Glare in shot

[mattadamsapple]

I was shooting an interview yesterday and when I got home and started going through the footage I noticed a n glare on the subjects shirt under his right collar. It's not ultra noticeable but it's staring right at me when I look at the shot. Is there any way to get rid of it, minimize it or blur it out? It wouldn't bother me as much if it looked more like a glare but to me it looks like a dirty lens. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[clang]

It stays in exactly the same spot even when the guy moves slightly, and stays the same brightness? Yes, sounds like a stray blob of dust on the lens.

In theory it should be possible to make it a little less noticeable, as there's only a plain shirt underneath. Exactly how will depend on your NLE. My general approach would be:
- duplicate the track above itself
- convert the top layer into a mask the size of the blob, with very blurry edges
- make the top layer partly transparent and fiddle with its brightness - if you're lucky, slightly darkening the top layer will help make the blob less noticeable.

good luck

 

[mattadamsapple]

- convert the top layer into a mask the size of the blob, with very blurry edges

Thanks for the info! I use FCP and have never converted a layer into a mask. How do I do that and also blur the edges?

Thanks!

 

[clang]

sorry, I've never used FCP, but I'd be amazed if it can't do it. Maybe ask again in the FCP forum?

FCP may not call this a mask, but what I mean is changing a video event so that only a very small partion of it (the 'blob' in your case) is visible and the rest is transparent. It's pretty commonly used in split screen and picture-in-picture style effects where you need multiple video streams onscreen at once - in your case you want the same video on screen twice, but one layer only showing the edited blob.