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Technicolor No. II & III LUTs

Who needs blue?

Normal (above) vs Technicolor III 020 LUT (below)

LUT simulations of Technicolor's subtractive 2-colour processes: Technicolor No. II and No. III from 1922 to 1932.

Accurate, built by hand, and crafted with care using digital to emulate the photo chemical processes outlined in my Technicolor II and Technicolor III articles, but with additional modifications based on further research and sampling of original prints.

Technicolor II, was only used for a few films' release prints before it was discovered that the prints tended to fall apart in the projector due to the cemented layers separating from the projector lamp's heat. Because of it's limited use, I've only made one Technicolor II LUT, matching the best surviving prints tone and lighter blacks.

Because the Technicolor III 2-colour process was continuously modified for each film release by varying yellow tanning, I've added the ability to tone these Technicolor III LUTs with different amounts of yellow tanning, from 20% to 50%, with presets matching prints for Technicolor III films like Hell's Angels, Whoopiee!, Follow Thru, and Doctor X.

The interesting thing to note with these LUTs, including the original Technicolor 2-color processes, is that even though they include a yellow tanning layer with the red and green print dyes, the process cannot record or reproduce a real yellow (or blue, or magenta). But because the yellow is mapped onto the red and green channels, they can approximate a pretty good yellow for skin tones.

Apply the LUTs using your favourite LUT utility. Comes as a 3D 32-bit LUT, so it works in all LUT situations like Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, monitors and even iPhone/Android apps.

The LUT comes as a zip file and includes the following:

Technicolor II 1922-1927

Technicolor III 1927-1932 020

Technicolor III 1927-1932 035

Technicolor III 1927-1932 050