Increase Contrast Without Blown Out Highlights?

Stuart Robinson wrote on 9/4/2009, 11:04 AM

I have some footage that is fairly dull and lacking in contrast - in part it was deliberately shot that way - but it definitely needs a lift either via levels, contrast or both.

But... the sky, consisting of broken cloud and sunlight, is beautifully exposed. Therefore are there any tricks when adjusting contrast and/or levels that allow only certain parts of an image, for example areas below a particular luminance value, to be adjusted with others are ignored? With this footage, if I fix the contrast for the main body of the scene, the sky gets completely blown out.

Thanks!

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 9/4/2009, 11:14 AM

You should read up on Curves and how to use them.
Although difficult to master, doing basic work such as you want to do is fairly straightforward once you understand the concepts.

Rather than trying to provide a detailed explanation here, there are several excellent tutorials on the web. Others will jump in and point you to them.

Stuart Robinson wrote on 9/4/2009, 12:30 PM

Thanks. I have used curves - to a limited degree - in Photoshop, but never in Vegas. I can Google for tutorials but if anyone has specific recommendations they'd be appreciated.

TheDingo wrote on 9/4/2009, 12:52 PM

As a quick'n'dirty fix, have you tried adjusting the gamma setting of the LEVELS plug-in, and then tweaking to get the contrast you are after?

Sierra Nomad Photography wrote on 9/4/2009, 4:41 PM

Stuart:

My video and stills often look dull right off the tape/card.

Levels is my savior.

I have shots of waterfalls, where getting an increase in brightness without blowing out the cascading, billowing water can be a challenge. I've found that increasing the top slider and decreasing the bottom slider works wonders.

I hope this helps.

Jon

GlennChan wrote on 9/4/2009, 6:17 PM

Here's a tutorial for using curves to do this in Vegas:
http://www.glennchan.info/articles/vegas/color-correction/tutorial.htm