Hey there,
If you have a really dark scene, how do you add contrast to it - let me explain
Lets say you have a "dark cave" in your video and at the end of that cave is a nice sunny beach
Would i need to edit the cave separately to the beach?, because if i give the cave alot more brightness then as the scene moves on to the beach - the beach will be too bright
Is there anyway to simplify this process? Maybe editing the brightest part of the video first?
My go-to tool for dealing with this type of situation is NewBlueFX's plugin called Colorfast 2. Using the plugin's Secondary Correction tools, correction can separately be made to the Highlights, Midtones and Shadows, The end result is that, in your example, the cave can be increased in brightness without affecting the beach (other than any dark areas if any in the beach). Further, the adjustments are key-frameable.
A similar result is also possible using the standard VFX Vegas Color Corrector (Secondary) and its Limit Luminance sliders (Mask enabled to assist with area to be selected, then turn the Mask off to make the color corrector adjustments).
I tend to put on the Vegas Pro Levels FX first. Adjust black and white levels, then modify gamma.
I'm using Curves FX in such situations as well. It took sometime to learn how to use it, but now almost everything is easy.
P.S Just got SemW curves plugin that looks really good. However, only played with it, not used in real project yet.
thanks all for your suggestions @Marco. since you mentioned levels, do you adjust gamma to the whole scene or do you individually edit the scenes with gamma?
As this is correction, not grading, I'd correct each single clip if necessary (if you mean that by "scene").
I tend to put on the Vegas Pro Levels FX first. Adjust black and white levels, then modify gamma.
Yes!!
For correction, that is what I do. 90% of this can be done efficiently without needing Curves, which are pretty cumbersome in production settings.
Don't confuse with the advice to set output colorspace levels last, to trap all the cumulative garbage.
This is also the kind of situation where shooting 10 bit and just eliminating some wasted mid-zone range for 8 bit delivery can be particularly rewarding, such as your cave-and-sunlight analogy or product photography, where white backgrounds are popular.
One advanced technique for stills called HDR Merge in Photoshop is described here:
https://flylib.com/books/en/1.513.1.56/1/
With stacked levels filters such as this, I take great care to avoid bit-gobbling redundancies, which cause unnecessary banding.
@AveSatanas you are starting out with the kind of questions that cause great photographers to emerge over time. If you are into reading and learning from history, our analog roots harbor some nuggets that can't really be learned any other way, such as the Zone System, which applies directly to your question.
I started out in the Color Curves camp though I've used other methods to get the simple-minded results that I seek.
You should spend some time placing points on the Color Curve and manipulating the sections to see the result.
Use the curves sparingly, though. I'm reminded of the advice that an auto mechanic gave me when I was 14 years old. He said, "Tighten the bolt until it strips, then back it off a half a turn."
I don't see many beaches from the caves ...
cheers for the knowledge guys really helps out alot :)
Just duplicate the track and use the mask tool with a bit of feathering to and use color curves to brighten up the cave on the 2nd track