Our Color Correction, Grain Elimination And Stabilization Are Optional Restoration Services.
Most of our customers add the color correction and grain elimination technology. Those looking for the very best will do all three restoration services which includes image stabilization.
Color correction is very important for amateur film because we will be able to recover more footage that was shot too dark or has darkened as part of the aging process. Most 8mm and Super 8 film will shift blue while most 16mm and 35mm film will shift red. The scanner monitors the light and color balance and will change it based on pre-determined algorithms. So, it will adjust the amount of light going through the film and will also adjust the color balance. In addition, after the scan, an editor will go through the footage looking at key references like skin tone or the color of grass/sky to make sure it looks correct from a human stand point. See example images below.
Film grain is on all types of film. These hundreds of little dots per frame muddy up the image and take away from the content you are most about. Look at the example before and after below. The after picture is what you really want to see. We do recommend grain elimination on all film.
Most amateur films have some stabilization issues just because of the way the film was shot. It was all shot without a tripod. This means the camera is constantly moving up/down or side to side or both. Our stabilization is limited to about 10% because we don’t want to crop out too much image area. So, we see stabilization as a nice to have but not required. if you can afford to do it then we would recommend it. If it pushes you outside your budget then we would just recommend the Color and Grain restoration.
Color shifting and darkening of the film are very typical for any type of old movie film. Usually we are able to fix both color and exposure issues to get the film to look like it did when it was first taken.
Film grain is on everything. Look at the original picture below. It is easy to see it on a wall or a flat surface but you can also see it on the table clothes, the boys faces, etc. This example below is a full resolution image we have cropped to the upper right corner to fit this table (this is 1/6th of the original frame). This is the level of detail you will see on your HDTV. As you can see the grain elimination really did a nice job of cleaning up the picture. In general, our film restoration will be able to remove about 95% of the grain.
All film has a certain degree of surface damage and most film have some scratches from running the film through a projector. Our advanced scratch and surface damage technology is able to remove about 70-80% of the damage. Results will vary. This technology does not remove humidity damage.
Most amateur 8mm and Super 8 films have stabilization issues because they were shot with a handheld camera and not on a tripod. We can stabilize the image as long as there isn’t more than a 10% movement. See the example below.
Color shifting and darkening of the film are very typical for any type of old movie film. Usually we are able to fix both color and exposure issues to get the film to look like it did when it was first taken.
It is easy to find the film grain by looking at the wall or a flat surface but film grain on everything throughout the frame. This is a full resolution image we have cropped to the upper right corner to fit this table (this is 1/6th of the original frame). This is the level of detail you will see on your HDTV. It is clear here that the grain elimination technology did a really nice job or removing the grain and video noise while keeping the image nice and sharp.
Most amateur films have some stabilization issues and even some professional films like the one below has stabilization issues. You can see below how much the stabilization really helped out this 16mm film.
Our service is the best in the business and so is our customer support. If for any reason you are unsatisfied with our results please contact us to discuss any options. *Quality of film conversion and restoration is dependent upon the condition of existing film stock and/or videotape; severely deteriorated original materials may be beyond the reach of even the most sophisticated restoration methods.