Dalek Colour Reference Images from Classic B&W Stories

[tony farrell]

And just to prove that colour photography existed in 1966   :


T

[galacticprobe]

Amazing color photos, Tony! Thanks for those. They really show off the different shades of grey on the Dalek "waist": how the main part isn't silver like the head dome and the skirt. Also a different silver are those metal bands around the waist and the "collector panels"(?) around the waist. And those hemis... they are seriously blue! And unless it's a trick of the light, the discs on the eyestalk are a lighter blue than the hemis.

Thank you again, Tony. Color photos like these are invaluable references! (Tony, may I impose upon you to re-post the color images in the "Other Props" Reference section so the discussion of the Dalek props can be there for future generations, rather than eventually vanishing from the "Off-Topic" thread when the time limit comes? If you choose to post the other Dalek photos there as well, it's up to you, but those color photos are too good to be left only in this "Off-Topic News" thread.)

If all goes well, we should be in New York for a few nights in November. This should coincide with the Power debut.

Hopefully things will coincide for you, Steve. And you'll have to let me know what part of New York you'll be in. I grew up in NYC (The Bronx - South Bronx, very close to where they filmed the 1970s Paul Newman film "Fort Apache: The Bronx" - which didn't do much for our tourism trade, and really cheesed off us New Yorkers at the time). My family was in construction (except for me) and build many of the buildings and river-crossing bridges from the early 1920s on. My grand-uncle was on the crew that built the Twin Towers and on my father's day off, he would take me down to the site to watch my grand-uncle work. I watched them go up from when they broke ground, and it made me ill to see them come down the way they did. So when you're looking at all of those buildings and bridges - if you're going to be in NYC - you'll be looking at part of my family's legacy.

Dino.

[fivefingeredstyre]

My family was in construction (except for me) and build many of the buildings and river-crossing bridges from the early 1920s on. My grand-uncle was on the crew that built the Twin Towers and on my father's day off, he would take me down to the site to watch my grand-uncle work. I watched them go up from when they broke ground, and it made me ill to see them come down the way they did. So when you're looking at all of those buildings and bridges - if you're going to be in NYC - you'll be looking at part of my family's legacy.

Dino.

That's good that you can look back like that. It must make you a little proud if/when you go back? I've been to New York before, and the scale never fails to take my breath away...

I should be staying in the New Yorker, apparently. Which I believe is a bit central?

Have to say I love those Daleks pictures - Detail on the space capsule is incredible.

[tony farrell]

Thank you again, Tony. Color photos like these are invaluable references! (Tony, may I impose upon you to re-post the color images in the "Other Props" Reference section so the discussion of the Dalek props can be there for future generations, rather than eventually vanishing from the "Off-Topic" thread when the time limit comes? If you choose to post the other Dalek photos there as well, it's up to you, but those color photos are too good to be left only in this "Off-Topic News" thread.)

I don't think the colour photos I posted from "Power" are widely known. Certainly, I'd not seen three of them before (not that that is saying much .

If you'd like to set up a topic in the relevant section Dino, please feel free to copy the photos across. Once you've done that, I can add further pictures from Evil of the Daleks - some colour ones of which (like the ones I've posted from "Power") are rare and - indeed - may not be widely known about either.

T

[keepwarm]

On the topic of Power colour photos, here's some I've got saved on my Harddrive.

[Angelus Lupus]

It's pictures like this that make me wish we could have colourised classic episodes. There's an algorithm that can extrapolate colour for b/w images (with mixed success)... maybe one day in the future we could feed references like this into a program and do something similar for film?

[fivefingeredstyre]

That thought has often occurred to me as well.

The re-colourisation algorithm apparently only works if the colour signal on the B&W transfer is still present (or something... ); however I'd love it if some genius could come up with a really clever program that managed to extrapolate natural colours based on the shades of grey and ambient light levels present in an image frame...

Of course the process would be buggered if a room was lit with a coloured light source, but still...

What can I say, I'm an ideas man. Things like this keep me occupied on my drive to work...

[galacticprobe]

If you'd like to set up a topic in the relevant section Dino, please feel free to copy the photos across.

Well, Tony, I was going to do that (and give you credit for the great color images), but then I saw how many new images keepwarm posted. (Brilliant images, by the way, keepwarm!) So rather than ask him to repost his images, or if he would let me copy them over, I sent kiwidoc a PM and asked him if he could split the topic starting with your first color-image post since by the time of Steve's last post in that other thread, this new Dalek color images discussion was becoming its own topic anyway.

So many thanks to kiwidoc for taking the time to split the topic (and even rename it from my suggestion; that was very kind). Also many thanks to everyone for all of these great color reference images from stories that we've only ever seen in black and white! (Well, "Power" not withstanding since we haven't seen it yet, but all of those other B&W era Dalek stories.) Those are amazing color images - so vivid, not washed out - so please do keep them coming for as long as you find color images from that B&W era of the show.

Dino.

[Angelus Lupus]

... I'd love it if some genius could come up with a really clever program that managed to extrapolate natural colours based on the shades of grey and ambient light levels present in an image frame...

Then you'll be interested in this: http://demos.algorithmia.com/colorize-photos/ It's not perfect, for example it seems to assume Police Boxes are red (at least in all the images I've tried), but it's getting there.

[tony farrell]

Some more colour pics - from the first Dalek story:



T

[Angelus Lupus]

So the Dalek hemispheres were a much paler blue here than in Power.. also a nice shot of a Dalek with a number drawn on (for the benefit of Director/Camera) and the lines marked on the back.

[keepwarm]

Here's some more.

[prydonianrenegade]

[prydonianrenegade]

[prydonianrenegade]