Need help on FCP 7 color correcting overexposed film!

Hi everyone,
I need your help on how to get rid of overexposed footage. Is there a way where I can isolate the overexposed footage using the same footage that is already color corrected to change the selected background from bright to dark. I am working on a short long take film, which I find it hard to color correct in certain areas where it is overexposed. I am using final cut pro 7. In addition, I am new to color correcting.

Thanks,

-Jna

If it is REALLY over exposed, there isn't much you can do. The detail isn't there to recover. You can try this plugin, the CAPT'S BLOWOUT FIXER. It's free.

[pistolerapost.com]

But really, if it is very over exposed by a lot, there isn't much that can be done. I'm sure a seasoned colorist might have a few tricks they can employ. But being able to way what they are in a forum? Tough...


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Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

With underexposed images one can try using blend modes to regain some of the details or at least force some brightnesss into the highlights. This won't come anywhere near to restoring it totally, but might leave you with a "look" you can live with. Overexposed is downright nasty. There's precious little that you can do unless you have an original log type image (like a Redlog .r3d file) to work with that might well contain more definition than you're seeing, but got messed up in the debayering. A common enough error, but can be fixed to a large extent in grade. What exactly is the footage you're working with and what camera was it shot on?

Thank you for replying to my forum.
I am using Panasonic HMC 150 camcorder. I am working with 1920 x 1080 hd. Where is the blend modes located at? Can you explain to me the steps of how to use the blend modes. I am still currently learning how to use the fcp7.

thanks.
-Jna

Step 1 to learning: Go to the FCP Help Menu. Basic info there.

Step 2: The internet is your friend. Just google for Blend Modes in FCP or Composite Modes (same animal) in FCP.

in a nutshell, composite modes are different ways the pixels ove one video layer interact withhte picels of another video layer.

so you might take this pixel value and ADD it with that pixel value to get a new value.
or might SUBTRACT the values and get a whole other result.

im no export, this is just my extremely basic understudying.

what it means in the real world for me, is that if i have the same clip on two layers and adjust the composite modes to ADD, then you can get a lot more out of a dark shot than by just lifting the levels.

but that can get rather cumbersome, so i have a neat trick.
there is a free filter set you can get from To Much Too Soon.
one of the filters is a simple diffusion filter.

now, diffusion simply works by having the same clip on two layers, and adjusting the blur and opacity, and sometimes the COMPOSITE MODE of the top one.
so this is pretty much the same as what was described above, but with a blur thrown in and opacity control.

the Too Much Too Soon filter does this in a FILTER rather than having to build it yourself with two layers.
can you see where this is headed?

in the TMTS diffusion filter, set blur to zero, and leave the opacity up all the way,
and then you are left with just manipulating the composite modes.

so if i have a really dark shot then i drop this filter on, and use ADD mode to lift it up again.
obviously you ca only go so far with this, but it can help a lot.

however, as everybody else has been saying OVEREXPOSURE is another story: there may be nothing left in the blown out areas at all.


to end on a more optimistic note, there is another free filter you can get that is made specifically for dealing with under and over exposed shots.
the Lyric Shadow / Highlight filter:
[www.lyric.com]


good luck!


nick

>You can try this plugin, the CAPT'S BLOWOUT FIXER. It's free.

I second this. I use it every now and then. Very useful. Not too much you can do if all the channels are blown.

Adding a highlights diffusion is a good and subtle way to soften blown out spots (they don't fix the image, as the data just isn't there).

Regarding blend modes on underexposed shots... I don't agree that it fixes underexposed shots if you blend the image over white/black or over itself. Try and see it. I find it arguably the same as lift/gamma/gain controls, because you just didn't have sufficient data, but they're handy for creating certain looks.



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