Are these the real Martian colors? Options

[Bobby Richardson]

A wonderful, and informative, discussion; and something I wrestle with every time I want to process any color images (to, say, stitch a panorama) from the MSL.

I find that when I'm trying to show 'ground truth' I tend to get consistent results by adjusting white balance to daylight on Mars; which is why I'm nearly giddy when an image of the MSL color chart is included for any given SOL's download. Yeah, 'true' color is still skewed a bit by dust on the lens, but I feel that it's a fair approximation nonetheless.

OTOH, if I'm looking to dig out the detail in the image I'll do all manner of adjusting; Histogram tweaks (linear, equalization, Guassian, Square Root, Logarithemic), Channel Saturation, Contrast/Brightness; basically whatever let's me see into the shadows...

I've done the "If this scene were on Earth" look; and yeah, sometimes I use the "Ain't that purty." standard.

[JohnVV]

bobby

if you watched the movie "the Martian "

the color is pretty on the spot for the soil and rocks

one of the issues with the MSL chart and the "sun dial" is the dust covers them

[mcaplinger]

if you watched the movie "the Martian "
the color is pretty on the spot for the soil and rocks

Hmmm. Well, perhaps, but if you read http://io9.com/the-best-effects-in-the-mar...nt-s-1734941505

But what does “looked Martian” actually mean? Well, MPC went straight to the source. “We looked at a lot of the NASA photos from the rovers - some of them from Mars - and there are interesting colors you get in there,” he said. “But a lot of the time it just looked like an overcast day in a desert on Earth.” Instead Ridley Scott wanted all different colors in the skies at all different times. “Sometimes more green-ish, sometimes it more like a coppery or bronze-y color and so we just had to figure out what the color was going to be and what the right mood was going to be for Ridley,” Langlands said.

I loved the movie but I'm not sure I'd use it as a model for accurate color. For example, I was unimpressed by the sunsets. Also, "some of them from Mars"?

[Explorer1]

Maybe they also looked at the test images taken on Earth? A bit awkwardly worded...

[elakdawalla]

I was unimpressed by the sunsets.

Agreed. I thought the movie was very good but the wrong color for sunsets was a missed opportunity to make the landscape more alien!

[scalbers]

I also thought the daytime sky was too blue, at least in images like this:

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/T...iral-teaser.jpg

(please ignore the non-unmanned component of the image )

[Herobrine]

I also thought the daytime sky was too blue, at least in images like this:

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/T...iral-teaser.jpg

(please ignore the non-unmanned component of the image )

I'm confused by the desert shrubs on the left. I feel like that shot can't have been in the film. Promotional image?

Edit: Found this in a slideshow of before-and-after special effects.
http://br.web.img2.acsta.net/r_x_600/newsv.../51/1705480.jpg
Think the one you linked was before post-production.

[Gerald]

Here a version with a color-corrected Sol 1157 MAHLI inset:

The sky colors look reasonably similar to me; the hue in the hsl representation looks ok, the saturation in "The Martian" might be a little higher than in the MAHLI image.
Colors depend a bit on the sensitivity of the cameras. MAHLI is a little more sensitive to blue than Mastcam.

[scalbers]

I go more for the colors (and intensities) in my rendering here that was posted in other threads. To compare with the image above we should look roughly at right angles to the sun (1/4th of the image width), while the sun is fairly low. It seems like some subtle differences can be noted. In other words, unless one is looking pretty close to the sun, the blue should look a bit less than the red/green components.

http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/allsky/mars/al...gb_cyl_mars.gif

The "after" one Herobrine linked to does look better though. I had only seen the teaser image since I've yet to see the movie itself.