Matching footage

Hmm.. I've stuff shot on all sorts of formats, some footage provided by the client (variable quality), some shot on digital beta, and some on dvcpro HD. What's the fastest way to match the footage? i'm color correcting each one with the 3 way, but it's not really cutting it...

3-Way is pretty powerful & fast...maybe you aren't doing it correctly?

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Hmm... I adjust the blacks, then the whites, then tweak the mids to match somewhat, then adjust the saturation so they fall within the same general ball park... The white points are fairly easy, but when i try to match the grass, it usually comes off as a black tone. I'm also having problems tweaking shots where there are various dark tones as well lighter tones... Hmm.. perhaps i should try secondary color correction.

using match hue?

maybe you're eye-dropping on a black shadow rather a green blade
use something else in the frame to match the mid tones.

some things are so different they just cant be matched well.
i'm thinking of matching a cloudy day to a sunny day.


nick

Arghs. Can't get that to work properly on this shot... Okay, I've some brown that's practically black, the footage is pixelating, i can see the blocks. It originated from a wireless camera, so the resolution was reduced to allow it to squeeze through the wireless signal. I didn't want to use this footage initially... lemme see if i can get a screenshot.

okay... here [i282.photobucket.com]

There is no easy way around CC'ing that footage. That's rough stuff there. Almost looks like a cell phone pic. This is an eyeball-it type of clip if it's all that dark & pixelated. Is that the best screencap in the clip? What about screencaps of the clips before & after that you are trying to match?

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Okay, the shots are taken from all over the place, many of them supplied by the client. Shots like the previous one i uploaded, are breaking apart because the signal was down rezzed to squeeze into a wireless signal. Other challenges include shots of a semi-dark brown horse, but in the background is a cream wall. When i push down the whites, the features of the horse becomes fairly indistinguishable- eyes seem to melt into the face...

Here are the two shots i'm trying to match that pixelated one i posted earlier. The lines are from interlacing, strangely the pixelating shots aren't interlaced, and i'm trying to make the color of the horse look somewhat more natural.

[i282.photobucket.com]

[i282.photobucket.com]

hmm..

so many shades of green the eye-dropper doesn't really work,
best to eye-ball it.

problem with the middle "horse" shot is when you match the green,
the bg goes pink,
so secondary CC is probably the way to go.

even then it's a hard one.

i guess you cant just make it sepia or something.
this doesn't look like an "art" job


i'll email you my project file FWIW

oh yea, are you on fcp 5.1.4? Coz that's what this machine is running right now. XML should do it. Yea... Sigh... I think i've to secondary color correct most of the footage just to get the grass to match.

I think the fact that the bad pic is in shadow doesn't help the cuase. This would look slightly odd even if it were all on the same camera. I'd do a colour match on something easier - like some of the yellow shirt in shadow. Or, yeah, do Nick's trick and go black and white, with noise.