How to fix blownout sky?
by Kent Beeson
on
Jul 4, 2008 at 4:58:37 pm
Hi
Wondering how to fix a hot sky in FCP 6.0.4? Rest of shot is good - but the sky is blownout...used ND2 filter on FX1 camera but sky is hot/ basically white.
Re: How to fix blownout sky? by Nate Stephens on Jul 4, 2008 at 6:39:47 pm
Kent,
I have keyed out the offending washed out sky and replaced it with beautiful fluffy clouds photographed at 50,000 feet.... or I have heard that Graem Natress (forgive my spelling) has a filter set that cures your problem by using the blue and red channels to remake the lost info in the green-luminance channel.
Do a search, I read those details within the last three months on this forum..
Re: How to fix blownout sky? by Mark Suszko on Jul 6, 2008 at 1:18:10 am
IMO, it is always better to slightly under-expose Dv footage than over-expose it, because, once blown out, those white areas have no detail to recover.
A repair trick you can try is to make two duplicate video layers of the same material. Apply your adjustments for brightness and contrast to the "ground" layer to suit, and never mind blowing out what's left of the sky. Next, pick the other layer behind the "ground" layer, we'll call it "sky". Apply your contrast and brightness corrections to this layer. Now under "composite modes" play with the various modes there, first try "multiply". This should sandwich the two layers in a way that keeps the best settings for both layers. May take some trial-and-error.
If the "sky" layer is still no good, replace it with a fake sky layer generated in photoshop with a pale blue gradient and try the composite mode>multiply trick again on it.
People avoid the composite mode controls sometimes for lack of understanding how easy and powerful they can be. I know I did, until I saw a great tutorial at Digital Juice's DJTV video tutorials section (in the "Cutting Class" section). If you don't grock blending modes, this is an easy and clear introduction to their power. Chris Gates did an excellent job there.
Re: How to fix blownout sky? by Bret Williams on Jul 6, 2008 at 7:05:50 pm
My first stop would be the 3 way color corrector. You should easily be able to use the luminance limiting to isolate the sky, then increase the contrast, change the hue to blue, and lower the overall brightness to within safer and more pleasing levels.
