Star Wars 1977 Technicolor IB print color references (matched to print) — Page 2

But shouldn’t the projected film on the screen of a theater be more contrasty and saturated than the frame watched under sun light ?

I have to say I prefer age’s version (as a final grading at least, perhaps you first want to have a representation of the frames in neutral conditions to work on it).

Not really. The idea of projection is just passing light through a frame, just like the sun light. We’re so used to pumping up contrast and saturation, that actual film looks dull by comparison. We also let ourselves be guided by photographs of a screening, which by nature are more contrasty than the original photography. Nothing is set in stone, and this thread is mostly about the hues, but it’s good to have a discussion about contrast and saturation, because the first thing I noticed when I recieved the frames, is that contrast and saturation looked very natural, and photographic.

I’m sorry and you’re right : there’s no reason for certain parts of the frame to be darker under projector’s light than under sun light. But I assume the fact that the room is dark makes we see the film more bright and colorful, no ? That’s also why OLED screens give the illusion of incredible colours. In fact, if your frame of the (correct) scan of it was projected in a dark room, what we see would be close to the senator photographs ?

Here’s a photograph I took of my computer screen:

You will note, that not only are the colors not completely representative of the actual film, but the contrast and saturation has also increased, not unlike the Senator screening photographs. The hue, contrast and saturation of the Senator photographs are therefore not representative of the original photography, or what could actually be seen on the projection screen, just like my photo is not representative of what’s on my computer screen. 😉

I think every digital camera, scanner and even the hdr cameras works in the same way.
An untouched raw file from camera or scanner is in linear light:
1)this is what camera see, in this stage is applied the corrections from the it8 target.
after scanning something you can output a linear file untouched

2)then this file need a gamma correction,yor scan DrDre is in this stage and probably silverfast makes his own adjustement for maximize the information in both shadow and highlight,this stage is good only for archival purpose and it is not really rapresentative of the original photography.
for example in silverfast you can choose the gamma correction (they call it gamma gradation) to use, you should insert the value of 2.20 because is the one used by all monitors and more “human friendly” :

3)finally the file need some contrast adjustment, every jpeg from camera or every raw editing software or scanning software apply a “base curve”, and this is what the human eyes see more or less, i know this is the more creative part of the process but is necessary

from your first scan:-)

DrDre said:

I decided to go for an alternate gamma correction, as the previous one seems a little too contrasty and saturated, compared to the actual frames, and less representative of the actual photography:

Raw scans:

Gamma corrected scans:

Something about what you did here has changed the nature of the colors. There is a distict magenta increase, most notable in the brightest and darkest colors. The untouched version seems more natural. When I did a color overlay of the original image and the new one (so only the colors varies, not the brightness or contrast), in the area just above Darth Vader’s belt where he is standing next to Tarkin, the average RBG color is 15, 15, 17 with the old colors and the new one is 21, 9, 21. That doesn’t look like you just changed the gamma.

I altered the file I have on imgur at work. Not the raw file I have at home, so that should account for the difference.

age said:

I think every digital camera, scanner and even the hdr cameras works in the same way.
An untouched raw file from camera or scanner is in linear light…

I will try setting the gamma gradation to 2.2, and 2.4 in Silverfast (the default value is 2.0, which is probably what I’ve used, apparently the appropriate value for HD is 2.4, and 2.6 for digital cinema), but having examined the frames themselves, I think your correction is a little strong on contrast and saturation. The contrast and saturation closely match the Senator photos, but photographs of a projection enhance contrast, so I’m pretty confident contrast and saturation should be reduced. To be continued…

DrDre said:

age said:

I think every digital camera, scanner and even the hdr cameras works in the same way.
An untouched raw file from camera or scanner is in linear light…

I will try setting the gamma gradation to 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6 in Silverfast (the default value is 2.0, which is probably what I’ve used, apparently the appropriate value for HD is 2.4, and 2.6 for digital cinema), but having examined the frames themselves, I think your correction is a little strong on contrast and saturation. The contrast and saturation closely match the Senator photos, but photographs of a projection enhance contrast, so I’m pretty confident contrast and saturation should be reduced. To be continued…

Ok thanks and yes it’s true, i have enhanced a bit too much brightness and contrast.

I’ve altered the settings of the software that operates the scanner. I’ve scanned three frames, and they look absolutely fantastic. Tomorrow I will finish the rest, and I will post them. 😃

DrDre said:

I’ve altered the settings

I pray you don’t alter them any further

DrDre said:

I’ve altered the settings of the software that operates the scanner. I’ve scanned three frames, and they look absolutely fantastic. Tomorrow I will finish the rest, and I will post them. 😃

Can’t wait 😃
I think scanning a film is not simply and there’s not a one click solution, so take your time DrDre and thanks for the hard work!!

Nice view from your window Age ! 😉

UnitéD2 said:

Nice view frome your window Age ! 😉

Ahahah yes it is 😄

Here are two sets of frames scanned with the new settings:

Here’s another test set with different settings. I think I prefer the previous settings with a slightly lower saturation. Perhaps some of you here can optimize the contrast/brightness/black levels/white levels, using this example, which contains both dark and bright shots:

Please don’t correct the frames individually, but as a set, and also don’t adjust the color channels individually. Once we’ve settled on the preferred post-processing, I will render the final versions using these preferences, and the raw versions with the aforementioned settings.

There is no try !

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/211390

Nice, UnitéD2!

Here’s my try, then maybe i will try with less pushed white

Edit v2

Here’s my own interpretation:

DrDre said:

Here’s my own interpretation:

I really like this one DrDre!

Here are the first set of completed scans for a variety of scenes: