Faded Eastman and color correction advice
George L.
were produced in early 70's. When I viewed them on my Bell & Howell 2592
projector, as anybody would expect, I found out that all of them have faded
to magenta.
Question: Which blue filter would make these films more pleasing to the
eye? Given a choice between the 80A Vs. the 38A, which one would somebody
use to project faded films?
Also, where can I buy 51 mm 80A and/or 38A filters to fit my projector's
lens? I found 49mm, 52mm, etc, but I couldn't find any of 51mm (2 inch)
size.
Should I decide to telecine them to video using the Philips Spirit Datacine,
would it be possible to color-correct these films on video? Is there
anything else I can do now to restore the colors? (such as re-developing
them again, etc?)
I scanned one single 16mm frame with my flatbed scanner, imported the
picture to photoshop and played with the colors / hue / curves a bit and
finally I got satisfactory results. From a completely magenta picture, I got
some colors out. So I assume that there the other color layers are still on
the film, but need some "boosting".
Thanks in advance.
Paul Penna
<geo...@nospam.edu> wrote:
> I got several cans of Eastman 16mm motion films which are "4F" stock. They
> were produced in early 70's. When I viewed them on my Bell & Howell 2592
> projector, as anybody would expect, I found out that all of them have faded
> to magenta.
>
> Question: Which blue filter would make these films more pleasing to the
> eye? Given a choice between the 80A Vs. the 38A, which one would somebody
> use to project faded films?
All else being equal, if magenta is the problem, a blue filter would
seem to me to make things worse. Green would be more in the direction
of where you'd want to go.
--
Paul Penna
Jim Aupperle
> I got several cans of Eastman 16mm motion films which are "4F" stock. They
> were produced in early 70's. When I viewed them on my Bell & Howell 2592
> projector, as anybody would expect, I found out that all of them have faded
> to magenta.
>
> Question: Which blue filter would make these films more pleasing to the
> eye? Given a choice between the 80A Vs. the 38A, which one would somebody
> use to project faded films?
You can't correct the color of a faded print by projecting through a
filter. Any color you use to balance the magenta cast where the
remaining color dyes have density will contaminate the highlights.
Jim Aupperle
Donald Sanders
I agree with others who posted on this thread. You can't recover
a faded image with filtration. The problem is that the contrast of the
yellow and cyan layers is very low. Filtration wont help that. As you
found with Photoshop, it is possible to recover a decent image. There
are labs in Hollywood that will be happy to restore your print for a
very hefty fee (unless copyright concerns prevent them from copying
your print). They can scan each frame and apply Photoshop like
corrections to each scene. Disney can afford this to restore "Snow
White", but this service is beyond the means of individuals.
Eastman print film from the 1970's was never intended for long
term storage. Dye stability was not a concern. Prints usually wore out
from repeated projection before they faded. To get a good print of
this film today, you need a new print from the original negative.
Martin Scorcese, Henry Wilhelm, and others made a big stink about
faded prints. Today's print film stock is far more stable.