gray mask is if gray or silver are part of the team colors – so the Giants get a pass due to their pants, and the Raiders & Cowboys are acceptable. The Cardinals, 49ers and Colts are just wrong.

    I think it works for the Colts. Cardinals would look better with white. 49ers would look better with red. I do not think gray and gold look good together.

    I don’t think you are in the minority. Teams with older style jerseys and colored helmets look okay with gray facemasks, but the more modern ones and helmets that are black or white just look off. That’s why the Browns can wear a gray facemask and the Steelers can’t. The Cardinals wear a white helmet, so they look odd with a gray facemask. They should wear red against the white.

    Thanks for the tutorial, I really enjoyed it. When you are picking your initial shade of green, does it make sense to make it a really bright shade of green, so that when you toy with the opacity, you can get more of the original and end up with the same dark green color?

    I would definitely like to a more advanced tutorial on colorizing black & white photos.

    In this specific example, you really don’t need to be that much lighter – there isn’t much detail that needs to show through here – just the glare (which this method really doesn’t work very well on)

    Typically with this technique , you’ll want to be a bit bolder – not necessarily brighter, if that makes sense. The transparency has the effect of making your original color look kinda faded and washed out.

    Wait a minute, South Carolina is wearing white helmets too! You think the Colts or Cardinals might wear them tomorrow for solidarity’s sake?

    Phil is absolutely right regarding softball tops in the post season. Last night’s Braves-Giants game looked like spring training. Colored alternate jerseys just have a cheap look about them – they remind me of suburban little league.

    Yes, that’s it—they look cheap. Like truncated sleeves on modern football jerseys. Like Nike’s System of Dress crap minimalism in basketball. Like Reeboks de-construction of hockey sweaters. Those professional ball players are wearing practice shirts for a playoff game…I don’t care if that is in style–for some– now. It looks cheap.

    Though the Astros could do no better than return to their original uniform and logo, I like the playfulness of Eric Davis’ logo tweak. You could actually have the swirling asteroid mark the bar on the H as well as the A.

    Every time I see that Cardinals helmet I want to make a scrunched face like that bird…like, “What have I become?”

    Here’s what the Cardinals helmet should look like (with all due respect, mr. Bruner):

    link

    I agree. These colored jerseys really do look chintzy. I’ve noticed that in football as well. To make uniforms more lightweight and absorbent, they eliminate the texture that defined the more substantial uniforms of the past. Also, the shade of the Giants’ orange does not seem to match the logo on their caps. It’s more like a lighter shade of the burnt orange that the Texans Longhorns wear.

    It does seem to be headed in the direction of Tennessee Orange, doesn’t it. Think about that every time I see the orange jerseys.

    I suppose it could be pairing them with cream pants that creates that illusion…but I don’t think so.

    —Ricko

    Also, I got into a surprisingly heated argument with one of friends about hockey logos on helmets. I say they should be made bigger, almost football like. I think even with the ridges and everything, it would still be a big improvement.

    Has anyone with more photoshop skills than I tried to see what that would look like?

    Glad to see the Gimp tutorial today.
    Phil about how long does it take to do a simple b&w to color?

    “As far as the Texas Texases, they have two different home alts at their disposal…”

    Phil, please, don’t call them the “Texases” unless you plan on calling the Yankees the “NYs.”

    thanks.

    The difference is that Yankees “interlocking NY” and the Tigers “Olde English D” are logos symbolic of the team.

    Much like when the Rangers wore this:

    link

    Even though the “T” of course stood for “texas” it was a Rangers logo.

    I still like the Rangers unis, although I think it would look better with RANGERS across the chest…or even that T logo…though not on vest!

    Most teams wear the plural on their jersey any way (e.g. Rockies, Mets, Giants), so wouldn’t it be the Texas Texas rather than the Texas Texases? Then a single player would be described as a Texa.

