AntoniaTiger, "Bearing all that in mind, have a look at some movies from the time you want to copy." I am not going for silent-era or 'noir' as much as the scintillating silver-nitrate look of happy 50s movies, such as Roman Holiday and Sabrina. And...in addition to the right "look", my co-equal goal is to pursue render-time advantages because of not having to calculate color I will attempt to apply some of the filtering ideas you provided....once I do move forward I'll probably start a new post with that as topic, hope you will comment! ::::: Opera :::::