Color correction for underwater footage

[florini]

Hi,

I did some underwater footage at more than 20 meters depth and in poor visibility. Unfortunately I did not have my lights with me and the quality is quite poor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYHfxK-ZSQ

I have Sony Vegas but I am a noob and I don't know how to improve the quality. I tried to use the built-in Color Correction filter, also I took a trial of NewBlue ColorFast, I also downloaded Mike Crash's Autolevel, but none of these helped.

I realise that color that is not recorded cannot be "brought back", but I am sure these clips can look better than this.

On another forum someone posted this example correction:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20371960/VideoForumUK/Scott%20Andrews%20Post%20SONY%20CC%20Com...sited%201a.wmv
but that person is not willing to share publicly his secrets

Can someone point me to a good guide?

Thanks,

Florin

[davexnet]

your second link is invalid

[florini]

Sorry: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20371960/VideoForumUK/Scott%20Andrews%20Post%20SONY%20CC%20Com...sited%201a.wmv

Also edited OP

[sanlyn]

There's little we could advise from anything that uTube has modified. Their video might look like your submission to them, or it might not. In any case, correcting video that has already been edited, titled, and re-encoded into lossy format and authored would be a bad idea. For one thing, color correction on the finished video would change the color of your titles. For another, you need to work color correction (if possible) using your original, decoded source, not the final output. In particular, converting anything wmv is a no-no if you intend to do any further processing.

[smrpix]

In the places I checked on your video there are literally no reds except noise.

I also did not see the "corrected" scene in your footage. Was it actually yours? If not, I suspect the "before" and "after" have been reversed and the guy won't tell you his technique because he's lying.

[florini]

sanlyn, thanks, but I'm not looking for someone to fix it for me, but to teach me how to do it in Vegas.

smrpix, in my youtube video (first link) there is no correction, that looks like the original footage. The second link (dropbox) is someone else's footage and you see the correction side-by-side with the original.

Florin

[florini]

Also, smrpix, you're right there are no reds. I was thinking maybe I could do what this guy does for a still image: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFhrTQJg6MI

He also has no red channel, but he copies the green over but I have no clue how to do that for a video in Vegas.

Florin

[sanlyn]

You need to work with a lossless decode of your original at the YUV level.

[smrpix]

Looks like I owe Mr. Andrews an apology. Very cool.

Here's a quickie in Vegas Movie Studio with a composite of the settings displayed. You'll probably want to tweak to get back some of the blue. Also, your footage varies greatly so expect to do a lot of keyframing and adjusting. Nonetheless, it looks doable. Good Luck. (And thanks for the lesson.)

[sanlyn]

Nope. The sample image is rife with compression artifacts (some of which probably came from using JPG for the image). A re-encode will look even worse.

It's the O.P.'s choice. High compression and re-compression artifacts are almost impossible to remove. Good luck.

[smrpix]

Easy does it Sanlyn, I'm ONLY talking about the color. I assume OP will actually be working with his original footage.

[sanlyn]

Oh, I see.

Let's hope so. All those expanses of smooth water area will get very noisy otherwise.

[florini]

Of course, I'll be working with the camera footage (AVCHD).

smrpix, thanks! that helps, I'll get busy.

Florin

[smrpix]

Good Luck, and you probably will still end up with some artifacts. At that point you may want to check back in with Sanlyn. Besides having excellent taste in avatars, he is truly a master at clearing out noise.

[sanlyn]

Uhh...my gosh, thanks but let's not over-rate my efforts. I get a lot of those tips from the old pro's around here. Working with the original footage ought to yield OK results. But, then, you can always come here if there's a problem.