Can I automatically color correct an entire track?

jmk396 wrote on 3/30/2005, 4:13 AM

Photoshop has a nice "auto" button in it's color corrector (and color curves) tool. Does Vegas Video have this? Furthermore, can I apply it to the entire track at once?

There are two reasons I'm asking this:

1) I captured DV footage and for some reason it created about 150 file segments. It would be a huge pain to drop the color corrector tool onto every single piece of footage. (btw, is it normal for Vegas to create a new file for every 10 seconds of recorded footage?)

2) For some reason, it's hard for me to determine what the colors should be set at. (adjusting R,G,B by eyesight alone seems near impossible for me) This is why I'd really like an automatic setting...

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 3/30/2005, 4:26 AM

Vegas can't "auto" color correct, but if you correct one frame, you can save as a preset and apply it to all.
Or, you can drop correction on the track vs the event, and anything that exists on that track will be treated with that color correction filter.

Without a good external monitor, without any external monitor, trying to color correct for broadcast is a pretty bad idea. You can approximate with an LCD screen that's been set up properly, (or with a CRT) but it's still not a good idea.

Use the Complementary Color pickers and let Vegas help correct your color.

trock wrote on 3/30/2005, 7:09 AM

Have you tried the free Auto Levels plug-in for Vegas? It's a VirtualDub plug-in ported for Vegas by Mike Crash.

craftech wrote on 3/30/2005, 7:24 AM

You will have better luck with this if the footage is outdoor footage or indoor footage with plenty of light. If anything like funky stage lighting is in the video footage you must go scene by scene to color correct.

John

richardfrost wrote on 3/30/2005, 7:38 AM

You said - (btw, is it normal for Vegas to create a new file for every 10 seconds of recorded footage?)

This would be scene detection whilst you are capturing your footage. I believe it works by analysing the time code on the tape, i.e. it knows when you pressed record and stop during your filming. If you turn scene detection off in the Vegas capture tool you can capture your footage into one continuous scene.

jaegersing wrote on 3/30/2005, 10:10 AM

Hi trock, this is an interestimg one. Do you know what would happen in the following situation?

Let's say you apply the Auto Levels filter to one clip, and then do a Copy and Paste Attributes operation to the next 150 (or whatever) clips. If you applied the filter to each clip individually, it would carry out a levels correction based on the content of each clip. However, in the case of the copy and paste attributes operation mentioned, does each clip still get treated as an individual, or are the settings that are calculated for the first clip applied to all subsequent clips? I can't try it out for myself right now, but would be very interested to know what would happen.

Richard Hunter

MH_Stevens wrote on 3/30/2005, 11:16 AM

Applying Auto Correction to a whole track is like using the same Photoshop settings on 10.000 different photographs! You need me doing just the opposite and applying auto levels.color correction six or seven time to each CLIP and then choosong the best overall result.

A true auto levels correction app. would balance every FRAME indervidually. Now that would be nice. Now add the second and third camera shoot from a different angle, Oh yes and the forth camera you forget to white balance and then get a matching overall color scheme. When do you stop?