Thoughts on how to fix blown out footage

M

mvetanen

Active member
Here is the situation:
I hired a freelancer to run second camera for a ballet recital that my company was hired to video.

I was using the HPX300 shooting DVCPRO HD and he was using his Sony EX1 shooting XDCAM EX.

The problem is that the freelancer shot 3 to 4 stops over exposed the whole time!!! The in some cases the faces are blown out or it is overall blown-out. When I darken the footage I get a contrast brown showing up in the faces. The problem is that no matter what I do the blown out video is not looking good.

Origional XDCAM Blowout
XDCAM_BLOWNOUT.jpg


Darkened image - not good!
XDCAM_BLOWNOUT_Darkened.jpg


HPX300 image as reference
HPX300.jpg


Anybody have any techniques for fixing blown out footage?
 
Unfortunately, that's not an easy fix - and nearly impossible to completely repair. Here's a source I found via Google - Ripple Training - I've used their tutorials in the past and they've proven to be thorough and useful.

Under the "Contrast Control" section they have an entire tutorial about fixing overexposed video. It's not free however.
http://www.rippletraining.com/color_correction_in_final_cut_pro_expanded_itunes_edition.html

You might try Googling (if you haven't already) keywords like: FCP, overexposed video, fixing
 
The lighting in the two clips you've posted here are vastly different. I've pulled your "blown out" clip into my viewer, and it doesn't show that anything is clipped. But without the original footage, I couldn't say for sure.

If the footage is truly just hot, and not clipped, then getting it back into range is trivial. If it's clipped, then it's going to just be clipped.
 
CinemaElectronika said:
I can't confirm since I'm not an editor but you should take a look at Magic Bullet Looks...

I'm sure there's a tutorial that shows how to use it in such situations...

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/categories/color-correction/magic-bullet-looks/

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/tutorials/#magic-bullet-looks

My best,

H.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip on Magic Bullet. I own it and never thought to see if it can do better than the built in Brightness and contrast control. Ill let you know if there is any success with MB.
 
PerroneFord said:
The lighting in the two clips you've posted here are vastly different. I've pulled your "blown out" clip into my viewer, and it doesn't show that anything is clipped. But without the original footage, I couldn't say for sure.

If the footage is truly just hot, and not clipped, then getting it back into range is trivial. If it's clipped, then it's going to just be clipped.
Click to expand...

The Footage is overly HOT for most of the video and clipped in some parts.

XDCAM_BLOWNOUT CLIPPED.jpg


here is the scopes
xdcam_scopes.jpg
 
Unfortunately you can't recover detail from blow outs. So if this occurs on faces etc... it's going to be very noticable

The best you can do is try to match the footage if you plan on intermixing the footage from the cameras
 
PDR said:
Unfortunately you can't recover detail from blow outs. So if this occurs on faces etc... it's going to be very noticable

The best you can do is try to match the footage if you plan on intermixing the footage from the cameras
Click to expand...

All of the video the freelancer shot ranges from overly hot to blown out. This is the second time I hired this freelancer where the past shoot his work was just fine. I guess everyone can be "off their game", but as I vent now, this is just incompetent on the behalf of the freelancer.

I am resigned to the fact that the footage cannot be "fixed in post", I was hoping that someone might just have some ideas or techniques that would help.
 
I realize you're using Vegas. But for others using FCP I thought they might be interested in knowing there is a plugin they can use that does a pretty good job at recovering blownout highlights in certain instances. It's called Captain's Blowout Fixer, named for DVXUser CaptainMench. There a short video at the linked site showing how to use the filter. The plugin was created by Patrick Sheffield. Here's what he says about the filter:
Patrick Sheffield said:
Captain's blowout fixer. I wrote this plugin based on a Shake script that Captain Mench sent me. What Cap'n noticed was that when an image is blown out, especially on the skin, not all color channels are necessarily over exposed. Often when the red channel is blown out, the green channel may still contain good information. This plugin lets you selectively substitute one channel for another in the over exposed areas and color correct it to match.
Click to expand...
 
Blaine said:
I realize you're using Vegas. But for others using FCP I thought they might be interested in knowing there is a plugin they can use that does a pretty good job at recovering blownout highlights in certain instances. It's called Captain's Blowout Fixer, named for DVXUser CaptainMench. There a short video at the linked site showing how to use the filter. The plugin was created by Patrick Sheffield. Here's what he says about the filter:
Click to expand...

Actually, it does help. When I looked at the Blowouts in the green channel the details are there, not so in the red and blue channel. ill have to create a plugin that does the same thing as the one for FCP for Vegas. thanks.

Mark
 
I use Magic Bullet Looks, go into Lift-Gamma-Gain, and set the areas that I want it identify as "Highlights" (by using "show mask" or something like that) and then decrease just the highlights. I will post some examples soon. Also, I use a vignette sometimes and use that to brighten or darken certain areas of the frame (also Looks).
 
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