Advice for fixing blue cast on Super-8 indoor film shot outdoors w/o filter

[bookemdano]

Hi guys,

I'm new to all of this but have been learning a great deal. I've just transferred a couple thousand feet of double-8 and super-8 films my dad shot between 1965-85 using a modified Eumig 610D projector and my Canon DSLR. Most of the 8mm footage looks fantastic--properly exposed and rich colors. But sometime in 1972 he bought a super-8 camera and I think it must have been a cheapie. For one the focus is pretty bad. But even worse, 90% of the footage was shot outdoors and definitely did not have the orange filter engaged, because it all has a terrible blue cast. What little indoor footage there is looks fine, so I know the orange filter is the issue and not fading of the film. I've yet to ask my Dad whether he wasn't aware that he needed to flip that switch or maybe it broke or something. In any case, I've got all this priceless footage but it's very very unnaturally blue.

I have no experience whatsoever with color grading/manipulation. I'm pretty tech savvy so I know how to get the footage into a program that can alter the color (I have Final Cut Pro X and could also use DaVinci Resolve if that would be easier or give better results).

There is a lot of footage and I'm trying to piece some clips together into a video for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary at the end of this month so I don't have a ton of time to do special tweaks to every scene of every film.

What I'm more looking at is some sort of workflow that I could apply to all of the outdoor footage (with perhaps minor tweaks for individual reels if needed) that will not only remove the blue cast, but also bring out the other colors more.

So far, just from messing around with the controls I was able to get rid of the blue, but it left me with footage that had almost no color vibrancy whatsoever. It wasn't quite black & white but it was just bland. Is that fixable?

From the info I found so far, the lack of orange filter when exposing tungsten-balanced film outdoors means that the blue layer of the film gets overexposed and the red and green layers both get underexposed. That all makes sense. I've also read about people being able to fix this in post (apparently sometimes film is even shot that way on purpose for some reason). So I am hopeful that I have the tools to fix it. I just don't really know how to use the tools. At some point I'd like to delve deep into color grading because I find it interesting. But due to the impending deadline of this project at this point I'd just like some pointers on what controls to adjust in "quick and dirty" fashion.

If it would be easier I can upload some sample frames so you can see what I'm working with here. Many thanks for any tips/advice you can provide.

[racer-x]

I don't have either of the programs that you mention, however you should be able to reduce the blue if you work in color channel mode.

[bookemdano]

Thanks for the reply. But I don't really know what I should be doing in the color channel mode. I should be lowering blue but should I also be raising the other colors? Do I do that in differing amount for shadows/midtones/highlights? I guess I'm just sort of wondering if there are "objective" adjustments that should be made other than "play around until it looks right". I think I just don't trust my eyes enough to know if the resulting colors are what they would be had that stupid plastic orange filter been properly engaged.

[Cornucopia]

Can't say specifically as to FCPX (I avoid it when possible), but almost all decent NLE's have both "filter" effect settings, wherein you can apply an offsetting/correcting color cast, as well as having a more automatic "white balance" effect control. The latter would be more helpful for your material only if there were something non-standard with the existing imbalance of your footage. The standard mismatch of Daylight/Outdoor (~5600K) illumination recorded onto Indoor/Incandescent/Tungsten (~3200K) media is actually a quite simple fix. You might see it listed as Wratten 85 (3400K) or 85A or 85B (3200K) as a preset. Of course, being filters, they are dropping the overall light level (not raising the already reduced spectrum), so you may need to compensate with a brightness boost.

You can also look for similar things listed under "color correction" (or "CC").

If you DO need to use the WB control, it will likely have an eye dropper function that you use to choose what YOU consider to have ought to have been a proper WHITE (and possibly also a proper BLACK and even a proper 50% GRAY). Setting those will adjust the rest.

These all usually work on a clip-by-clip basis.

Scott

[bookemdano]

Can't say specifically as to FCPX (I avoid it when possible), but almost all decent NLE's have both "filter" effect settings, wherein you can apply an offsetting/correcting color cast, as well as having a more automatic "white balance" effect control. The latter would be more helpful for your material only if there were something non-standard with the existing imbalance of your footage. The standard mismatch of Daylight/Outdoor (~5600K) illumination recorded onto Indoor/Incandescent/Tungsten (~3200K) media is actually a quite simple fix. You might see it listed as Wratten 85 (3400K) or 85B (3200K) as a preset. Of course, being filters, they are dropping the overall light level (not raising the already reduced spectrum), so you may need to compensate with a brightness boost.

You can also look for similar things listed under "color correction" (or "CC").

If you DO need to use the WB control, it will likely have an eye dropper function that you use to choose what YOU consider to have ought to have been a proper WHITE (and possibly also a proper BLACK and even a proper 50% GRAY). Setting those will adjust the rest.

These all usually work on a clip-by-clip basis.

Scott

Thanks Scott! Do you happen to know of some NLEs that have a preset 85/85B filter? I'm in such a time crunch that kind of dead-easy setting is exactly what I am looking for, even if better results could be had by going willy-nilly with the manual curves and such.

I have both Mac and Windows 7 environments at my disposal. I'd prefer something non-Adobe (trying to stay away from software subscriptions) and preferably something inexpensive (as I will likely only use it for this one purpose/project).

I'll try to do some more research too. From what I've seen so far, I don't think Davinci Resolve has filter presets like that, but I'll keep checking.

[racer-x]

Some free tools like Avisynth, ffmpeg and Virtualdub (with gradation curves plugin) can load saved PhotoShop curves files and apply them to the video clip. Basically you import a reference frame into PhotoShop and adjust white balance via curves in RGB mode and save the settings. Then you load those settings in the programs I mentioned and encode away.

[Cornucopia]

As an example: the Wratten 85 filter is equivalent to ~ R-236, G-185, B-0 swatch, Overlaid (blend mode) at about 25%-50% opacity.

Scott

[bookemdano]

Thanks guys. I found the Tiffen dfx plugins for FCPX that include all the Wratten photographic filters. Since I already own FCPX and don't own any Adobe stuff it is probably easiest to use that.