Re: Evolution of an image....help

John, I like your last color version the best, as it has the best color. But, as Kevin said it is a little pixelated. In my video editing program we have a thing called Color Corrector, and another filter called SHARPEN. I use both a lot, but primarily on vintage film to video transfers. A lot of drab looking film scenes can be helped along and made really nice, or if you over cook them then not so great. There are instances when a scene is dark, and you can brighten it enough to make it presentable, and when you are talking about a historic scene, or slide, I think content sometimes trumps perfect quality. In our Color Corrector thingy, they have a thing called blacks, whites, and mid-blacks, as well as saturation, etc, etc. I lighten the mid-blacks a lot to bring out some engine details that otherwise would not be see. But, pixelization is sometimes the tradeoff. A lot is personal taste. If I have a scene that should have a golden glint, I will give it more saturation to make it look more that way. Sometimes the original exposure is off, and sometimes in our case, the film to video transfer is off as well. Have seen the difference between different methods of transfer, just like the difference between people doing slide and film scanning of stills. Some of it is personal taste as well.
my 1.5 cents.
Greg