I've had the great fortune to help him on a good many projects, including the colorization of old black and white photos. Believe me when I tell you, there are no shortcuts to this.
Of course, the better the photo to start with, the better the finished results.
Here's a before and after of Honus Wagner who played mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1897 and 1917.
Yep, I'm still doing lots of designing for my fabrics collections at Modern Yardage, but fill up every minute with whatever I can to have an income as a graphic designer.