Improve detail in washed out faces

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Level 1

10 points

Improve detail in washed out faces

New here so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but here goes.

I have some incredible concert footage from Madison Square Garden. I was in the front row and propped my video cam right against the speaker so there's no jittering and the sound is incredible. My problem is that the musician's face is washed out from the spotlight.

Is there any way to improve this so you can see her face? Contrast, shadows, lighting? Or is it like that permanently because that's what the camera recorded? Thanks in advance for the help.

G5, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Home

Posted on Mar 27, 2009 12:33 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 27, 2009 12:40 AM in response to BellaMadonna

welcome littleurchin28 to the  iMovie boards ...

I dare to say: no hope.

digital still cameras often 'hide' some quality in their tons of data ..
but video is usually allready high compressed = what you see in playback is max. of quality.
esp. 'over exposured' areas (=white face) don't contain any data you can rescue/push/enhance ..

that can only be accomplished in the labs of 'C.S.I.' ... 😉

don't forget: you're not a documentarist, this is YOUR video of that concert.. memories are more valueable than any pic-quality..

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Answer 2

BellaMadonna Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 27, 2009 1:22 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Thanks so much for your response. I thought as much.

I know this is an imovie forum, but I have a question based on your answer.

You said digital still shots mask a lot of data. I have found this with some editing too, but I'm new at editing and I learn as I go along. I have a Nikon D40 and some of my shots from the concert I mentioned are awesome. What can I do to maximize my image quality without making the pictures look like a painting (I shot without flash with a wide aperture and slow shutter speed)?

Is there any references I can look to or some technique I'm missing? Thanks.

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Answer 3

Mar 27, 2009 1:22 AM in response to BellaMadonna

Hi

This depends on
a. Luck
b. amount of time and money to spend

There is a plug-in to FinalCut Pro
(and as I tested it also FC Express without any guarantie)

• Captain's Blowout Fixer plugin

This works like this
a color photo or video is built up by three color chanals
red, green and blue

When a face gets blown out ther might be enough info in one of the three
(often green) to save the day

Structure in green channal is moved over to the red channal and then color-corrected into the red channel

BUT try to find someone with FCE and that download the free plug-in
Captain's Blowout Fixer

and have a try first !

If there is no info in any other channal - There IS NO HOPE as Karsten states.

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 4

Mar 27, 2009 1:43 AM in response to BellaMadonna

littleurchin28 wrote:
.. Nikon D40 .. What can I do to maximize my image quality without making the pictures look like a painting (I shot without flash with a wide aperture and slow shutter speed)?

I'm using a D50 .. 🙂

'enhancing' stills is a endless topic.. as you mentioned: there's a non-defineded border between 'picture' and 'painting' ...

your (my...) Nikon allows in its setting to choose the 'format' of savings - jpeg or raw. raw files are the ones, which allow the most 'magic' in post-production. jpegs are highly compressed...
as a beginner, try the options in iPhoto: what I like to do is adding slight amounts of saturation, correct contrasts, and esp. these three 'sliders' under that 'values' offer superb otions..
http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/#editing

.. when using a slow shutter speed, for shure there's no way to get rid of 'blurr' afterwards ..

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