How do I partially color correct an image with a mask?

Hello Everyone,

thanks in advance to anyone reading this and especially to anyone with any advice!

So I shot a bunch of interviews INDOORS and the viewfinder of the camera (not mine), Sony Z1, deceived me and I should have brought a film light but none of that can be changed now. So now I need to fix it myself in post.

The faces of the persons in the foreground are darker than the yellow and white walls in the background which have a ceiling light shining on them. So the eye travels to the backgroudn first and not to the interviewee first. In each take there is one person standing in the foreground. When I use 3way color corrector and play with the mids, blacks and whites the background is affected just as much as the face. The face needs to stand off from the background. So with a mask somehow I need to lighten up the face while darkening the background. Are there any good web articles on how to do this???? (I found nothing on the forum although maybe I did not search the proper way.)

Thanks everyone!!
Cheers,
Robert

MY EQUIPMENT:
Camera Sony Z1, PAL miniDV.
Powerbook G4 15inch.
OS 10.4.9
FCP HD4.5.

Hi Robert,

First answer would be to use FCP Studio's Color program
but,
If you are working in 4.5 I have a better solution.

There is a plugin you can buy it costs $95.00 i used to have it the name slips me and im sorry.
But what it does is called Power Windows you can select an area you want to shade bring up or bring down it is very powerful and clean with edge feathering.

I am so sorry i cant remember the name of the plugin but the guys name was like MIKE i think

I did a search and cant find it but it was something like EDIT DR or DR EDIT.

I do hope that helps or someone tells us what its called.

Good Luck

Hi Ricky,

okay thanks very much that sounds good . If anyone knows the name that would be great.

But also Ricky what do you mean with FCP Studio Color Program - sorry I have no idea - which item in the menu? Are there any tutorials for it???

Thanks!
Robert

A lot depends on your picture, but essentailly what you want to do is make corrections to different areas of luminance. You can use the 3 way colour corrector to do this. Have a look in the manual for .Limit effect'. This will show you how to use the limit effect section of the CC to choose only the bright areas, or only the dark areas, to make separate adjustments.

Here's a quick example of where it is and what it does.

Limit Effect

Colorista [www.redgiantsoftware.com] will help but if it's possible to re-shoot that would be the best option. Judes option will work as well at a cheaper price point.

Lyric Media's free Shadow-Highlight plugin can do wonders in certain situations. Worth a try.

Scott

Hello Robert,

[But also Ricky what do you mean with FCP Studio Color Program - sorry I have no idea - which item in the menu? Are there any tutorials for it???]


The latest upgrade in FCP is a package called Final Cut Pro Studio 2
You seem to have FCP ver 4.5HD
FCP its self is at version 6.0
Now they have a wonderful package that includes DVD Studio Pro, Sound Track Pro, Color, Motion, Compressor and some sweet things i cant think of.
No need for me to do a terrible job in telling you about it.
Here check it out you should see what you can get with an upgrade.
watch the videos.

[www.apple.com]

Make sure you see what Color can do.
Its amazing and would be perfect for your situation
and there are tutorials on using it.
I could make you one if you needed it.

Its a very reasonable price upgrade.
If you do decide to buy it
make sure you buy it here

[www.lafcpug.org]

you will have it shipped within 24hrs from purchase.

1 thing make sure your computer meets your system requirements
hate to steer you into software thats too demanding.

Hope that helps good luck.

Hello Everyone. Thank you all so much for all of the information - that is very generous of all of you!


and now

TO SCOTT:
Scott this plug in looks great! Sorry I am very inept at all of the computer stuff. I have been trying to do the download and I get the .bin file. But then it tells me to extract the plug in from the .bin file. When I double click on the .bin file automatically toast titanium comes up and wants to burn the file onto a cd! So how do I extract the plug in from the .bin??? (I also put the .bin file into the plugins folder but it does not appear in fcp.)

Thank you,
Robert


Here are the instructions from the website for the ShadowHighlight filter:
[lyric.com]
"Once you've downloaded the .bin file, double-click it to extract the ShadowHighlight plugin filter file, if it hasn't already extracted itself automatically. To install the filter, drag it to your Final Cut plugins folder. For Final Cut Pro this is: Macintosh HD:Library:Application Support:Final Cut Pro System Supportlugins: and for Final Cut Express: Macintosh HD:Library:Application Support:Final Cut Express Supportlugins:. Restart Final Cut and find the filter in the Lyric Image Control section in Video Filters."

Your Mac should have Stuffit Expander on it somewhere, I believe it is supplied with the OS in some form. Apparently your file defaults aren't working as expected.

Go to the ShadowHighlight.bin file and right-click it (or ctrl-click). You will get a little menu. The important item here is "Open with" and it has a little triangle next to if off to the right. When you move your mouse to "Open with" a new menu should open with a list of the different applications that would deal with this file. Look for Stuffit Expander on that list and click on it. This will do the "expected" thing which is to extract the file. After expansion you will see another file in the same place called ShadowHighlight without the .bin extension. This is your plug-in, and you should move it to the folder described in the instructions.

Try that, let us know how it works.

Scott

Hopefully a plug-in will do the job for you.

If not, it is worth learning how to target, isolate and then change the brightness of parts of an image using the Luma control in the Limit Effect panel in your 3-way Color Corrector.

Here is a very good 9 minute tutorial. Scroll down to "Cutting Class: Color Driven FX: Color Correction for Style":

[www.digitaljuice.com]

Hey Everyone!

Wow thanks so much for your help! Scott I got it to work using your instructions - it was opening toast by default. And just by throwing the filter on the clip it already looks much better without my having fiddled with the settings yet, which I now have to learn. So great. And BazinOz yes the video is really helpful-thank you too.

So THank you to all of you! If any more problems come up once I havve the edit done and actually do the color correction I may "call again" if that is okay.

Take care,
Robert

PS
Hi SCOTT
sorry one thing I just noticed with the shadowhighlight plugin that I wanted to ask you about:

Q> Is it true that the images goes a bit more grainy after applying the plug in?

Even so I still think it looks better than when it was too dark.

Thanks,
Robert

Any time you increase the level of a shot that is underexposed, you will reveal the video noise that is inevitable when the light levels are too low. In the digital world, that noise looks like "grain". There are some digital noise reduction plug-ins (Nattress.com has DNR) that might help, but nothing will make it look like it was exposed properly in the first place. But I suspect that the improvement you're already seeing will be acceptable, depending on the ciritcality of your project.

Scott

Hi Scott,

thanks once again for the information. I was looking at the Nattress website. Do you mean the Big Tool Box which has many filters including noise reduction? Without wanting to sound cheap, there is no way to just buy the noise reduction filter alone without having to get the whole package is there???

Thanks a lot!
Cheers,
Robert

Robert,

There isn't a way to buy just one filter out of the package, but in the long run you'd be glad you had the whole thing. And Graeme Nattress has the best product support in the business!

But there are other alternatives. The Too Much Too Soon collection from Mattias Sandstrom (free!!) has Noise Reduction and Smart Noise Reduction, and a bunch of other very useful plugins. CHV Electronics has a noise resuction filter in the Repair Collection; not free but a great site for plugins.

I've never used noise reduction so I can't tell you which is best or the best way to use it. Try it!

Scott