DrDre

yotsuya said:

Ah… searching for more pics led to this - http://cdn.moviestillsdb.com/sm/ba5c5aacb00c284692aa349bb8006836/star-wars.jpg

I’d say this is an ideal image for the Tatooine desert/R2-D2/C-3PO colors and the skin tones (though they are hard to see they are reddish and consistent with the blistering temps in Tunesia).

The problem is that the Tatooine desert has a different color depending on location, time of day, and weather conditions, and can range from more yellow, more red and brown. I’ve watched hundreds of production photos, and there’s something unique in all of them.

NeverarGreat said:

That Tarkin shot looks to be as close to perfect as I can find, with perhaps a bit too much teal in the grays. However the skin tones look good, and the olive of his uniform is good.

Thanks! I will reduce the teal in the grays, but I’m happy with the rest.

clutchins said:

I think there’s still a bit of magenta noise on Cushing’s face.

This is not magenta noise. It is supposed to be present. Although the magenta was too apparent in earlier iterations, Peter Cushing had very thin skin, resulting in magenta blodges on his face, especially around the eyes:

Here’s an updated color grading for the Tarkin shot:

Let’s take a look at the Owen/C-3PO color grading of three official releases and the regrade.

Bluray:

JSC:

GOUT:

Bluray regraded:

The bluray has the most issues, especially considering the time it was made, ranging from a host of color artifacts (green C-3PO, blue on the sandcrawler, ultra-blue R2-D2, where his dome has a green hue, very dark skinned Owen, unnatural brightness and contrast). The JSC is too red, with R2-D2 almost purple, C-3PO too orange, the sand too red, and Owen red faced. The GOUT looks reasonable for this shot, but I feel the regrade, which is based on the Technicolor print scan, and a number of other references, is the most natural looking by far.

Spaced Ranger said:

Would this help (click picture for full size)?

Certainly! It looks like a good quality production photo.

The bluray certainly is the worst color reference to use, as it was heavily altered when it was digitally color graded to fit GL’s vision. There literally is nothing authentic in the bluray color grading, as it was scanned directly from the negative and completely regraded. The GOUT, just like any of the laserdisc masters was also regraded, where the brightness and contrast were adjusted on a scene by scene basis to fit the low contrast medium they were made for, so they do not correctly represent the variation in the grading between scenes. Take the JSC, where the R2 canyon scene was noticably brighter than on any print scans we’ve seen. The Technicolor print scans are definitely the most accurate source for both the colors and luminosity, despite the problems of green shifts and other issues that we know of.

The magenta and green blotches in the Tarkin frame are artifacts that are being corrected as I’m writing this. Many of the Tatooine are preliminary. The only gradings the are close to finished are on the first page.

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.

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

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:

yotsuya said:

I believe that the features officers in ANH have the same color uniform as those in TESB and ROTJ. There are other uniforms as well, tan, white, black, but the top people all seem to have the same greenish uniform. When I color correct ANH for other things, Tarkin’s uniform takes on a similar color to the Admirals from TESB. And the difference in uniforms in that pic above is only lighting. Those are the same color uniforms for the old and new Admirals.

I’m not entirely sure. I think for TESB at least some of the officer uniforms were updated, with different ensignia, and a more bluish green atire, as is evident on the above photo. Left the ANH colors, right TESB’s update.

Williarob has tested a LUT in AE, and it works. Thanks Williarob!

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

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

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

Here’s a debugged version of the ColorCorrect tool v2.2. The exported LUT should now work in both Davinci Resolve and Adobe After Effects. I’ve tested the LUT in Davinci Resolve, and it works fine. After Effects uses a specific format for LUTs, which luckily also still works in Resolve, so it’s a single LUT for both programs. Here’s the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8_LYKyZDiajS3ZLb090U3pqSGM/view?usp=sharing

Edit: for some reason the old version was uploaded before. This should be the correct version.

Here’s the final shot of the film.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Actually, it was NeverarGreat, who did a great job recovering those colors 😃.

pittrek said:

The diner scenes look great, the 3PO shot still looks a bit too green.

It needs a bit of fine tuning, but I think this is much better:

Here’s an update of the Owen and C-3PO shot.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Here are updated regrades for two of the Tatooine frames, with a little less saturation.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Spaced Ranger said:

Wazzles said:
Maybe that’s why Owen looks so off to me. Could you try it on that shot at the dinner table?

Sure! With the same settings . .

.

@ DrDre

While doing the above, I tried different instances of JPEG-DNR: 1 application on “high”; 4 repeat applications on “low”; a split-RGB application – RED on low, GREEN on normal, BLUE on high (for progressively worse damage). Unfortunately, all the instances looked identical when inspecting pixels at high magnification.

Thanks for the integer/double explanation. In reconsideration of color-depth, although it’s good for number precision, it would be a lost cause due to down-rez rounding or truncation that would lose most or all that pixel precision anyway.

Rather, how about the resolution approach? If resolution were doubled (not pixel-doubling, but a standard averaging [not “smart resize”] for minimal processing to the original pixels), the new pixels between the original pixels would better catch your color regrade. Then, on downsizing, that new pixel information would distributed into the neighboring, original pixels. (If that would prove workable but insufficient, various resizers could be tested for both up-rez & down-rez to a best result.)

Here’s a test using that approach – with JPEG Artifact Remover on “maxium”, and using weighted average for both up and down resizing . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . color regrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . with up-rez / JPEG-DNR max / down-rez

See how this up-rez/down-rez method keeps more detail, even at the highest DNR setting, than the previous, direct application at the next lower DNR setting.

(Note that the original Blu-ray has R/G/B-crush on this shot, which results in only the red showing in the beard shadow, looking quite flat. Also, a DNR-pass [a la Spaced Ranger?] on the Blu-ray to reduce or eliminate those anomalies will prevent your regrade-pass from bringing them out even stronger.)

Thanks for all that work! I will try to incorporate the DNR pass or something similar in the workflow. It does look better, with less artifacts.

dlvh said:

Welcome YveX.

DrDre said:

I’ve updated the color grading on this shot, inspired by Darth Lucas’s grading, that I really like:

Looks nice…a little more contrast?, more Red? and the sky is a nicer Blue, than in some earlier posts:

Did you also turn up the Saturation a bit as well?

Yes, I played around with a bunch of settings, so in the end I increased the contrast and saturation somewhat. The blue sky indeed looks better 😃. I still think it needs a little work, though. There are some artifacts, and it misses the film still quality, that some of the others have.

I’ve updated the color grading on this shot, inspired by Darth Lucas’s grading, that I really like:

YevX said:

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12791022_825196214273563_2433081683097304593_n.jpg?oh=3e87cd9050da692565e44639556284b3&oe=57664629

gotta love the colors on this one!
by the way, im new, hi

Welcome! Nice still!

Lol 😄