    “This isn’t bumble bee Pirates in the 1979 World Series. That was the style then. This is just ridiculous. Lack of stirrups, pajama bottoms and look at me players nowadays are bad enough. Throw in softball tops and games of this importance become almost unwatchable.”

    That is precisely where you are wrong…this isn’t ridiculous…the lack of stirrups, pajama bottoms, and softball tops ARE the style NOW.

    I think it is ridiculous to dismiss it in the past as style and then say it is unacceptable now…times change as do styles and the styles are set by the players on the field not the guy at home watching.

    Do I personally like the alts? No…but I know a lot of MLB players who love them.

    Yup, things change.

    At one time, there were a whole lot of people who thought pulling stirrups high and showing little more than a ribbon of sock was sacrilege. Would practically go ballistic about it.

    And I had an old neighbor—a great baseball fan and genuinely funny guy, sometimes on purpose—who used to grumble that, “Ty Cobb managed to get 4,000 hits without batting gloves or any stripes on his shoes”
    (he used to show up here as Ol’ Eddie once in a while, btw).

    Now me, what I think is dumber than pajamas is the Barry Zito look…solid dark socks and stripes way up high. That’s soccer. Unless we believe the late ’20s and ’30s (when relatively few people ever actually saw MLB teams play) was the apex of stirrupdom, then Zito’s stripes ought to be positioned more to go ’round his shin, not his calf…be somewhat more centered in the vertical space between pants and shoetops; show some base color ABOVE the stripes, too. Any stripes at all aren’t automatically an improvement, that’s what I mean.

    But, you know what, I think it’s something I’m gonna have to get used to, because apparently quite a number of people think it looks good. And a lot of them play the game for a living. Or run it. I don’t do either.

    —Ricko

    This is my fist ever uni modification. I used the university at buffalo jerseys and created a black alternate. Take a look and let me know what you think!
    This is original the blue one-
    link
    Here is my new black one that i created
    link

    I thought michigan state’s sleeve stripe disaster was supposed to be green? it looks black on my tv at least.
    plus, the sleeve stripe, helmet, and numbers are three different shades.
    looks awful.

    Or are those shoulders some kind of dark gray (seeing as there’s that gray, or whatever, edge on the numbers)?

    Doesn’t matter. The point, I think, is that it doesn’t make sense that they don’t match the color of the numbers. Seeing as Michigan State’s colors are, after all, green and white. Not “green and white and gray or some kind of tan, and darker gray or black…and that swamp color of last year’s jerseys.”

    —Ricko

    Teams being outfitted by adidas (Notre Dame, UCLA, Michigan, et al.) have their coaches wearing PFPS (Pink for Pink’s Sake) trim on their caps and shirts.

    Yeah, yeah I know, breast cancer awareness, et al. And considering adidas is Reebok’s parent company and they’re doing it in the NFL…

    VIRGINIA at GEORGIA TECH (on ESPNU).

    Whoa, between the Cavalier pants and the Yellowjacket jerseys we’ve got some serious designer “These panels n’stripes n’shapes’ll automatically look good and be cool just because they’re new and different” goin’ on.

    Ramblin’ Wreck, indeed. The overall look of the game, I mean.

    —Ricko

    Saw a picture. From a distance it’s a nice colorful shot. But yeah, seeing those unis before I’m sure it’s a mess up close.

    In bar light she looked alright.
    In daylight she looked desperate.
    That’s alright, I was desperate too.
    I’m getting pretty sick of this interview.

    “I wake up next morning and I see,
    a snoring, painted up apparition
    lying next to me.”

    —Mac Davis

    “You’ve been drinking, haven’t you, Son?”
    “How do you know that, Officer?”
    “There’s a fat girl in the back seat.”

    —Larry the Cable Guy

    More softball unis with the Rays and Rangers: (
    Good thing there are a lot of college football games to divert my attention from the slow pitch, I mean MLB playoffs

    Can you imagine what Willie Mays would look like in the uni that the Giants were wearing last night?

    Can you imagine what Henry Aaron would look like in the uni that the Braves were wearing last night?

