In the Original Trilogy, the costumes used for Darth Vader's helmet were not all black, but had silver highlights applied in an alternating pattern:
Screenshot from A New Hope (via Reddit)
The effect is subtle, but can be seen when looking closely at the lower cheek and jaw pieces on the viewer's left, and the nose bridge and upper cheek on the viewer's right. I found a fan-made diagram outlining where the highlights were applied (note that this is mirrored when compared to the above shot):
Fan analysis from http://thepropden.aokforums.com/
This is interesting to me because I've watched these movies countless times and never noticed that the helmet was anything other than uniformly glossy black, as in more recent and higher-budget incarnations of the costume.
Question: Was this a common filmmaking technique at the time the original films were made, and meant to convey that the helmet was fully black and reflective? Or was the helmet meant to be matte black and silver in-universe, and, like C-3PO's silver leg, this was easily missed and changed in later costume designs?
