The goal in preservation grading isn’t to “reimagine” the look—it’s to remove unnatural fade and leave the rest intact. Stocks have characteristic shifts: Fuji often pushes green/blue; ’70s Eastman tends toward pink/red; Eastman LPP can skew yellow, etc. Identify the stock’s bias, correct the fade, and avoid heavy-handed regrading. In most cases the original color information is still there; outside of minor trims, you don’t need to reinvent it.

On RAWs: nobody is obligated to hand over source files. A single project here can be 3–4 TB. That’s not practical to pass around, and there’s no ethical requirement to do so.

Pre-scan cleaning matters. Older prints often carry projector oil and residue; if you don’t remove it, you’ll see micro-weave and odd background movement that has nothing to do with the scanner.

A lot of the leaks I’ve seen don’t look like true RAW workflows. And when RAW is used, you can tell some folks are unsure how to bring a flat log image to a proper film-density target—the result stays dull and under-shaped.

Our baseline: RAW, 16-bit, 6K, ISO 200, camera set as flat/log as possible. Exports: ProRes 4444 (HQ) at 6000×4000. I’ve used JPEG 2000 before, but it doesn’t offer the same latitude as RAW for nuanced control. For DCPs, we’re careful to avoid crushed blacks or blown highlights—aiming for a projection-accurate look without introducing “projector flicker” artifacts.

Reference: https://x.com/NCseventeen/status/1956399052423147697