Holiday company promo edited in Vegas

[Mark Rosenzweig]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

Thanks for the feedback Mark.

I'm not sure I agree with 'all over' but yes, there are some (and only a couple that actually bother me). I do check the histogram when shooting but I don't use other scopes at all. Poor on my part, I know.

I will add that when I look at a local copy of this video at my desk it seems much better exposed so I remain convinced that some aspect of YouTube processing (not necessarily the compression) has done something to raise levels in some areas.

Even the title opening clip, which looks down on the sail boats, is dominated by blown highlights - the sails and the hulls. They are 1/3 of the frame, and also the subject. White is one of the dominant colors in any sailing video, so hotspots are a major issue.

I have uploaded scores of videos to YouTube and I have never experienced any change in luminance or contrast; I have never heard of anybody complaining about it until now. Many contributors to this forum, who are evidently more finicky than you (and me), have uploaded their videos to YouTube and have never blamed YouTube for causing overexposure or increasing contrast to create blown highlights and hotspots.

The video as a whole is very nice and professional; well-cut etc. I wouldn't comment on it if this were just some casual vacation clip. But it is seriously crippled by overexposed highlights. I think vivid reds (as someone suggested) are less likely to signal handycam video than blown highlights.

The scopes I was referring to were in an editor - check them in post for the video you have created to see what is going on.

[Ian Stark]

I guess we are going to have to differ in opinion on the definition of 'seriously crippled' :-)

I won't argue with you about your experiences with YouTube. I can only report back what I am seeing at my desk. When I look at the YouTube version it is noticeably brighter than when I look at the original. Whether it's YouTube causing the issue or some other phenomenon I have no idea, all I can tell you is that I am experiencing it. If you prefer to believe I'm misleading you in some way then I'll have to live with that :-)

I'm certainly not disputing that there are hotspots in the video and that these could have been prevented by a more skilled and experienced camera operator, editor or colourist. I think where we aren't agreeing is the extent to which it affects the overall result, but I totally understand that different people view things through different eyes so I respect your opinion. If it has spoiled anyone else's enjoyment of the video then I apologise and I will try harder next time.

Useful feedback. Thanks.

[Noa Put]

Ian, I"m afraid I have to agree with Mark. There is something going on with your video that is not right. I too see a lot of blown highlights. I downloaded your video and loaded it into edius which confirmed my thoughts, the ire value of your clip is between -5 and +120, when I brought that back between 0 and 100 most details that where gone in the blown highlights recovered again and made it look a lot better, if you want I can send you a before and after frame but the difference is quite obvious. I"m sure that I could recover even more if I had access to the raw unaltered video but that ofcourse depends how blown out some parts where to start with, from what I have seen a af101 doesn't deal so well with highlights.

I hope you don't mind me downloading your video but I just wanted to confirm what I was thinking.

[Ian Stark]

Hi Noa,

Absolutely no objection at all!

The thing is, I'm not disagreeing that there are blown highlights - what I am saying is that they aren't as noticeable when I look at the original. You're right about the af101 and highlights - it does need a lot of care and attention that's a bit tricky when you're on a boat :-)

I don't really want to revisit the video just yet as I'm rather too engaged in new work but at some point I will certainly attempt to re-render it given your and Mark's comments.

Thanks for the feedback and for taking the time to look.

[Erik Phairas]

Nice one Ian! Love seeing Vegas used for more than just hobby work.