What event fx's to use to brighten video?

ArtVandelay wrote on 12/17/2005, 9:30 AM

I shot my first wedding, it was a freebie. I used 1 chip cameras. The ceremony turned out ok. But as I expected, the reception hall had lower lighting and those clips are dark.

I've been experimenting with the brightness fx and that improves the video somewhat, but of course makes the video looks grainy. Are there any other effects you would use along with the brightness fx, or instead of the brightness fx to improve the video?

I know that no matter what I do, I won't get as good of results as if I'd had a good 3 chip camera.

Thanks,
Dave

Comments

Grazie wrote on 12/17/2005, 9:48 AM

. . I can hear the keyboards clattering as I write ..

You need to get busy with Colour Correction and use the Scopes. .. you have a veritable information base here to search through.

Grazie

Grazie wrote on 12/17/2005, 9:52 AM

.. ok some excellent Colour Correction tutorials:

http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/glennchan/levels_in_sony_vegas_part_one.htm

http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/glennchan/levels_in_sony_vegas_part_two.htm

.. I should've posted these before - apologies . .

Grazie

ArtVandelay wrote on 12/17/2005, 10:02 AM

Thanks Grazie, just the sort of direction I needed.

JackW wrote on 12/17/2005, 10:51 AM

Also take a look at this tutorial , which addresses exactly the problem you're describing.

Good luck,

Jack

GlennChan wrote on 12/17/2005, 11:35 AM

Mild amounts of noise reduction may also help.

http://mikecrash.wz.cz/vegas/vegas.htm donationware NR filter. A setting of about 7 is about the most you can go without having motion artifacts.

There's a bunch of different ways to tackle underexposure. The simplest is the levels route which I talk about in that article.

You can get slightly different and better results via color curves. Go to
http://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/dvinfo/color-curves.veg
and download that veg file. Look at the very last clip there, and copy that preset.
In the upper right part of the color curves interface, there are three points (two of them are almost on top of each other. Of the two that are almost on top of each other, drag-select them both.

On your keyboard, use the arrow keys left and right to adjust exposure. Adjusting the curvature of the bottom handle (in the bottom left part of the screen) will affect how much you crush the blacks... this hides the noise somewhat.

The overall curviness affects contrast, and brings out noise in the midtones. I hope that makes sense.

Grazie wrote on 12/17/2005, 11:49 AM

. .just an idea to add. I've "salvaged" much slightly underexposed footage using these methods. Once you get a hang of it, it is real boon to editing. I even "save" my own home-brewed colour correction FX chains and use them to get me a quick suck 'n see option. It can give me a starting point.

Grazie

tbush wrote on 1/5/2006, 8:14 AM

Thank you so much for posting these tutorials. I really needed the help today. I had a video that seemed a little dark. I used the tutorial posted by JackW. My video looks 100% better with just a couple of small adjustments. This information really saved my video. I appreciate the help all of you offer. Tara

busterkeaton wrote on 1/5/2006, 8:55 AM

Another method you may try is having the same video clip on two tracks. On the top track really make it brighter to the point where it looks off, then use lower the opacity on this track to blend it in with the good clip. Play around with that you can get some nice results.

I would try the color curves bit first and then see if this method, gets you an even better look.

busterkeaton wrote on 1/5/2006, 9:11 AM

Glenn,

I love the color curves veg. I like how you included the info in the clips. Very clever.

Is there a typo in one of the text clips? Should 230 be 130 below?

Maximum NTSC composite values is 133IRE (i.e. DVD).

Cheers,

craftech wrote on 1/5/2006, 9:12 AM

Ditto on above suggestions. Keep in mind that lightening the video using Gamma is better than messing with brightness and contrast because it doesn't add video noise to the image.

GlennChan wrote on 1/5/2006, 2:00 PM

Buster, you're right. Sometimes I just can't type.

The maximum composite value for broadcast should usually be around 115-120IRE. (Although sometimes lower and maybe higher). The broadcaster should have technical delivery specs.

2- There are other mistakes in the text, and not necessarily grammatical ones. For NTSC with setup (everywhere except for Japan), the maximum legal IRE value is actually 130 5/6 (about 130.833 IRE).

For NTSC without setup, the maximum legal IRE value is 133 1/3 IRE. This is according to Charles Poynton's book (poynton.com), which I'm currently slowly going through (it's very technical). His book also says that the maximum composite IRE value allowed should be about 113 IRE to avoid problems in old television receivers (~113IRE for NTSC with setup, 115IRE for NTSC without setup).