Exposure Problem at DVinfo.net

Shaun Conner · November 3rd, 2008, 04:42 PM

I shot a wedding a couple of weeks ago and the camera person working with me adjusted the exposure inside of the church and the video looks grainy. Is there any plug in or feature I can use to clean it up or at least make the video look less grainy?

Oren Arieli · November 3rd, 2008, 06:48 PM

Are we talking video noise or exposure? Very different beasts. If its noise from high gain, then you could try Neat Video's noise reduction software. Works very well, but it takes a loooong time to render.
If you're talking brightness levels being blown out, that's a job for the proc-amp or similar exposure-correcting filter within your editing software.

Good luck

Shaun Conner · November 3rd, 2008, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oren Arieli

Are we talking video noise or exposure? Very different beasts. If its noise from high gain, then you could try Neat Video's noise reduction software. Works very well, but it takes a loooong time to render.
If you're talking brightness levels being blown out, that's a job for the proc-amp or similar exposure-correcting filter within your editing software.

Good luck

It's the brightness levels. I think. I'm not sure what he did.

Shaun Conner · November 3rd, 2008, 07:23 PM

i checked out neat video, but there is no plug in for fcp. What it looks like he did is take play with the exposure and brighten the picture so it would lighten it up, but now there is a lot of grain on the video.

Danny O'Neill · November 4th, 2008, 08:49 AM

Im guessing he closed the iris and therefore the Gain kicked in to compensate?

Gain Grain is a pain but not that bad. I edit and I can clearly see it on my monitors, I boost the evening stuff so its viewable and the grain is bad. But when its on the telly you really dont see it. Even upscaled on the PS3 I cant see the grain. This is when converted to SD for a DVD.

DVD's are just such low quality they make it all fuzzy and remove this finer grain. give that a go first before you spend too much time trying to fix it.

Shaun Conner · November 4th, 2008, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

Im guessing he closed the iris and therefore the Gain kicked in to compensate?

Gain Grain is a pain but not that bad. I edit and I can clearly see it on my monitors, I boost the evening stuff so its viewable and the grain is bad. But when its on the telly you really dont see it. Even upscaled on the PS3 I cant see the grain. This is when converted to SD for a DVD.

DVD's are just such low quality they make it all fuzzy and remove this finer grain. give that a go first before you spend too much time trying to fix it.

Ok. I'll do that.

Tripp Woelfel · November 4th, 2008, 11:09 AM

Not sure if you shot in SD or HD. If you shot in HD and will deliver in SD, the grain shouldn't be too big of a problem. I shot a race in HD and created a DVD of the final product and the grain all but disappeared.

I don't use FCP, but if you can frame blend you might want to see what that does for you. Grain rarely shows up in the same place on subsequent frames so that might mask it somewhat. The downside you might get some blurring you don't want, but if it's your b-roll camera, it might not matter.

Ethan Cooper · November 4th, 2008, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun Conner

i checked out neat video, but there is no plug in for fcp. What it looks like he did is take play with the exposure and brighten the picture so it would lighten it up, but now there is a lot of grain on the video.

Here's my lengthy work around... but it works very well.

I use the Neat Image Photoshop plugin to clean up essential shots that are unacceptably grainy. Once I've got a locked edit, I'll put the grainy shots I want to fix on a timeline back to back then export that out as an image sequence. I'll then batch process that image sequence in Photoshop using the Neat Image plugin, and use Quicktime Pro to reassemble the image sequence back into a quicktime movie. Then import the file back into FCP, lay it over the top of the grainy footage sequence to make cutting it back into the proper segments easier, copy and paste them into their original sequences over top of the grainy footage, disabling the original grainy shot but keeping it in place in case I need to go back and make a change.

The reason I put all the shots on a single timeline to make a single, large image sequence is so I can batch the whole thing overnight because it takes a while to run a few thousand still images through Photoshop.

It's not the easiest work around you'll ever see but the price is right (I'm cheap) and it works better than you can imagine.

**EDIT**
I failed to mention that I do this workaround because I'm a FCP user and Neat Video isn't offered for FCP

Winfried Dobbe · November 4th, 2008, 04:03 PM

Last year I compared all the de-noising plugins I could find for FCP, especially for those wedding parties that have so few lights that you can't avoid getting noisy footage. The one that worked the best by far is DeNoise from Re-Vision (http://www.revisionfx.com/products/denoise). Because it compares also frames before and after the current, it removes much more noise without getting a "soft" picture.

