Workflows - Detail Enhancement

Noise / grain | Artifacts | Better Blu-Ray

Detail Enhancement

The ability to identify and enhance fine detail in motion pictures is not a widely understood discipline.

Commercial “sharpening” tools have traditionally defined and enhanced edges of a particular image within a frame to set it apart from the balance of the frame. Most have done a poor job, introducing artifacts in the pursuit of better definition.

Imagine a stationary motion camera shooting a series of frames of a still object. The frames all look the same. But they are not the same. A careful analysis of each frame would reveal slightly different detail, depending upon how the film grain has been disbursed across the stock. If you can find the best parts of each frame, and average that across all the frames, you can dig out detail you didn’t know you had.

Noise / grain

Noise reduction is commercially available in many forms but sadly, it is difficult to find noise reduction solutions that don’t create new problems. It is typical to see noise reduction applications that degrade quality, replacing one type of artifact with another.

For Restorations

Optical copying over time adds grain and noise resulting in elements that are far removed in quality from their original presentation. Grain and noise management technology can return those pictures to their original levels of film grain or video noise.
The result is:

Pictures that are historically accurate
Pictures that deliver the highest quality viewing experience
Pictures that survive compression for packaged media and broadcast

For New Productions

Budgets often force filmmakers to use low-cost cameras and scaled down lighting packages. This can result in distracting levels of noise and artifact laden broadcasts and DVDs. Higher budget movies often combine 35mm, HD video and computer graphics in their storytelling.

Each of these has different noise levels, and must be balanced for a consistent look.

Grain and noise management technology can:

Balance disparate capture elements, giving a consistent look throughout
Provide appropriate levels of noise and grain for film, video and Dcinema
Insure the highest quality compression

Artifacts

Artifacts disrupt the focus on the storytelling, and can be introduced in a number of ways.

Film, video and digital files all have their unique subsets of artifacts. Artifacts can originate during capture, during production and post-production, and at virtually every stage during the creation, distribution, repurposing and archiving of a movie.

New advanced digital image processing gives the ability to remove or conceal a tremendous range of image artifacts. Many artifacts are the result of previous attempts at repair.

For Restoration:

Age, wear, handling and storage conditions can render a classic film nearly un-watchable. Artifact repair can:

Remove dirt, scratches and chemical stains
Remove generations of grain buildup from copying
Repair physical damage (digs, nicks, roller marks, changeover cues, etc.)

For New Productions:

Contemporary filmmakers are mixing capture mediums and resolutions, shooting on HD for 35mm and large format, and experimenting with economic and flexible capture devices without understanding the compromises involved.

Artifact removal and concealment technology is always evolving to address:
Noisy electronic capture
Challenges of developing capture devices (sensor patterns, ringing, etc.)
Artifacts that impede compression

Better Blu-Ray

Blu-ray™ is so exciting because we now have the opportunity to see movies at home in higher resolution.

HDTVs offer the promise of the best home viewing experience ever, but noise and grain, which are part of the fabric of the theatrical presentation, are challenging compression engines, resulting in pictures that often are not a huge leap forward in quality at home.

Roughly 80% of a movie’s revenue comes from a compressed source. Jitter, weave, flicker, image instability, noise and grain consume compression bandwidth, limiting the ability to compress the images well. Pre-compression technology can stabilize images, reduce grain and noise and enhance fine detail so movies compress quickly and beautifully.

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