[Idea] Computer Chronicles: 35th Anniversary Edition

[BronzeTitan]

Would also put up the original pre-color-corrected frames of these?

I like the first "green" ones in the lighter areas (which look nicely saturate and natural) but not in the darker areas (which look like the green TLOTR recolor -- sorry PJ).

[Koopa Luath]

Gladly! Here's all three versions of the same frame together.

The first is the pre-corrected frame, from the original raw source.
The second is the initial correction, which looks as green as the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray.
The third is the current version, which tones the green down a fair bit.

[BronzeTitan]

Thanks! While waiting, I worked off of the green frame. I liked the direction of the skin tone that was missing from the green-reduction frame.

The whole idea (and this can be applied directly to the original frame) is for rich skin color, setting whites to whites (papers on desk, white shirt) with R=G=B on the high end, setting blacks to black (black belts) with R=G=B on the low end, and grays to gray (if you can find any) again with R=G=B. Then tweak the mid-area with gamma and contrast settings. Always refer back to the skin color to keep it nice and rich.

Do not crush blacks (0) or blow-out whites (255). If needs be, compress the spectrum to the standard 16 to 236 before you start color correction and maintain it throughout. (I only mentioned this because the desk front edge was 0,0,0 in the green frame.)

Here's what I came up with (I'm not using a calibrated monitor so forgive any overall tint):

. . and these are my settings (the yellow highlighted are changed from default values):

[Koopa Luath]

What's the name of the app you did it with? And is it possible to use the same on videos, as with still images?

[BronzeTitan]

Nothing special, just a old paint program that I use for "proof-of-concept" tests. Other programs (speaking video now) should have equivalent functions to it. I haven't used any except Avisynth (it's a horse of a different color, though). The thing is ... I hate "real" video programs with their "dials" and "sliders". Give me (dare I demand?) the precision of typing in numbers! Of course, if they have number entry (or number-feedback dials & sliders), I'd use those. 

I'm guessing that one color-correction setting on a representative frame should be good for the entire video. If there's an oddly-lit shot, that would get an extra tweaking.

[Koopa Luath]

Well, anyway, after some more fiddling around in DaVinci Resolve, this is what I came up with, through a gamma of Y0.00/R0.10/G-0.04/B0.15, shadows of R0.16/G-0.07/B0.23, and midtones of R-0.12/G0.04/B-0.08. I'm pretty sure Stewart Cheifet's gray blazer looks more gray this time around, at least. What do you think? (BTW I used the color bar set in the top-right section of the below image to produce my LUT before doing any correction in Resolve, which may explain why the blacks appear to look excessively black; I was trying to go for a good Rec. 709 look. Perhaps I should've gone with a different color bars image when recoloring that slate at the start for the LUT?)

[BronzeTitan]

Yes, the gray jacket is more gray now. Can you keep that while pulling the purple out of the off-white jacket like I (mostly) did?

BTW, I also grabbed the most recent beta of DaVinci Resolve. I really want try it, but am ambivalent of those dial & sliders.     Besides, I want to input 8-bit video and it won't accept it, natively. Gr-r-r-r . . .

[Koopa Luath]

OK, I think this should look better. I changed the gamma here to Y0.00/R0.10/G-0.03/B0.05. How's it look now?

[BronzeTitan]

That removes some, but there remains allot of purple. Maybe it shows more because of it's higher contrast and overall darker picture.

I tried a test color-correct of the original frame and it was so much easier than from the green frame. A different end result, though. That must mean whatever technique DaVinci Resolve is using, it's changing areas that don't need changing. However, I did add my paint program's Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment to pump up the saturation while being sure to keep that nice skin color of which I want:

I don't suppose you've come across any color, publicity stills of the show? That would help as a color target.

[Koopa Luath]

Not that I can think of, no.