Yes, 16 images have 25 million pixels for each color channel, which is too large.
Damn. What would be the maximum amount of images I could use then?
I think 10 is the max at 1080p, assuming you remove the black bars. Like Harmy said, you can reduce the size of the original frames, before reading them in the tool.
I just used your tool for the first time to try to remove the teal tint of the AOTC blu-ray by comparing it to the DVD and I’m amazed! It worked great on my first try and it looks sooo much better.
But since this is not intended as a perfect color grading for AOTC but just a quick edit for my personal viewing at home, I figured that I don’t want to do the correction scene by scene or even shot by shot. So I took multiple frames, placed them next to each other in one image and tried to compare them. That worked quite well when taking four screenshots (thus creating a 4k image), but when I took 16 the progress bar of the progress bar did not move at all. Is that because I gave up too soon or is there some kind of image size limit?
Yes, 16 images have 25 million pixels for each color channel, which is too large.
As for the LPP regrade, the opening shot is pretty challenging, but with a little work some nice detail on the sky can be recovered.
DVD:
WOWOW:
WOWOW regraded:
Perhaps odd question - I remember reading a while back that you were choosing between RGB and CMYK for balancing. Would there be a way to balance to both, so that the colors are adjusted by 6 offset variables instead of 3?
The balancing is done in the RGB color space. Earlier I used the CMYK color space, because I erroneously assumed this was the relevant color space for film. It is possible to balance in multiple color spaces, but I haven’t really looked into this.
If I use this on transformers, will hot rod become red again? Instead of pink?
If you have a DVD reference with good colors, sure…
A public question to Dr. Dre or anybody of the beta testers of the tool - in December a new box set will be released containing various clips containing alternate / deleted scenes etc. of classic Star Trek.
2 clips have been released on the official CBS youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzwp4nr5zcs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JINWsaK0QM8The footage will not be restored and as seen in the clips it’s mostly red faded. Could somebody please try the tool on some randomly chosen faded pictures from the youtube vids?
Here you go:
Which of the DVD or LPP is more accurate to the original presentation?
Is there a benefit to one over the other that I’m missing that warrants two regrading projects for Raiders?
I’m just curious is all 😄
The LPP is more accurate to the original presentation, but since
theatrical prints of the other two entries in the trilogy are not yet available, I will use the DVDs to create better versions for those. To keep things consistent colorwise in terms of the trilogy, I decided to also do Raiders. Plus, the DVD color grading looks really good.
Thanks! They do look similar to the 35mm. The colors look very natural.
Here’s an example of the amount of detail, that can be retrieved by the color matching algorithm from a source suffering from blownout highlights, by matching the bluray to the DVD.
Bluray:
Bluray regraded:
Dre, any idea why the framing is a little different in the WOWOW compared to the LPP? More specifically in this?
The framing is always a little different, even in theatre projections. The bluray for example has a very different framing from the WOWOW.
Looks better, quite good in fact. If details can be retrieved from within the blacks they are per definition NOT crushed, though. I believe the black level on these films was deliberately set to hide the garbage mattes as much as possible.
Indeed, true black crush implies the details are lost. There are only 256 possible intensities for each color channel for 8 bit color. The original film has a practically infinite number of intensities. If you crush the blacks, it means that you adjust the color curves to such an extend that dark colors all have such low value on the intensity scale, that in the 8 bit color space they all become 0 or black. Additionally, even detail that is still slightly visible, will not be fully resolved, resulting in steep color gradients/artifacts, if you attempt to retrieve detail.
Yes, I guess the compression artifacts are something we’ll just have to live with. Here’s an improved version of that shot:
I personally feel the compression artifacts of the WOWOW are less of an issue than the washed out detail of the bluray.
While I sympathise with the sentiment, there are a number reasons, I won’t be doing this:
DrDre said:
WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:
There’s an awful lot of artifacting in this one. Is there some way top avoid that?
Artifacting in what sense? Both the 35mm and the WOWOW are pretty noisy for this frame, and there’s a lot of color noise too. The foreground noise has been increased somewhat, while the background noise has decreased. I could use the bluray for this shot, which has much less noise, but also somewhat less detail.
WOWOW matched to 35mm:
Bluray matched to 35mm:
It doesn’t look like grain to me, It looks pixelated. It doesn’t quite look like compression artifacts to me, but it also doesn’t look right.
