Re: eeColor Box – 3D LUTs for the consumer electronics market – coming soon? – maybe

[Anonymous]

We all love the potential of technology providing greater precision for a reasonable price, especially if it makes our job easier. Please keep in mind that practically “perfect” color fidelity from a display would never be completely perceived by the viewer if the viewing environment conditions interfere with color perception. There are solid reasons why professional program colorists work in controlled environments that include neutral surrounds and ambient lighting that mimics the video white point.

Compromised viewing environment conditions will unavoidably contaminate/distort the viewing experience due to the limitations of the human visual system. This will always be necessary to consider in designing high performance motion imaging systems until color scientists and technology develop a means to compensate. Even if suitable color appearance modeling could be formulated for a correction device, delivering such a device at a reasonable cost would be the next hurdle. Return on investment in the real world would need to be determined.

Here’s a timely quote from this month’s SMPTE ‘Motion Imaging Journal:’

“Viewing Environment

Viewing environment is important in determining how a viewer perceives the color appearance of images on a display device. The chromaticity and luminance of ambient lighting, as well as the color and nature of the surround, have a large effect on the color appearance of displayed images. The perceived color and contrast of a displayed image may change significantly, depending on the nature of the surround and ambient lighting. The viewer sees the images in a range of viewing environments, and although the viewer can adjust settings such as brightness and contrast, the viewing environment still introduces another large variable into the way an artist’s images are experienced by the viewer.” from ‘The Validity and Relevance of Reference Displays for Evaluating Color Reproduction‘ pp23, by Michael Chenery, Senior Color Scientist at THX, Ltd.

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.
A Lion AV Consultants affiliate

“Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging”