Color measure, reproduction and assessment: from colorimetry to movie restoration

In recent years, colorimetry has been standardized and color measurements are possible under a strict set of constraints, thus the lack of standard conditions and technical guidelines can often cause weaknesses and problems in color reproduction, which are habitually solved resorting to subjectivity and manual corrections. In this work, an overview on the main limits in color reproduction is presented, with a specific focus on photographic and cinematographic restoration domain; specifically on image acquisition, image enhancement and image quality assessment. Film restoration is a fascinating multi-disciplinary field which, in recent years, underwent a deep transformation thanks to the novel digital technologies. Because of this development, many step of the restoration workflow still must be analyzed and studied in order to overcome the main color reproduction limits and support the restoration work, that today rely only on the restorers’ expertise and competence. After a preliminary analysis of the main issues linked to image acquisition systems, a novel approach to enhance digital images is provided and a novel framework of image quality measures is presented. Aim of this work is the proposal of innovative approach for color management and retrieval in film restoration workflow, but also the analysis of the main limits of color science to fostering the scientific research in this field.