An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures

Metadata

Publisher: SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
Doc Type: Journal Article
Content Type: Original Research
Abbreviated Title: SMPTE Mot. Imag. J
Volume: 129, No. 9, pp. 50–57
Abstract: Thanks to the advancements in cinema and display technologies wider color gamuts are now possible. These technologies can support and reproduce highly saturated color content. Bear in mind, the ability to produce colors with an extremely high chroma component is strictly a capability of the technology and not a necessity that the image content must follow. In short, the decision to utilize the expanded gamut available in advanced cinema technologies is at the discretion of the creative forces behind the project. There are a number of different factors that can contribute to the creative color decisions made for motion pictures, with the primary factor being the esthetic nature of the content produced. Through creative-preference assessments of saturation adjustments in various image contents, the value of the expanded color gamut in motion picture mastering was assessed. Three images of comparable chroma histograms were utilized in the study to feature human skin tones, animated characters, and natural scenery, respectively. Upon being adjusted, each image was rendered with color content outside the boundaries of the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)-P3 gamut. A two-alternative-forced-choice psychophysical study was conducted to estimate observer preference of the saturation levels in each image. From the observers’ selections, the reaction to the expanded image saturation in the three images was plotted and assessed for statistical significance. Through this study, it was found that there is a preference to incorporate colors exclusive to wider color gamuts that extend past the boundaries of International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunication (ITU-R) Recommendation BT.709 and DCI-P3. It was also confirmed that the medium in which the content was generated influences the level of saturation preferred. Overall, this research provides a look into how technical capability and artistic vision can be connected.
Publication Date: 2020-10-01
DOI: 10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401
ISSN: Print: 1545-0279 | Electronic: 2160-2492
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401
Author(s): Jake Zuena
bio
Jake Zuena is an associate engineer with the Applied Vision Science Group, Dolby Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. In this role, he performs research to model human perception for the design of image-processing algorithms. In 2018, he completed an internship at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, CA, within the Emerging Technology Division, focusing on color and imaging science. He received a BS degree in motion picture science from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY, in 2019. He has a strong interest in the topics of color science and how they incorporate both scientific and creative interpretation. While at RIT, he served as the SMPTE Student Chapter’s president and secretary. He was a recipient of the 2018 SMPTE Louis F. Wolf Jr. Memorial Scholarship.
David Long
bio
David Long is the director of the RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC) at RIT, Rochester, NY. He joined the faculty of the School of Film and Animation at RIT in 2007, where he also serves as an associate professor for the motion picture science program. His research interests include multispectral video capture and display systems and sensory perception of motion media. Prior to RIT, he worked as an imaging scientist with Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging Division, Rochester, NY. At Kodak, his primary responsibilities included new product development and image science and systems integration. His work has earned him numerous patents and a 2008 Scientific and Technical Academy Award for contributions made to the design of Vision2 films. He earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, an MS degree in materials science from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, and a PhD degree in color science from RIT.
Keyword(s): Creative, Display, Extremely High Chroma, Preference, Psychophysical Experiment, Saturation, Two-alternative-forced-choice, Wide Color Gamut
Copyright: © 2020 SMPTE

Bibliographic Reference(s)

“Portrait of Woman With Pink Roses by Pixabay.” Accessed: Mar. 1, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.pexels.com/photo/portrait-of-woman-with-pink-roses-247295/. Creative Commons license: [Online]. Available: https://www.pexels.com/creative-commons-images/ EXTERNAL
K. Brunick and J. Cutting, “Coloring the Animated World: Exploring Human Color Perception and Preference Through the Animated Film,” Cognitive Media Theory, Oxford University Press: New York, NY, 2014. EXTERNAL
M. Pointer, “The Gamut of Real Surface Colours,” Color Res. Appl. 5(3):145–155, 1980. EXTERNAL
Personal Correspondence With Ed Giorgianni. On September 14, 2018, Jake Zuena and Ed Giorgianni engaged in a discussion surrounding esthetic perturbations added to consumer films based on the results of unpublished color-preference studies run by The Eastman Kodak Company. EXTERNAL
R. W. G. Hunt, The Reproduction of Color, Wiley: Chichester, U.K., 2004. EXTERNAL
“Big Buck Bunny,” Copyright (C) 2008 Blender Foundation | www.blender.org |Accessed: Mar. 1, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.bigbuckbunny.org. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license: [Online]. Available: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ EXTERNAL
“ICTCP Dolby White Paper,” Dolby Laboratories, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologies/dolby-vision/ictcp-white-paper.pdf EXTERNAL
“Evergreen Glacier Hike Hill” by Albert White. Accessed: Mar. 11, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.pexels.com/photo/evergreen-glacier-hike-hill-361104/. Creative Commons license: [Online]. Available: https://www.pexels.com/creative-commons-images/ EXTERNAL
M. Fairchild and D. Wyble, “Describing the Color of High-Dynamic-Range and Wide-Color-Gamut Images,” Proc. 18th Color Imag. Conf. Final Program Proc., pp. 322–326, 2010. EXTERNAL
E. Giorgianni and T. Madden, Digital Color Management: Encoding Solutions, Wiley: Chichester, U.K., 2008. EXTERNAL

Source Data (JSON)

Full registry record with provenance metadata. Open directly: /api/doc/10.5594-JMI.2020.3010401.json

Reference Tree

Explore all references and references to this document, as a navigable tree.

Open Reference Tree

Reference this Doc

Plain text (ISO 690 compliant)

Preview:

Jake Zuena and David Long; An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 129, Issue: 9, October 2020); SMPTE, 2020. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401

Snippet:

Jake Zuena and David Long; An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 129, Issue: 9, October 2020); SMPTE, 2020. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401

HTML (ISO 690 compliant)

Preview:

Snippet:

<span class="citation">Jake Zuena and David Long; <cite>An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 129, Issue: 9, October 2020); SMPTE, 2020. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401</a></span>

SMPTE's HTML Pub

Preview:

Jake Zuena and David Long; An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 129, Issue: 9, October 2020); SMPTE, 2020
doi: 10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401

Snippet:

<li>
Jake Zuena and David Long; <cite id="bib-10-5594-jmi-2020-3010401">An Investigation of the Value of Wide Color Gamut in Motion Pictures</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 129, Issue: 9, October 2020); SMPTE, 2020
<span class="doi">10.5594/JMI.2020.3010401</span>
</li>