Editing wedding footage tips/techniques

[Chris Westerstrom]

Hello!

I just got some really dark back-lit HDV footage from a couple that asked if I could edit to a DVD for them.

Was just wondering if anyone had any tips on what sort of filters fonts and so on I should use for it.

Like i said, it's dark not sure if the bride will appreciate if I up the contrast when I lighten it up with the corrector

Any suggestions? I've never edited a wedding before

Thanks

[Don Bloom]

about the only way to correct back-lit footage, wedding or otherwise, is to lift the gamma and at a point the image will deteriorate. Grain, color...ugh.
You could start by converting to B&W then adjust the levels and gamma a little at a time and bring it back to color to see what has been destroyed. Then do it again. OR leave it as B&W.
Backlite stuff is the pits to try to fix and in 98% of the cases it can't be. At least not without destroying the overall image.

That's the easy way. The hard way is to mask the background out and then make adjustments to the people, which could take hours,weeks, days or months depending on how much movement there is from the people you are trying to mask.

Either way, have fun and try not to go blind or crazy ;-)

[Chris Westerstrom]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

about the only way to correct back-lit footage, wedding or otherwise, is to lift the gamma and at a point the image will deteriorate. Grain, color...ugh.
You could start by converting to B&W then adjust the levels and gamma a little at a time and bring it back to color to see what has been destroyed. Then do it again. OR leave it as B&W.
Backlite stuff is the pits to try to fix and in 98% of the cases it can't be. At least not without destroying the overall image.

That's the easy way. The hard way is to mask the background out and then make adjustments to the people, which could take hours,weeks, days or months depending on how much movement there is from the people you are trying to mask.

Either way, have fun and try not to go blind or crazy ;-)

classic! thanks for the tips

I was thinking about taking a lot of the color out actually (not all) as I lifted the Gamma, but yeah, pictures are pretty bad. Was thinkin of putting a big white vignette around it too to kind of blend out the backlight a little.

anyways thanks!