Tweet
OK, this is no doubt, not a new subject for this forum, but it may be the for this new forum, so I’ll continue.
As a film collector, it can be very hard to know good color when you see it on ebay or elsewhere. Recently, I just bought a 16MM commercial, and from the screenshots, the color looked about 90 or more percent good.
When I received it, I had a definite Kodak SP browning to the print with, perhaps 50 percent color.
Agravating …
… but it can be even more difficult. I have been looking for a good color print of “Gorky park” (an optical sound feature that has notoriously had bad to only so-so color from my experience). Now, when I saw this UK auction, I was pleased to see actual strips of the film, optical track included, and it appeared to have OK color. I blew up the screenshots to really scrutinize it further, not for clarity of image (as, of course, the more you blow up the photo, the more digitized the image becomes), but it appeared that the print looked pretty darned good.
When I received the print, it was a very red faded mess, which was, needless to say, frustrating. It was only after I scrutinzed the sprockets more clearly, I noticed that there was a most definite cyan/bluish tint in the sprocket area, not in the actual image or the soundtrack.
Now, some of this could come, unfortunately, from a “white setting” that can happen automatically, but more often than not, it appears that many sellers, shall we say, “doctor” they’re screenshots to alter the color to a pleasing palette.
I tell you, you almost have to be a film “chemist” (Like our Lee Mannering), to actually, really be able to tell good color from bad color at times.
Your thoughts, folks?
As a film collector, it can be very hard to know good color when you see it on ebay or elsewhere. Recently, I just bought a 16MM commercial, and from the screenshots, the color looked about 90 or more percent good.
When I received it, I had a definite Kodak SP browning to the print with, perhaps 50 percent color.
Agravating …
… but it can be even more difficult. I have been looking for a good color print of “Gorky park” (an optical sound feature that has notoriously had bad to only so-so color from my experience). Now, when I saw this UK auction, I was pleased to see actual strips of the film, optical track included, and it appeared to have OK color. I blew up the screenshots to really scrutinize it further, not for clarity of image (as, of course, the more you blow up the photo, the more digitized the image becomes), but it appeared that the print looked pretty darned good.
When I received the print, it was a very red faded mess, which was, needless to say, frustrating. It was only after I scrutinzed the sprockets more clearly, I noticed that there was a most definite cyan/bluish tint in the sprocket area, not in the actual image or the soundtrack.
Now, some of this could come, unfortunately, from a “white setting” that can happen automatically, but more often than not, it appears that many sellers, shall we say, “doctor” they’re screenshots to alter the color to a pleasing palette.
I tell you, you almost have to be a film “chemist” (Like our Lee Mannering), to actually, really be able to tell good color from bad color at times.
Your thoughts, folks?
Comment