There is one catch: the render times are longer than any other plugin I have. But the result is definitely worth it.

Ozzie Alfonso · December 4th, 2008, 10:03 PM

I'm experiencing the same problem with some footage shot SD with the XL-H1. The shooting was primarily on-the-run documentary with unexpected light levels. At times the camera was set on auto gain compensation, other times it was set at +8 to +12db. Although most of the material is very acceptable, some is really too noisy.

I checked Neat Video noise reduction software but it doesn't refer anywhere for use with video images, just Photoshop, Corel, and the like. Does Neat Video work with, say, an Avid DV Xpress system, or Premiere Pro CS3?

Are there any other recommendations? The job is due next week - all the rough cuts have been accepted but I really need to minimize the video noise.

Thank you for any suggestions.

November 3rd, 2008, 04:42 PM	#1
Shaun Conner Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 196	Exposure Problem I shot a wedding a couple of weeks ago and the camera person working with me adjusted the exposure inside of the church and the video looks grainy. Is there any plug in or feature I can use to clean it up or at least make the video look less grainy?

November 4th, 2008, 08:49 AM	#5
Danny O'Neill Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Northampton, UK Posts: 915	Im guessing he closed the iris and therefore the Gain kicked in to compensate? Gain Grain is a pain but not that bad. I edit and I can clearly see it on my monitors, I boost the evening stuff so its viewable and the grain is bad. But when its on the telly you really dont see it. Even upscaled on the PS3 I cant see the grain. This is when converted to SD for a DVD. DVD's are just such low quality they make it all fuzzy and remove this finer grain. give that a go first before you spend too much time trying to fix it. __________________ mintyslippers.com

December 4th, 2008, 10:03 PM	#10
Ozzie Alfonso Major Player Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: New York, NY Posts: 355	I'm experiencing the same problem with some footage shot SD with the XL-H1. The shooting was primarily on-the-run documentary with unexpected light levels. At times the camera was set on auto gain compensation, other times it was set at +8 to +12db. Although most of the material is very acceptable, some is really too noisy. I checked Neat Video noise reduction software but it doesn't refer anywhere for use with video images, just Photoshop, Corel, and the like. Does Neat Video work with, say, an Avid DV Xpress system, or Premiere Pro CS3? Are there any other recommendations? The job is due next week - all the rough cuts have been accepted but I really need to minimize the video noise. Thank you for any suggestions. __________________ *Ozzie Alfonso* www.ozziealfonso.com

November 3rd, 2008, 06:48 PM	#2
Oren Arieli Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Jose, California Posts: 919	Are we talking video noise or exposure? Very different beasts. If its noise from high gain, then you could try Neat Video's noise reduction software. Works very well, but it takes a loooong time to render. If you're talking brightness levels being blown out, that's a job for the proc-amp or similar exposure-correcting filter within your editing software. Good luck

November 3rd, 2008, 07:23 PM	#4
Shaun Conner Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 196	i checked out neat video, but there is no plug in for fcp. What it looks like he did is take play with the exposure and brighten the picture so it would lighten it up, but now there is a lot of grain on the video.

November 4th, 2008, 11:09 AM	#7
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	Not sure if you shot in SD or HD. If you shot in HD and will deliver in SD, the grain shouldn't be too big of a problem. I shot a race in HD and created a DVD of the final product and the grain all but disappeared. I don't use FCP, but if you can frame blend you might want to see what that does for you. Grain rarely shows up in the same place on subsequent frames so that might mask it somewhat. The downside you might get some blurring you don't want, but if it's your b-roll camera, it might not matter.

November 4th, 2008, 04:03 PM	#9
Winfried Dobbe Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Amersfoort, Netherlands Posts: 85	Last year I compared all the de-noising plugins I could find for FCP, especially for those wedding parties that have so few lights that you can't avoid getting noisy footage. The one that worked the best by far is DeNoise from Re-Vision (http://www.revisionfx.com/products/denoise). Because it compares also frames before and after the current, it removes much more noise without getting a "soft" picture. There is one catch: the render times are longer than any other plugin I have. But the result is definitely worth it.