Star Wars Trilogy SE bluray color regrade (a WIP) — Page 10

DrDre said:
Bluray regraded:

This looks better. He looks less painted and less flat.

Here’s the final shot of the film.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

I’ve finally settled on a grading for the Owen/C-3PO shot:

Here’s a regraded shot of one of the great Star Wars villains.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

LOVE that Tarkin shot.

I really like how distinct it is from the Blu-ray it is. However, I think you have taken some of the shots too far. I know you are using reference shots but I think the reference shot have their own issues. I’m sticking with the GOUT and the LD’s as the closest we have to the original palet (telecined from Lucasfilm’s pristine print) and I found that if I layer the blu-ray and your color correction that it lands right where I think the colors should be. At least for the Tatooine scenes. I can’t see much wrong with the throne room shot.

And these are spot on for where I am right now trying to color correct them. I have by BR ANH color correction very close so I’m trying to bring the GOUT in line (which requires subtle tweaking) and then I am going to work on some of the troublesome scenes that I think Lucasfilm tinkered with in the HD master. I’m not after a 100% match, just close. These images are pretty on target for where I think these scenes should be.

DrDre said:

I’ve finally settled on a grading for the Owen/C-3PO shot:

I like it…although, I hate to beat this picture up, but isn’t there still some Magenta in Owen’s tunic where his sleeve starts, and isn’t Luke’s hand quite pink.

I again tinkered, and came up with this to try and get rid of those things:

Opinions…either good or bad?

Harmy said:

I’m sorry, but to me that Tarkin shot looks bad. It’s too dark, over-saturated and his face is splotchy.
I took the BD screenshot and this is what I came up with after a quick Photoshop adjustment:

For comparison, here are the images posted by Dre:

I’ve got to agree with Harmy here. DrDre’s adjustment of Peter Cushing looks way too dark, and has too much contrast to it, look at the lights in the background in his versus Harmy’s, and the shadow of Cushing on the chair, is no where to be found on DrDre’s version.

Also…the color of Cushing’s uniform is more in-line on Harmy’s edit.

Yeah, I agree.

Too contrasty in Dre’s. The background isn’t visible, and the lines on his face are too dark. I know Tarkin’s skin probably varies a lot depending on his scene and makeup, but the pinkness around his eyes just looks too intense.

dlvh said:

DrDre said:

I’ve finally settled on a grading for the Owen/C-3PO shot:

I like it…although, I hate to beat this picture up, but isn’t there still some Magenta in Owen’s tunic where his sleeve starts, and isn’t Luke’s hand quite pink.

I again tinkered, and came up with this to try and get rid of those things:

Opinions…either good or bad?

Well, it looks like you’ve made the sky more teal and it might be getting too bright. The hand is perhaps a little pink in Dre’s. But not bad. Perhaps the overall saturation could take a slight decrease. But I feel like he got the levels balanced the best (so far) in his attempt.

towne32 said:

dlvh said:

DrDre said:

I’ve finally settled on a grading for the Owen/C-3PO shot:

I like it…although, I hate to beat this picture up, but isn’t there still some Magenta in Owen’s tunic where his sleeve starts, and isn’t Luke’s hand quite pink.

I again tinkered, and came up with this to try and get rid of those things:

Opinions…either good or bad?

Well, it looks like you’ve made the sky more teal and it might be getting too bright. The hand is perhaps a little pink in Dre’s. But not bad. Perhaps the overall saturation could take a slight decrease. But I feel like he got the levels balanced the best (so far) in his attempt.

Thanks…edit:

Not that it matters, but here’s an adjustment of the Tarkin shot I did in Photoshop. I labor no delusions of this being accurate, but to my flawed eyes, it looks good.

Darth Lucas said:

Not that it matters, but here’s an adjustment of the Tarkin shot I did in Photoshop. I labor no delusions of this being accurate, but to my flawed eyes, it looks good.

I see no difference, other than a slight decrease in saturation, but then again, I’m older than most of you folks here.

dlvh said:

Darth Lucas said:

Not that it matters, but here’s an adjustment of the Tarkin shot I did in Photoshop. I labor no delusions of this being accurate, but to my flawed eyes, it looks good.

