So I have some footage I'm editing in Final Cut Pro that's too dark. I didn't take the footage, but guessing the ND filter on the Panasonic DVX 100B we use was set to 1/64.

Any ideas on what video filter in FCP would be best to correct this. I've tried

Image Control > Brightness and Contrast (Bezier)

but as I brighten it, the footage seems like it's just getting milky - washed out with white (see sample - image on the top is too dark and has the Brightness and Contrast image control increased, the one on the bottom is footage from the same shooting from a different camera at a different angle with no darkness issues because of any filters).

There must be a better way

any ideas?

Do you own Final Cut Studio 2 or 3? If so, the suite comes with Color, a colour grading application that would help you with this exact issue.

If not, you can also do it right from FCP using the 3 way colour corrector tool. Add the 3 way colour corrector to your clip, click the "visual" button to pop up the controls, then you can increase the gain on shadows, mids and highlights.

A7

(P.S. Don't expect a miracle. If the light isn't there to begin with, it's not going to magically add light. It WILL get grainy as you brighten it.)

Do you own Final Cut Studio 2 or 3? If so, the suite comes with Color, a colour grading application that would help you with this exact issue.

If not, you can also do it right from FCP using the 3 way colour corrector tool. Add the 3 way colour corrector to your clip, click the "visual" button to pop up the controls, then you can increase the gain on shadows, mids and highlights.

A7

(P.S. Don't expect a miracle. If the light isn't there to begin with, it's not going to magically add light. It WILL get grainy as you brighten it.)

+1 ... especially the P.S. part ...

What I do when I have something like that is to duplicate the image by clicking on the image and holding the shift and option key at the same time. Then drag the image up to a new track. Then select the upper track and from the Modify menu choose add from the composite option. Then choose the lower track and add a 2 or 3 way CC filter and adjust to your liking. It's never going to be great but this helps.

John

What I do when I have something like that is to duplicate the image by clicking on the image and holding the shift and option key at the same time. Then drag the image up to a new track. Then select the upper track and from the Modify menu choose add from the composite option. Then choose the lower track and add a 2 or 3 way CC filter and adjust to your liking. It's never going to be great but this helps.

John

That's a pretty clever way to reduce noise and maintain saturation while bringing up brightness... I'll have to try that next time. Nice tip!

A7

Kind of like a pseudo-HDR-video trick!

I forgot to add that on the superimposed clip you can use the clip overlays control to display the opacity overlays line so you can adjust the amount transparency.

Good tip! I'll have to try that too :)

What I do when I have something like that is to duplicate the image by clicking on the image and holding the shift and option key at the same time. Then drag the image up to a new track. Then select the upper track and from the Modify menu choose add from the composite option. Then choose the lower track and add a 2 or 3 way CC filter and adjust to your liking. It's never going to be great but this helps.

John

Oooohhh.

NIce tip. By the time I read the reply, I was done with original problem, but I tried it on a new one with the same problem and it works like a charm. Not as good a "fixing it in pre" (i.e. having the ND filter off in the first place) but better than what I was doing before.

Thanks for the fix John! :clap: