I need tutorial(s) on Color Correction in Sony Vegas 6

[the soundsmith]

I am trying to repair a blown-out set of files, I had to shoot directly into a sunlit window. I have been using Vegas 6.0 pro, and worked with the Brightness/Contast, HSL Adjust and Color Correction to improve it. I have made some (I hope) improvements, but I don't really know what I am doing with color correction.

At one point, I had discovered a tool that masked off the window and let me dim that bright panel somewhat - didn't help the actual color or saturation of the rest of the image, but it helped the overall appearance - but I can't find the tool, and the project i did this on has long since been burned and deleted.

Is there a tutorial on how to use these tools, and general approach to color correction? Or some hints on how to improve these images? I found some good advice searching this forum, but it wasn't enough.
I am enclosing 3 still frames - #1 is the raw frame from cam 2, a Pana GS15 1-CCD into the window. #2 is the same frame after adding B/C, HSL and CC filters as best I can figure to use. #3 is from Cam 1, a 3-CCD Pana GS400. I'd like to match color, but it's less important than minimizing the bleed-out look.



vids.jpg

[edDV]

Pros would have taped neutral density sheets to the outside of those windows. It is very difficult to fix this in post. Color correction is a very complicated process and with 8bit luminance source, the options are limited.

I'll have a go at your "original raw shot" latter. Could you post a full size frame?

[the soundsmith]

Thanks, edDV. This was not an option, the client would not allow the view to be disrupted, and I could not convince him to move the band to the back wall, where it would have been able to shoot cleanly. (And I am very much an amateur, so even changing the white balance is a challenge - Dammit Jim, I'm a musician, not a cinematographer...)

I know color correction is complex, I'm hoping someone can point me to a tutorial: what's the best approach to get the most accurate result from whatever the raw footage is. I'm willing to delve into it, but I need to understand it, all I am doing at the moment is try, undo, retry, undo, try again and pick the one that seems to be an improvement. But I don't know enough to even recognize when it IS an improvement; any number of times I have seen contrast examples that I preferred the "before..."

Here is the raw frame.

[jagabo]

Not Vegas but Avisynth:

ColorYUV(off_y=-17)
ColorYUV(gamma_y=130)
ColorYUV(gain_y=4)
Tweak(sat=1.4)

A little too red still. The major change is from the gamma adjustments. Increasing the gamma brings out shadow details without blowing out bright areas of the picture. Vegas should have that ability.

[edDV]

First a waveform analysis shows the frame hard clips to white in the two windows and at wall and floor reflections. A white clip has no color to correct. You can play with contrast and gamma as a first step or use the white information to create a mask allowing replacement of white with other video.

The right half of the picture is relatively OK. One quick fix is to zoom in on the drummer.

Start Frame

[edDV]

This is less a "color correction" proplem than a reconstruction composite exercise. Color correction would be done on each layer as one of the filters. There are several strategies and if using masks all can be combined.

Here is a quick and dirty that may fool most of the audience by replacing the offending clipped white with a color similar to the wall. This is known as a luminance key with matte fill. This works best if the camera shot was locked down on a tripod.

I put a levels filter and a chromakey filter on the top level and a flat frame matte generator on the lower layer. The chroma keyer is in HSL (hue-saturation-luminance mode) with saturation turned down to zero making this a luminance keyer. The controls are low key threshold, high key threshold and blur which are used to blend the background to match the wall color. At the same time you play with HSL values on the solid color generator. It would be possible to mask off the floor and use a darker color there.

[jagabo]

It would be better if you uploaded a bit of the original video, not JPG images. More can be done with the video in YUV.

[edDV]

Here I'm luma keying over the same video (with filters). This would work better if there was more detail left in the keyed areas. I'm now adjusting the background fill into the hole cut by the luma keyer. Then I'm using the color balance filter on the background (separate controls for shadow, medtones and highlights). Note the blur control on the keyer can still be used to smooth edges. As a next step it would be possibls to add other video into the window if desired.


In case it isn't clear, this is the area being adjusted (balance filter turned to dark gray).

[edDV]

Instead of the levels or color balance filters, the color correction filter can be added to either layer or separately with separate adjustments. This gives a finer range of control to saturation, gain and gamma. Again, masks can be added to each layer to isolate areas of correction. I'm not spending much time on this, just showing filter strategies. Good luck.

Note that I unchecked the color balance filter thus taking it out of the filter chain.

Taking a break for dinner. Ask questions.

[edDV]

Red makes a better contrast color to show the alpha (aka Key or mask). You can put anything you want in the red area.

[aedipuss]

you have one guy in sunlight and one in shadow. not much you can do with gamma, it washes out the pianist if you increase it. the skintones are good, so you can't play with r g or b.

i think the camera did a decent job with the situation you put it in.

next time - the camera should have been to the far left back side of the room, on the piano side, to minimize the window light effects.

i'd leave it as is and claim poor lighting conditions, as that's all it is.

[zoobie]

you have to reshoot the whole thing
next time, take control of the shoot and tell your client to take a hike if he doesn't like it

I'm more of a muse/writer, myself...

[the soundsmith]

you have to reshoot the whole thing

This is a jam session - there ain't no such animal as 'reshoot', there WILL be, however, the next year's annual jam... And hopefully, I can convince him to at least place the piano with the lid opening toward the audience!!!)

next time, take control of the shoot and tell your client to take a hike if he doesn't like it

But I'm one of the pianists! I tape these sessions for me, not him. The second camera WAS on the other side of the room, and while I couldn't get enough of a wide angle to encompass everyone (one trumpet player consistently stayed out of the picture - it may have been deliberate. I have to use all jpegs for him...)

Thanks to all of you for the help and advice, I will definitely be trying out a lot of these ideas. I like the idea of masking the white and replacing, but I'd do it with a second copy of the file with the brightness reduced...

And in the meanwhile, if you care to, you can see the whole thing as it unfolds -when I update a song, I post a 480x360 flv at www.thesoundsmithcom/private/cojam.htm - the first two videos are 4 years old, and the first ouple sessions taped (elsewhere0, but the rest are from the current session - and another ten songs to go before they're done...

And now I have to read each post carefully - I've just scanned for concepts right now, but I will have more questions in a day or two. Thanks again to you all.

[wiseant]

If you are encoding for TV monitor with luma range of 16-235, try this (avisynth)

Tweak(1.00,1.0, 14, 0.86,coring=false)

meaning: increase brightness by 14, reduce contrast to 0.86 (from 1.0)

[edDV]

While his screen cap was 0-255 his DV original would be 16-235 (nominal) with white clipping at 255.

[the soundsmith]

I have band rehearsals all day today and a big band gig tis evening, so I won't be working on this today, but thank you for the great ideas.

What I did last night, incorporating some of your ideas that I could make work, was to set up a series of filters for the track. (The original file is a fixed-location shot from tripod, all camera moves are done in post, and the filters are applied to the entire track, regardless of pan/zoom.)

Brightness/Contrast: 0.06, 0.17,0 28
HSL Adjust: 0.02, 1.12, 1.00
Color Correction: don't know how to specify the color wheel values, but the dialogs are:
Low: 176.8, 0.229 wheel pointer is about 1/8" directly left of center (1.5 center dot's diameter)
Mids: 0.0, 0.00, wheel centered
Highs: 283.5, 0.122, wheel below one center cicle's diameter down and right 1/2 diameter

Sat, Gamma both 1.00
Gain/Offset 1.067, 4.7

This gave me the best picture I could scrounge from the original files, but I'm sure it can be better. Wiseant's avi tweak looks better, but I don't know how to use aviSynth.

Also on the Video Output FX, I have a Border set to 0.998 so it will match TV display (is this the best way to do it? Seems to be) and a Broadcast Color filter set to conservative -7.5.

You can view the current versions of the files at the above link, the frame is from the video called I Remember April. Comments of any kind appreciated. I do this all mainly by instinct and observation, so any helpful criticism is appreciated. Snide, "I'm better-than-you" comments not needed, I already know that I don't know what I'm doing...

Comments? Links to good training sites? Like I said, total amateur, but wanting to get better. And again, thanks for the help, I'll be back on this tomorrow.

[themaster1]

How to fix Underexposed Photo

[the soundsmith]

Thannks for the link. That's a great idea, though I don't know if I can duplicate it in Vegas 6. What's the equivalent of "screen mode"? But the concept gives me some ideas...

edDV, I'm thinking of creating a dual color matte, the upper color a light blue-gray for the windows and a reddish-blond color for the lower for the floor. That will help the cause greatly, I think. I'll post the result..

[edDV]

It may not have been clear but any full frame adjustment such as wiseant's will adjust the properly exposed right half and the two left side people as well.

The techniques I overviewed split the frame into regions (red and not red) so you can adjust either separately.

You can further subdivide the adjustment regions using masks (e.g. split the left half from the right half, and/or mask off the floor for separate adjustment. This is similar to doing a sub-mix in audio speak.

I have no idea if you are following me. This is an advanced topic.

[the soundsmith]

edDV, thanks. I follow you in general, but I could easily be misunderstanding you in some cases. I am not sure how to create and use masks; some things work great, others leave me clueless. (It's OK, I am still on a major learning curve - just went back to the beginning of DSE's Vegas 5 book and discovered some really basic stuff I didn't know was in the program...)

The red/not red leaves the floor subject to the same change as the window. I'm looking at separate colors for the two regions, and it seems to me that I can do this with a properly faked-up matte from Photoshop. I would like to see where you had the Levels setting at, when I tried that tool I did no good to my image...

At this point, given the nature of the initial footage (and my ignorance and patience level,) I think we can call it done as far as I can take it without spending a LOT more time on it than it is worth. You have given me enough info to continue figuring it out on my own (except if you would kindly post the levels settings you used.) I don't need to take up any more of your time at this point, and can use this thread to convince my client (really just a friend, I'm not getting paid for this except for the media!)

What I have learned will make a great improvement in both the current files and the next session taping.

[edDV]

Best way to fix it in the future requires filtering the windows and lighting the set.

I included the main settings windows in the screen shots above. You will be playing with upper and lower key threshold and edge blur as fine adjustments. Take it step by step. Start simple and build up.

[the soundsmith]

Thanks, edDV. I'm hoping thast when the client sees the difference in the two cameras' results, he'll be more receptive to proper setup for the next one.

Edge blur - hmmm, haven't looked at that. Thanks again for all your help.

[edDV]

In the Chroma Keyer settings.