I see no difference, other than a slight decrease in saturation, but then again, I’m older than most of you folks here.

Funny considering this was done entirely with curves adjustments and there is no change in saturation whatsoever.

EDIT: You probably interpret this as a decrease in saturation based on my correcting the shot based on the assumption that the lights are white and the walls are grey. You can see the result of this by the fact there there is now more red and less green in Tarkin’s uniform and face compared to DrDre and Harmy’s corrections.

DrDre said:

Here’s a regraded shot of one of the great Star Wars villains.

Bluray regraded:

I’m in agreement that the brightness can come up a hair to reveal more detail in Vader but I think the colors are spot on. His face isn’t suffering from the “Tarkin green splotches” I’ve seen, and the uniform looks like the right shade of green.

Darth Lucas said:

dlvh said:

Darth Lucas said:

Not that it matters, but here’s an adjustment of the Tarkin shot I did in Photoshop. I labor no delusions of this being accurate, but to my flawed eyes, it looks good.

I see no difference, other than a slight decrease in saturation, but then again, I’m older than most of you folks here.

Funny considering this was done entirely with curves adjustments and there is no change in saturation whatsoever.

EDIT: You probably interpret this as a decrease in saturation based on my correcting the shot based on the assumption that the lights are white and the walls are grey. You can see the result of this by the fact there there is now more red and less green in Tarkin’s uniform and face compared to DrDre and Harmy’s corrections.

Now that you write it, and I look at it with a fine-tooth comb, I can just barely see a difference. I like both yours and Harmys, but I see Harmys has more saturation in Vader’s belts green lights.

Told you that I’m getting old, and the eyes are the first thing to go, in some people…lol

I probably overdid the contrast and saturation for the Tarkin shot, but imo the other corrections lack depth, and Tarkin’s face lacks definition. In addition I think Peter Cushing’s hair wasn’t as grey as these corrections suggest. I’ve redone the regrade, and here’s my second attempt.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

I think this still from what appears to be a Technicolor print probably captures what the Tarkin shots should look like imo (aside from too mucg green), and which ended up being the main reference source for my latest regrade:

Bluray regraded:

In think each frame needs a certain amount of depth for the shot to be photorealistic. There sometimes is a tendency to try to keep too much shadow detail at the expense of that elusive photorealism. This is another reason, why I always start the regrading process, by matching the bluray to a film still or print scan, to try to recover the depth, that originally was an integral part of the shot, like color nuances that are in the actor’s faces. These color nuances add a sense of realism to each frame, that’s completely missing from the bluray, and very difficult to recover manually imo.

I agree with Harmy that my first attempt was subpar in many ways, but I think the next comparison of his adjustment in photoshop, and my second attempt, reveals there are more color nuances hidden in the bluray frame, waiting to be recovered 😉:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/164820

yotsuya said:

I really like how distinct it is from the Blu-ray it is. However, I think you have taken some of the shots too far. I know you are using reference shots but I think the reference shot have their own issues. I’m sticking with the GOUT and the LD’s as the closest we have to the original palet (telecined from Lucasfilm’s pristine print) and I found that if I layer the blu-ray and your color correction that it lands right where I think the colors should be. At least for the Tatooine scenes. I can’t see much wrong with the throne room shot.

And these are spot on for where I am right now trying to color correct them. I have by BR ANH color correction very close so I’m trying to bring the GOUT in line (which requires subtle tweaking) and then I am going to work on some of the troublesome scenes that I think Lucasfilm tinkered with in the HD master. I’m not after a 100% match, just close. These images are pretty on target for where I think these scenes should be.

I always use multiple sources for the regrade, mostly relying on print scans, and still frames, but also the home video releases at times, but I wouldn’t trust the GOUT as a color reference. It was made when the original negative and the interpositives were in very poor shape, and it obviously suffers from the typical 1990s pink/reddish skin tones. Although it is the version of Star Wars many of us remember, I doubt it looked like that in theatres in 1977.