I have always wondered why people do not use the photos in the 1978 Star Wars Storybook for reference when doing color corrections . https://www.starwars.com/news/parenting-padawans-5-reasons-vintage-star-wars-storybooks-stand-the-test-of-time
Because those are production photos, not film stills.
^ really , they look like photos from the film , it even says full color photos from the film . although there is one in there that has Vader without his cape while " sensing a presence " that was probably a still . These pictures are very much the way I remember the film looking in the theater . I think some may be production photos but not all , but I have no proof , do you ?
From the film means from the movie, not the actual film print itself. Very few images before the 90s were actual screenshots because you couldn’t make a “screenshot” before computers. This applies to all movies, pretty much none of the images are film stills but production photos. Only some effect shots were used as promotional material, like DS trench. I have the production photo catalogues and they are all from them.