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Removing a Magenta Cast from a 35mm Print
I’m curious how some of you would approach the following issue:
I’m working on a project where we’re restoring a 35mm print that’s gone totally magenta.
Our process is to scan on an Imagica to 4k DPX and then grade in DaVinci Resolve.
Images of the film and scopes can be found here: https://imgur.com/a/gNU0U
I’ve managed to do a fix by separating the RGB channels and adjusting the red channel, then doing a basic balance. The results are OK, but I feel I can do better. Just wondering if anybody has suggestions for an approach they would take? I’m not entirely happy with the one I’m currently on.
For the curious, here is a DaVinci Powergrade file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lctx4wukqg0yp31/shot_2.1.1.dpx
And here is one of the DPX frames (40mb): https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkqyfihr7rvpjx4/test_a_de.000000.dpx
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5 Replies
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I always use the curves to do this, depending on how bad it is I can usually get it back to almost normal color balance with curves. I always end up boosting blue and green while taking down red and shaping the curves to how faded the print is.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.com2X Resolve 18Tb and 24Tb Dual GTX580’s HD Telecine and 4K Film scanner plus a film lab.
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You should try to use the Mixer. Even if you’re missing some information due to the layer loss, you may be able to “cheat” by “borrowing” missing information from the other layers.
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You could also try to flag down James Wicks in West Palm Beach… among other things, this is what he *does*.
jPo
“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.
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He posted some interesting detail on how he does that work on the Lifter’s forum. As always there are many ways to skin a cat….
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.com2X Resolve 18Tb and 24Tb Dual GTX580’s HD Telecine and 4K Film scanner plus a film lab.
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I would add that an old, faded color print is a very bad source for a video transfer. Surely a decent IP or a negative is available somewhere. What I’ve seen in the past with Imagica scanners is that they tend to clip with sense material, particularly prints. They’re fine with camera negative or inter negative. My personal preference is Si the Northlight scanners, which I think deliver a better picture overall. The DFT scanners are also good provided you get he pin-reg option (which will be dodgy with very old material).
If the yellow and cyan layers have faded, the problem with the magenta that remains is that it’s going to have a lot of color & density “breathing” issues. Even if you can create or duplicate the bad color layers, it’s going to be unstable unless you have very sophisticated processing available.
I have seen cases where a missing color record from a 3-strip nitrate project was missing or very badly damaged, and they were able to reconstruct it enough that the resultant color was acceptable. But we’re talking pixel-by-pixel mapping over a period of months and months… not simple and not cheap.
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