It can be improved somewhat:
Some of it is grain, but there are also compression artifacts in the WOWOW, as it is more compressed than the bluray (for example the sky in the original WOWOW frame). Some of these are made less visible in the regrade, while others are made more visible. I think this regraded frame looks pretty descent, considering the increase in brightness. For example, the sky looks much better for the regrade. The only alternative is to use the bluray, but I’m not too keen on mixing WOWOW frames with bluray frames, as the difference between the two is quite jarring, so you either go all wow or all blu.
Your regrade mildly adhusted.
The yellow I think is correct don’t fight it. Blue might be the problem. At the end of the day do what you like. I have no objections to the color. But this I think might be closer to what it is “Meant to look like” taking in to account the problem with the dark grain and how it’s smearing the wall blue. It might also mean this guy has a grey jacket too 😃
Just trying to be helpful. I am not asking you to change it.
It’s fine 😉. As there’s blue in the walls for the entire scene, I believe at least some of the blue should be there, and I also agree with litemkr, that the jacket should have some blue also. As it is really difficult to objectively assess what colors should be there, and what colors shouldn’t, I will stick with this 35mm, until another 35mm shows otherwise.
I think I know what might (?) be happening although your color match program is very very good. It is sampling the dark grain in the shadow and throwing off the sample in a sense.
Making the the regrade slightly darker in the dark areas. As the 35mm has lot’s of dark speckles in the white. This is obviously sampled and throwing it off. As the WOWWOW HDTV version has no dark grain speckles.
It’s possible, but when I directly compare the regrade and the print, I personally don’t see that the dark areas are darker for the regrade. There’s also bright noise in the shadows on the print, so that should even things out in terms of the noise. What I did notice, is that there’s also a slight blue cast on the left side of the frame for the print.
Not really misunderstanding but Would all prints have the yellow noise then?
Or just the particular 35mm print? Or Is it 2 different transfers from the same print?
I think it would be present in all prints. You can see the same yellow noise for the DVD, which is based on a scan of an interpositive:
The WOWOW suffers less from the color noise, so a color noise filter may have been applied.
It’s a shadow… But I like the color and I know you are trying to match 2 different transfers as the same color.
All I am saying is, it is giving you a clue what that is meant to look like. And weather you want to pay any attention to small little things like that. It will give you more information about what the film is “Meant to look like”
weather the 35mm looks like that or not is another matter. All I am saying is it’s a clue. No problems with what you are doing, and I am far from an expert but that for me is a indicator.
It’s a key to a door.
Well, there’s two things. I did notice some artifacts in the first regrade, that were fixed in the second regrade, including some yellow artifacts.
Some of the yellow staining appears to me to be color noise, which is present in the print and to a lesser degree for the WOWOW. It is therefore more than likely the staining is present on the negative as well, and therefore as “ugly” as it may be, it is actually supposed to be there.
In either case, the project objective is to match this particular print. However, if I’m misunderstanding your point, please let me know.
Contrast issue top left corner.
That now will give you the variance as the 35mm does not exhibit this problem. It’s shot’s like this that give you the answers to the problems. Although I only adjusted the brightness and contrast yellow starts to creep in.
I have to agree with bkev. The staining is in both the 35mm and the WOWOW, but more so in the 35mm due to the higher contrast. I think the regrade shows that as well. I made a slight adjustment to remove artifacts visible for the first regrade, which includes some of the yellow staining you mentioned, but it comes out looking pretty similar:
DrDre said:
WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:
There’s an awful lot of artifacting in this one. Is there some way top avoid that?
Artifacting in what sense? Both the 35mm and the WOWOW are pretty noisy for this frame, and there’s a lot of color noise too. The foreground noise has been increased somewhat, while the background noise has decreased. I could use the bluray for this shot, which has much less noise, but also somewhat less detail.
WOWOW matched to 35mm:
Bluray matched to 35mm:
Hitler is a nut on the subject also on the 35mm LPP! This is another example, where the LPP colors and brightness are slightly different, on the left side of the frame, compared to the right side.
35mm LPP:
WOWOW:
WOWOW matched to 35mm:
Hitler is a nut on the subject!
DVD:
WOWOW:
WOWOW matched to DVD:
These digging shots are difficult to regrade, because color, brightness, and contrast varies somewhat across the frame, but we’re getting there…
35mm LPP:
WOWOW:
WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:
That’s a really great result Williarob! I was hoping this would be possible, and I’m glad you were able to show it. 😃 There’s also suprisingly little artifacts, and like you said, it’s a very clean print.
