Dust, specks, and scratches correction.
by Lee Albright
on
Nov 13, 2005 at 4:38:16 pm
Years ago I shot film footage in the Super 16mm and 35mm film formats.
Recently, I had this material transferred to miniDV.
While viewing the transferred footage in Vegas 6, I noticed there were occasional specks, dust, and scratches that appeared on a some of the frames of the transfer.
The folks at CINEPOST (the company that did the transfer) told me that because of the age of the material I sent them, these abberations were part of the original footage.
Even after using their 'WET GATE' system, a majority of these defects still appeared on the transfer.
Question...Is there a method in Vegas 6 that I can use to return these defective frames to their original pristine condition?
Thanks.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Lee Albright on Nov 14, 2005 at 5:32:38 am
Gary,
Thank you for your reply to my question.
However, I am not clear on your answer.
How and where to would I export the frame sequence?
I'm guessing they could be corrected individually in Photoshop, but how to get them there still eludes me.
Once they are corrected, how would I get the frames back into my timeline?
I would appreciate a specific set of instructions for making these corrections.
Again, thank you.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Lee Albright on Nov 15, 2005 at 12:32:27 am
Gary,
Thank you for your brief explanation.
I managed to get my image sequence into Photoshop and remove a huge dust mark from a frame in the sequence.
That part of the process was relatively easy.
Getting it back into Vegas 6 was not as easy.
Here's how I did it.
On the timeline, I split the sequence (event) at the frame that had the dust mark.
I then cut out that frame.
Next I imported the corrected frame from my Photoshop file and placed that frame on the timeline between the split.
It worked, but I'm certain there is a more elegant way to get the corrected frame back into Vegas 6.
Help!!!
Thanks again.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by donatello on Nov 14, 2005 at 6:17:39 am
NO Vegas cannot get rid of dust - scratches ..
however Vegas might be able to add dust & scratches to other clips so they look more like your newly transferred material ..
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Ted Snow on Nov 14, 2005 at 6:45:15 am
What most people do not know is that everytime they run their film through a projector without the film being lubricated, the film gets scratched. I have transferred a lot of 8mm film and not one of my customers knew anything about needing to lubricate their film back when they used to watch it years ago. I have transferred film from the early 50's that looked good as new but I've also done film that was very scratched. I fully edit the film but I don't even try to mess with the scratches. As Gary said, if you can find a software that will maybe help it that would be your only logical approach. A frame by frame touch up would take endless hours even for one small reel of film.
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Lee Albright on Nov 15, 2005 at 1:03:58 am
Larry,
Thank you for pointing me to the Polaroid website.
I just downloaded their Dust and Scratch Removal Software and plan on trying it out tomorrow.
If you read my reply to Gary Kleiner's solution, you'll see what a time I had getting the corrected frame back into the timeline after I massaged it in Photoshop.
If you have any suggestions as to how I can streamline the process of exporting the faulty image from Vegas 6 and importing the corrected image back into Vegas 6, please. . .let me know.
As for doing these corrections frame by frame, I really don't mind because the project I am working on (a theatrical feature film teaser) will run just under three minutes.
After transferring the project back to 35mm, the teaser has to look spotless on a fifty-foot theatre screen!!!
P.S. This is only the fourth day I've been using Vegas 6, so I know I have a monumental learning curve ahead of me.
Thanks again.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Steve Mann on Nov 15, 2005 at 2:34:57 am
You export the whole event into a sequence of jpg images, fix your problem images then import them back into Vegas. Use the import button in the project media and select the button for import images as a sequence (or something like that - my Vegas is busy rendering something right now so I can't look). You select the first image and Vegas finds the last one.
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Lee Albright on Nov 15, 2005 at 4:34:09 pm
Steve,
Thank you for your suggetions regarding my dust and speck problem.
I'm totally lost!!!!!
When I exported a five second sequence that contained frames that had dust and dirt, they wound up in Photoshop as 150 seperate JPEGS.
Finding the frame that had the dust and dirt was next to impossible because of the small size of the thumbnail images.
I was however, able to locate one really large defect and correct it using Photoshop's clone tool. But when I imported it back into Vegas 6 the single frame image came in as 150 frames.
I'm really stumped.
All I want to do is simply cut out the original dirty frame in my timeline and replace it with the same frame I corrected in Photoshop.
Could you tell me step-by-step how this is accomplished?
So far I've found the transition from working with actual film material to ones and zeros to be a daunting process.
I've successfully edited a number of films using a 16mm workprint and a guillotine splicer, so replacing frames was simple. But this video editing process is a whole different animal.
Please help!!!
Thank you.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by jeditdv on Nov 15, 2005 at 6:00:43 pm
You're using the wrong procedure. You export 150 frames via the script. Now in Photoshop, you clean them ALL up as needed (whether it be 1 of them, 10 of them 100 of them or all of them). Once done, in Vegas do a File - Import, pick Media, then pick the FIRST frame and check the box "Image Sequence". Now you can replace the original 150 frames with this new Image Sequence media.
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Larry Reavis on Nov 15, 2005 at 7:11:09 pm
If you don't want to export a bunch of frames for correction and instead would like to grab a frame, work on it, then replace it, do this:
1. In the preview window, select "best (full)" for the preview quality.
2. Go to the frame you wish to edit.
3. Click on the diskette icon in the preview window and save the image to your hard disk.
4. Clean up that file with Dust and Scratch Removal, and save.
5. In Vegas, open a new video track (click Insert>Video Track).
6. Using Windows Explorer (Windows key-E), you can drag'n'drop the newly cleaned image onto the new video track directly above the faulty frame.
In order to be sure that you have positioned it exactly over the faulty frame, twirl the mouse button until the timeline has expanded sufficiently so that you can see the individual frames.
Note: before you drop the cleaned image on the new video track, make sure the "auto-ripple" icon is NOT selected (you can hit Ctrl-L to select/deselect auto-ripple). You can see the auto-ripple icon near the midpoint of the icon toolbar at the top of the vegas window - just pass the mouse over the icons and read the pop-ups to find it.
Re: Dust, specks, and scratches correction. by Lee Albright on Nov 16, 2005 at 2:36:59 am
Larry,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Being a novice to non-linear-editing, I know I still have much to learn.
Your step by step explanation was a godsend and helped tremdously to decrease the steep learning curve of Vegas 6.
After a few trials and errors I am now able to correct any blemished frame with ease.
Many, many thanks.
Cordially,
Lee Albright
Albright Films
