YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians want them to stop

Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by jedberg on Thursday October 01, 2020 @02:00PM (#24654122)

I don't mind the colorizations, but to give you some additional ammo for your argument, check out the TV show "The Munsters" and "The Addams Family". If you're not familiar, they're supposed to live in creepy dark houses, and in black and white, the houses do indeed look dark and creepy.

But in reality, those sets were bright pastels. Actual dark walls and floors didn't show up well on film. Which makes me wonder how right we are with some of our other colorizations.

You can google [what did the munsters set actually look like] to get some great examples.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by TylerE on Thursday October 01, 2020 @02:31PM (#24654497)

Another example is the "TV Yellow" paint used on many early gibson electric guitars.

https://gbmedia.azureedge.net/aza/user/gear/1961-gibson-les-...

Actual white guitars would look like blown-out blobs on black and white TV. TV Yellow would "look" white on TV.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by jedberg on Thursday October 01, 2020 @02:40PM (#24654605)

Fascinating! That's such a classic color for an electric guitar, I had no idea where it came from.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by TylerE on Thursday October 01, 2020 @04:31PM (#24655870)

I mean, it kinds makes sense. It's basically caucasian skin tone as paint.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by damoe on Friday October 02, 2020 @02:00AM (#24659386)

I think you need to get your eyes checked, that is Simpson’s skin tone.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by giantrobot on Thursday October 01, 2020 @02:56PM (#24654800)

For additional additional ammo look at Star Trek (TOS). A lot of the campy bright colors weren't used to make it look campy but to show up equally well on black and white and color TVs. By using brightly colored uniforms it was obvious even on a B&W TV that Kirk, Spock, and ensign C. Fodder were different and one wasn't coming back from the away mission.

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Re:YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K, but historians wa... by ChrisKingWebDev on Thursday October 01, 2020 @02:47PM (#24654678)

Similarly, the first Superman wore a grey suit, because it was captured better by the black and white cameras.

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