Harshly backlit (sun) from walls of windows causing really bad washout

Thomas-Monks wrote on 11/4/2021, 3:33 AM

Hi Folks,

I just shot a dog show in the worst possible lighting I can imagine... reasonable overhead lights BUT has solid walls of windows on sides allowing the sun to ruin my shoot. I'm running Vegas 16, FDR AX-700. Iris=Auto, ISO=Auto, Shutter Speed=350 Fixed.

Of course, this was a live sporting event and there is no way to recreate so my only hope is to somehow correct the footage.; I understand everything changes when I pan to follow the subject...so perhaps any solution would needto manually be ridden by me ?

Here's an idea: Something for video which works like an audio compressor / limiter. I set it at 80 IRE or whatever I think the brightest white in that shot should be (except for windows of course)...then makes everything in excess of 80 IRE equal to 80 IRE. Step 2 would be something brightness / contrast to pump it back up to the 100 IRE max. Better yet, the video compressor could actually over-compress to a 2:1 ratio, everythingover 80 IRE ???

Comment: I did try FILL LIGHT with not the greatest success. Perhaps it would work after getting rid of that terrible sun using a compressor type plug-in ?

Thanks,

Tom

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Comments

set wrote on 11/5/2021, 4:37 PM

The outside of Windows in this case is not important, so letting it blows out is no problem. Playing with Color Curves too also can help.

I personally added a Ignite Glow to just 'soften' the blows out.

Musicvid wrote on 11/5/2021, 5:58 PM

Shoot 10 bit -- deliver 8 bit. That way you can "notch out" the dead range between highlights and low-key subject.

@Grazie's Colorfast 2 techniques are the perfect companion to this approach

john_dennis wrote on 11/5/2021, 6:32 PM

@diverG @dxdy

"Anyone with a good memory. VP9>12 era"

The first person I remember to describe the invert/levels/invert method was @malowz

My memory is not that good, but I used the method a lot with my previous camera.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/can-you-please-help-me-fix-this-over-exposed-video-clip-sony-vegas16--115933/#ca719705

malowz wrote on 11/5/2021, 10:22 PM

I was standing on the edge of my toilet hanging a clock, the porcelain was wet, I slipped, hit my head on the edge sink, and when I came to I had a revelation! a vision! a picture in my head! a picture of this... This is what makes proper exposure possible: the invert method!

this is just a band-aid to fix the lack of a proper exposure in vegas. most photo/video editing apps resolved this a decade ago (when you use "brightness" in photoshop, you are using this since 2007), but not vegas. the last version i tested (17 or 18 i think) still didn't had a proper exposure (didn't test v19 yet). so i still use v14 with scripts to automate :(

explanation: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/brightness-contrast/

Also, the Ignite Shadow/highlight is the best S/H plugin in my tests for problematic or minor adjustments

RogerS wrote on 11/6/2021, 4:03 AM

Isn't log exposure in the Vegas color grading panel "proper exposure" at this point?

(Not limited to highlights, of course, so the Ignite tool would still be handy if you have it)

NickHope wrote on 11/6/2021, 4:33 AM

@malowz' exposure method, first discussed all the way back here, was finally incorporated into VEGAS as one of the exposure controls in the color grading panel. I think it was VP18. When I tested it, the effect was almost identical to malowz' method but IIRC there was some additional appropriate roll-off at the end. I remember thinking that the team had made a good job of implementing it.

Musicvid wrote on 11/6/2021, 9:43 AM

Ah yes, @malowz' method. Aging Photoshoppers, unite!

Inverse log relationships are fun! (As long as you're never required to teach them -- I found that out the hard way...)

By Dicklyon at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Shizhao using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3931524

dxdy wrote on 11/9/2021, 11:08 AM

Nick Hope, I looked for it in the VP18 color grading panel, and couldn't identify it. Where is it? What is it called?

Thanks,

Fred

Thomas-Monks wrote on 11/9/2021, 1:27 PM

===THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP===

Here is the final (Although I have 5 more event days to produce). You folks saved my production.

1) On my old machine, the opening animation (hippie bus) gets 'sticky-choppy' not moving smoothly. For you folks with a good machine, please tell me if you have the same effect or it moves smoothly on your end.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0r30awhe68hdzy/Test%20Open%20Alignment.mp4?dl=0

2) With your help, I was able save it, but was riding levels (keyframes) every few seconds... a 9 minute video took 20+ hours to produce. At least now I can replicate the same for other days until I stopped running my camera on auto (days 3-5).

2) This was a miserable environment. 3 glass walls and in the evening all lights in the hall are either green or orange. It's funny because American Kennel Club brought in a TV truck for a live broadcast of Best of Show that night. They started at 2:45pm and all 3 cameras were shooting into the 'sun walls' as well. In the hall, they have only green and orange lights. At night, all white dogs were Green, Orange or Yellow based upon where they were in the hall for the live finals...LOL... So they had their cross to bear as well.

I KNOW - This is SCREAMING FOR HEADROOM, but I do know they are more concerned with the dogs than the judge.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0r30awhe68hdzy/Test%20Open%20Alignment.mp4?dl=0

Peter-Riding wrote on 11/9/2021, 3:17 PM

This strong back-lighting happens every day of the week and twice on Sundays for me in my main line of commercial work which is events such as weddings and christenings. Typically post-editing gets no better than ranging from mediocre to plain cr%p no matter what you do. And often e.g. a bride and groom will have chosen a civil venue which has a large sunlit window directly behind them during their ceremony and directly behind them when they and their VIP guests are seated at the top table for the wedding reception.

What you really need to aim to do is to be able to shoot from different positions so that there is not such a large range between the highlight and shadow areas thereby sidestepping the post-editing nightmare. I'm sure you're about to shout that you were not permitted to shoot from any other positions and that may well be the case. Just sayin'. Often the participants and organisers simply don't understand the issues involved and are happy to revise once they have been "educated" (sometimes quite forcefully rather than politely to get the point across!). You may also find that often the organisers are fine with having the venue's room lighting bumped up to lessen the highlight/shadow range.

Photography can be much more straightforward than video if bounced fill-flash is allowed so back-lighting is not such an issue. Mobile video lighting e.g. on a shoulder rig may or may not be feasible at dog and other animal shows though because of distractions. Both stills fill-flash and mobile video lighting could reduce or eliminate the unnatural wall colours.