    “Can you imagine what Henry Aaron would look like in the uni that the Braves were wearing last night?”
    I don’t know, something like this?
    link

    Wasn’t Henry wearing a royal blue jersey when he tied the Babe at 714? Think so. Was in Cincinnati, I believe.

    Pretty sure 715 came after they returned home.

    —Ricko

    The Braves need to lose that road cap. It looks terrific in isolation, but it looks terrible with all of the red on the uni.

    I have trouble even watching the Braves when they wear that solid navy hat with the Gray jerseys.

    A great hat on its own, yes, and looked good with the uni it was designed for: the pins that debuted in, what, ’69?

    Said this before to make a comparison. If the Orioles came out in their road Grays wearing a solid black hat with nothing but a white “B”, wouldn’t most ANYBODY ask, “Shouldn’t there be some orange on that hat?”

    Or, put it this way, if looking at those Gray Braves uni through a camera that was out of focus, mightn’t they say, “Looks like a great, colorful Braves uni…but why are they wearing Yankee hats?”

    —Ricko

    See the Gators dressed like that and always remember QB Wayne Pease. Cuz always thought, “Oh, so close; too bad his first name isn’t ‘Warren’.”

    —Ricko

    He was a Tampa Bay Bandit, too.

    I think of Emmitt Smith and Kerwin Bell when I see the orange.

    Didn’t mean to say don’t remember those guys.
    But “Warren” Peace just creeps in there for me, too, that’s all.

    —Ricko

    I just meant meant the misspelling of “Pease” instead of “Peace” could have been because of Brent Pease.

    Or were you replying to Vilk?

    Whatever. You probably won’t read this anyway.

    I hate these comments.

    Too bad they did this against LSU. It would have bee nice to see against a team wearing something that contrasts will the orange a bit better.

    The jerseys are incorrect.
    One of the cool things about UFs uniforms, was the stripe continuity. No matter what color it was printed on, the stripe always went Orange/Blue/White/Blue/Orange (in theory the helmet is orange, so the outside orange stripe isnt visible)
    Take a look here: link
    You can still see the outside orange stripe, even on the orange pants here, and the stripe exactly matches the stripe on the white pants. Yet on the orange jerseys from tonight, they put an orange gap between the white an blue stripes.
    So not only does the stripe not follow the continuity, it doesnt even match the stripe on the helmet.

    THIS is what it should look like: link
    THIS is what we got: link

    Depends when we say “always” starts, I guess, because they aren’t that way on the Wayne Peace SI cover I posted above.

    Or did I misunderstand your description (which is entirely possible)?

    —Ricko

    Fair enough, I more or less meant when they switched to the current uniform design(which I have no idea when that would have been)

    kub is correct.
    Florida, better than any franchise, keeps continuity. The stripe system is perfect.

    I find it really amusing that you praise every college football game that does colour vs colour like it’s the best thing that could ever happen in the world.

    Two baseball teams come out wearing Orange and Blue, which couldn’t be confused by even the stupidest person in the world, and you act like it’s a cardinal sin.

    Which is it?

    On another note, those Atlanta blue jerseys are just plain awful. Numbers and logos just look like outlines, but that’s not my point.

    Let’s ban color vs. color in all sports. It looks awful no matter what the sport – and in baseball it IS a cardinal sin.

    Anybody else get the feeling that MLB’s marketing arm is making sure as many jerseys as possible get seen during the early rounds of the playoffs?

