Joe's Filters: Real World Examples

This page was created in response to this posting on the Creative Cow Final Cut Pro message boards.

Before and After

The problem

Badly shot video needs to be integrated with standard footage. The bad footage is extremely high-contrast, such that the blacks are filling in and the highlights are blown out. Any color near the highlights is severely burned in and unnatural looking.

The Solution

My goal in rescuing this clip is to reduce the color saturation and bring back some detail in the darks. If possible, some excess chroma information might be able to bring a little detail back into the blown out highlight areas as well.

A combination of Joe's Filters is applied to the image to bring back some lost detail and reduce the color intensity. Actual numerical settings are indicated with the example images.

1. Joe's Levels

   In order to bring back some detail, gamma is shifted down to increase the values between gray and white. The target is set to Luma to preserve color and prevent the image colors from brightening any further.

2. Joe's Saturation and Colorize

   Because there is some color in the highlight areas, desaturating towards a specific target will convert that existing information into something more useful. The colors available to use are orange-ish yellow, so the filter targets blue (opposite on the color wheel).

If the resulting image appears to bright, simply reduce the amount of Gamma correction applied or raise the Input Black amount.