I was inspired by all of the previous posts to take a shot at simulating the Technicolor 2-Strip Process in Photoshop.
There was actually no such thing as a 'Technicolor 2-Strip Process.' The Technicolor two-component system used a single roll of black & white negative film that alternately recorded both the red and green color records. Multiple films were not used until the introduction of three-strip Technicolor in 1932.
There is a fair amount of discussion on the internet in one forum or another about how to do this, ever since it was done for The Aviator.
What follows is not as involved as one of the somewhat more complex implementations described elsewhere, but I put this together as an experiment.
The basic idea:
A) Multiply the Red Sep by RED
B) Make a group; set the group blend mode to Normal, not Pass Through (important) - In the group, screen the Green and Blue Seps together and multiply them by CYAN.
C) Add the results of (A) and (B) using LINEAR DODGE (or Screen, if you like. Same result in this particular case)
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UPDATE:
I took another look at the process. I felt the skin tones were taking to great a loss in saturation, and the whole image was being dominated by the cyan contribution.
Instead of adding red to a cyan-tinted 'sum' of green and blue, I'm adding red to a cyan-tinted 'average' of green and blue.
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UPDATE:
This is a work in progress. I re-jiggered the file one more time, replacing the 'sum of half red and half green' with the essentially equivalent 'half of the sum of the two' a/k/a the average of the two. To avoid clipping in the sum, I went to 32 bits. I like the exposure adjustment layer. I think the exposure plus the gamma provides nice control over the look.
If you'd like a more detailed explanation on why I thought 32 bits was necessary, check the next entry.
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UPDATE:
In future I'll probably derive the channels by adding the channel mixer into the workflow instead of manually loading the channels as selections and pasting white through them onto black layers.
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UPDATE 5/22/2009
I got some promising results using the black and white adjustment layer to build color images.
click image for a closer look
Here is the Photoshop file based on R G and B solid color filters and 3 B;ack and White Adjustment layers (pictured above)
UPDATE 6/26/2009 (based on comment below)
Two Strip Technicolor (Subtractive Method)
Red record dyed cyan and combined 'subtractively' (muliplicatively) with a strict cyan record stained red. By 'strict' cyan I mean I used a black and white adjustment layer set to accept cyan, but reject green and blue.
Two Strip Technicolor (Subtractive Method)
Red record dyed cyan and combined 'subtractively' (muliplicatively) with a more 'permissive' cyan record stained red. By 'permissive' cyan I mean I used a black and white adjustment layer set to accept cyan, and green and blue in equal amounts.
UPDATE 6/30/2009
click photo to enlarge
This (what if) experiment in yellow-blue 2-strip technicolor made me think this was an error: The coral cake frosting rose is getting turned yellow, instead of surviving the yellow filter with much of its coral still intact (red should survive a yellow filter). This is because everything is getting turned gray before being filtered yellow. Interesting, but is it a mistake? Maybe not. These separations did get recorded to black and white film first. I wish I could see more examples of the real deal instead of digital recreations.
UPDATE 11/9/2009
You can really see the effect of two colors on one strip in action here. Fast moving objects color fringe. Darks decompose into cyans and reds. Where the two overlap (are multiplied - if digital) darkness results in the positive image.
In 2006, the BBC ran a series of programmes called The Lost World of Friese-Greene. The series, presented by Dan Cruickshank included The Open Road Claude Friese-Greene's film of his 1920s road trip from Land's End to John o' Groats. The Open Road was filmed using the Biocolour process, and the British Film Institute had to use computer enhancement of the original print of the film to remove the flickering problem.
- wikipedia
Hi I'm interested to know how you got the different channel separations? Did you split the channels? and how did you add blue and green separations together and then average it out? I see 2 icons with 50% for both layers.
Also with the latest update what are the blending modes of the different layers. A tutorial would be great. Much appreciated!
Originally I got a green channel (or green color separation) by creating a new black layer, then holding down 'control' (on a PC) and clicking on the green channel, which loaded it as a selection. Finally I would fill the black channel with white through the active selection.
That's how I got the gray-looking color separations above.
Now what I do is use the Black and White adjustment layer. For a red separation, the settings are red = 100%, anything containing red also = 100% (specifically magenta and yellow); all else set to 0%
I believe the first method bypasses color management, and will give slightly different results. (Not enough to matter to me)
To average the color separations I used curves with black at black and white at 50% gray to dim the color separations by 50%. Then I added them together. Linear Dodge is used for arithmetic addition. (+)
Q (via email):
so for your latest method you add a normal black and white adjustment layer to the background layer and then multiply it by red, then do the same for blue, and add them using linear dodge, so and so forth for green. Are each background layer, black and white adjustment layer and color fills grouped together, and then linear dodged onto each other? because I don't see the layer groups like before. Thanks for clarifying the color seperation, I was thinking of calculations when you mentioned averaging, and many thanks for taking the time to reply me I appreciate it!
Pei Yuan
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A:
I used 'clipping masks' to create groups. Those little arrows and the indented layers show the clipping mask. You make a clipping mask by finding the line between two layers and clicking on it while holding down the alt button.
see here for how to make clipping masks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcSQmd27KP0
see here if you want the .psd
http://www.digitalartform.com/assets/2-Strip-R-C_4.psd
Actually, there WAS a 2-strip Technicolor process, as detailed in the widescreenmuseum.com:
"The Technicolor camera recorded the red and blue-green images simultaneously through a single lens using a beam splitter and color filters to record the images stacked one on top of the other. No rotating color wheel was involved in either the camera or projector."
You've mixed up 2-strip Technicolor with Kinemacolor, a two-color additive color process, photographing and projecting a black-and-white film behind alternating red and green filters.
Actually, there WAS a 2-strip Technicolor process, as detailed in the widescreenmuseum.com:
"The Technicolor camera recorded the red and blue-green images simultaneously through a single lens using a beam splitter and color filters to record the images stacked one on top of the other. No rotating color wheel was involved in either the camera or projector."
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That's not 2 strips. That's 1 strip. The images are, as you point out, 'stacked' on a single strip. There was not, as far as I know, a two strip Technicolor process.
You are right, though, that I am using an additive process. At your prompting, I put together a subtractive process:
(red record dyed cyan) times (cyan record dyed red)
see tonight's update above