    —Ricko

    Ian, if you bothered to read Phil’s earlier comment (it’s the second of only two tan boxes in a sea of gray), you would find…aw heck, I’m just going to copy and paste it:

    “who said i like “color on color” football?

    while i do fancy a pastel versus dark solid (see: USC/UCLA) i HATE a, for example, blue on red

    i don’t say one team has to always wear white, but that doesn’t mean i have to see color on color by any means

    and baseball (like basketball and hockey) have different aesthetics than football

    what looks good on a baseball teams DOESN’T LOOK GOOD on a football team…it’s that simple

    please don’t put words into my mouth”

    just got back from the gathering…kinda small turnout, but good times good times…the jersey (with matching rups, dontcha know) was worn in honor of ricko

    anyway…i appreciate the feedback on the defense of the color vs color crap…i get it … i don’t like it you do

    but (and thanks to mr. vilk for posting my earlier quote)…where do you guys get that i like color vs color in football? on occasion, when one team is wearing say, a pastel or a gold (and i’ll even go so far as to say the seahawks snot green)…if the opponent is in a dark jersey (so it is color vs color) i will usually like that — i could even see tennessee in creamsickle versus say…penn state or some similarly dark attired team matching up well

    you want a litmus test for color on color? if you grab the image and turn it into a black and white — if the two teams in dark jerseys look similar…then i don’t like it…could be a dark blue vs a solid red — clearly there is plenty of color/hue differentiation, but not enough…what’s the word…not contrast…but two different color solids probably won’t look good in my book

    on another note

    rangers look good in their red (there i said it) but the rays failed by going with their dark blue. the game looked like shit

    twins also fail by wearing the dark alt (not because it’s an alt, per se) but because their new road uni is flat out gorgeous

    if you’re only going to get to wear your road uni one time in the playoffs, you should wear your official one

    When you’re talking about grayscale contrast, what you want to say is color value. For example, royal blue and fire engine red have the same color value.

    I was looking through the Uni Watch article on the ESPN site and noticed something unique about Chris Mason’s stick tape. You can clearly see the Thrashers logo across his stick tape. Not sure I’ve seen that before.

    link

    Depends. With his arm at his side it’s a wishbone.

    Like Northwestern’s “N” at midfield. Many people, on their first visit, ask, “Why they got a ‘Z’ on the field?”
    link

    :)

    well, crap. Supposed to say, “Many people, sitting in the endzones on their first visit…”

    I meant, are Mormons allowed to get tattoos? A lot of religions, including mine, consider it a sin under the heading of “body as a temple,” and I’ve been led to believe a lot of their dietary restrictions are from that, so a tattoo seems unusual.

    The best part is Jonathan Quick’s pseudold-school gear.

    Too bad Luongo didn’t play along. Prick.

    Yep. Looks like Rogie Vachon out there.

    I hope LA has a moment (like buffalo, Washington, Vancouver) where they realize their original looks were just about perfect and they go back to that look permanently.

    I think if LA’s going back to a look, it’s going to be more of a Gretzky-era thing.

    Although, I could see them doing that with a purple & gold throwback alt thrown in for good measure.

    I’d be happy with that.

    Not fair. How freakin’ sweet would a NNOB Habs barberpole have been?
    That being said, this game looks so great, I’m struggling to remind myself that the EDGE templates are hidden in there somewhere.

    Yeah. That Edge thing. I really don’t mind it — especially now that teams seem to be getting the message that it isn’t necessary to do link with the template just because you can.

    Yeah, but what’s the explanation for Atlanta’s socks? (Other than they’d probably sell big at the Official Hannah Montana website, of course).

    —Ricko

    No self-respecting Hannah Montana fan would wear that crap.

    And the “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should do it” philosophy applies equally to jerseys and socks.

    Makes the schimmels (those “cutoff” jerseys) of the ’80s look pretty good by comparison, doesn’t it.

    —Ricko

    Always preferred those circa 1983 Nebraska jerseys minus the stripes, but with the “N” on both sleeves.

    Let’s hope for THE Yale University.

    Then people can react, “There’s an Ale university? Cool. Bet they have some great parties there.”

    —Ricko

    Someone needs to be keeping track of what the Horned Frogs are wearing every week. They did get new purple & white jerseys this year, and of course had the black pro combats they wore against VT. But today, against Wyoming, they wore LAST YEARS purple pro combat jerseys, w/ the current helmet and black pants.

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