Compensating for poorly exposed footage

[Phillip Simmons]

I recently inherited a project that included some poorly exposed footage. The worst offense is an outdoor interview where the sun was at a very low angle to the side of the subject. (The idea was to get “early morning light”.) Unfortunately, the side of the subject’s face toward the sun was overexposed, while the side away from the sun was exposed pretty well.

This interview is crucial introduction to the rest of the video, so it can’t just be omitted. (The interviewee is also the customer.)

A re-take is out of the question due to issues of distance and expense.

Is there any way to compensate for this in post using Adobe Premiere? If tried any number of the Video Effects, but none of them work selectively enough. They either change the hue or darken the entire scene. I’ve even tried shining in a “black light” using the Lighting Effects tool.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Woody]

If it's not to bad you can likely fix it with a bit of HSL qualitifcation and a power window to balance it out. You'll need something like Resolve or if you have AE, you can use Color finesse. Basic color I do in premiere but I'm notmuch for secondaries in premiere.

 

Post up a frame grab and lets play with it and see.

 

Woody

[Phillip Simmons]

I've got a frame grab. Can you tell me how to post it?

[Woody]

You could put it on something like photobucket and link to it here.

[designcbts]

You may also try "Adjust" under "Video Effects".  Select "Lighting" and drag it to the clip in question.  Play around in the "Effect Controls" tab to see if it helps any.  Good luck!!!

[Brian]

Looking at your file, there is a huge amount of the image that is clipped to 100% white and there's nothing you can do.  Generally speaking, once something is overexposed, you can't do much to fix it.  

 

If you absolutely have no other choice, add some subtle warmth to the clipped area and maybe a bit of glow to fuzzy up the bright areas or heavily stylize it with a duotone, black and white, etc and make it appear to be a stylistic decision.

 

The shooter should be smacked on the head like little bunny foo foo for not taking the ugly no smoking sign off the door or framing around it, for not using a polarizer to knock down the reflections on the windows, and the crappy exposure…  In their defense, that's a tough shot with most cameras due to the very high contrast ratio.  A silk or net would have been a big help but the reflective nature of the glass would have made it tough to hide.

 

 

[designcbts]

You could try a mask, on another video track, as a kind of filter.  It would be tedious.  Talking head videos are the best to attempt this kind of fix though.  This is the only other thing I can think of, other than what Brian suggests.  Good luck!!

 

 

[Phillip Simmons]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

The solution that seemed to work best was adding a bit of warmth.

While not perfect by an means, the client is happy. So I am , too.

[Woody]

Glad it worked out but holy lack of zebras batman. Camera guy should have seen that. Not much you can do when the detail is lost.

[Phillip Simmons]

OK. Thanks for the suggestion. Here's a link.

 

http://s887.photobucket.com/user/pcsTVP/media/OverexposedFrame_zps12cbcbc7.png.html

 

I appreciate any help or advice anyone can offer.

[Author]

Posts