Shanghai Express (1932) colour palette
Directed by Josef von Sternberg · Shot by Lee Garmes
- #040404near black · 21.1%
- #313131dark grey · 16.4%
- #909090mid grey · 13.9%
- #6c6c6cmid grey · 13.6%
- #cdcdcdlight grey · 10.7%
- #4b4b4bdark grey · 8.9%
Shanghai Express (1932), shot by Lee Garmes, is monochrome: across 56 sampled frames the palette carries effectively no colour, so its look is built from mid-key tonal range rather than hue. The single most common colour is near black (#040404), covering 21.1% of sampled colour. Overall the image sits mid-key.
Colour
Monochrome
below 0.05 mean saturation
Saturation
monochrome
0.002 — more saturated than 3% of ranked films
Luminance
mid-key
0.405 — brighter than 43% of ranked films
Measured across 56 frames. See the frames on the Shanghai Express page →
Films that grade like this
Nearest by warmth, saturation and luminance across 1,568 ranked films — measured, not matched on genre.
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These measurements are published under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to FrameThrower. That covers the measurements only — the frames they were derived from are not ours to license, and rights remain with their owners.