filter help

desire_vie wrote on 10/31/2004, 12:05 PM
are there previous posts or tutorials out there on restoring old movies. Im making a documentary on 100+ years of niagara falls. I have photos and postcards back to 1829 and they are ready, but i inherited some old footage shot in 54, some in color and some in b/w.
there is an overall white/grey overcast to the entire film after capture, lack of contrast etc.
any ideas would be appreciated.
My only intent is to attempt to clarify the footage so its easier on the eye and content if you will, ie recognizable.
sumbission to the dc international film fest is nearing, i need this included if possible.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 10/31/2004, 2:38 PM
Use the Videoscopes Histogram, and the Color Curves filter. Add points near the top and the bottom of the color curves and use that to spread out the histogram so that you see white on the histogram almost all the way to 0 and almost all the way to 255.

Alternatively (and this is a better alternative) scan the photos and use the auto-adjust features in your favorite photo editor to fix things before you bring them into Vegas. I am approaching the 30,000 mark on the number of photos I have scanned and corrected. While color is hard to get perfect, it is easy to improve the dull, lifeless look of pictures that were printed poorly, have faded, or just weren't exposed correctly. Whatever you do, NEVER use the contrast or brightness controls.
desire_vie wrote on 10/31/2004, 7:11 PM
I appreciate the tip after I did it, meaning the bright/contrat trap. I guess I needed to say its only the captured video i need to edit. I too, have in the last 7-10 years, living in the shadows of Niagara Falls, taken and edited to some effect, close to 50,000 photos just of that alone. The trick, as we all know, it to get it right when you say smile, and click away.
I would buy any tutorial on the scopes and their use/design/needs, as they make sense but dont, old dog new tricks? or new dog refuses to learn?
By playing with color corrector and color corrector secondary, and no idea what or why, i got nice greens and blues back, off on yellow, and the whites are better. I used the bright/contrast only to change the contrast center and that helped. Also, using shapen did some trick I cant explain but worked. Go figure.
I took some old the roughest postcards you've ever seen and made them very usable in my documentary, and not new looking, but clean clear representatives of their era.
Thanks again.