Image blinking after applying effects in PProCS3
 

Hello,

I've apply auto color, auto contrast and focus mask (70,1,0) in Premiere Pro CS3 to a simple video of a person against a whiteboard (the person writing in the whiteboard) and after exporting and viewing the video there's a problem with the image. The white of the whiteboard change its illumination and looks kinda like is blinking, is not as fast as burst of flash, but is fast enough to notice.

Does anyone knows whats going on and how to solve this problem???

Thanks in advance.

Are you working in 8-bit color space? If so, that could be your problem. I've never experienced this, but I've heard that applying multiple effects to a video when working in 8-bit is asking for trouble. Try switching the project settings to 16-bit and see if that works (you might have to re-apply your effects).

EDIT: actually that may not be your problem - I can't find a way to change the color space in Premiere.

Can't find the bit depth either so might not be an option.

The blinking is probably caused by using the 'auto' color and contrast settings. In auto, each frame is evaluated one by one and a different correction is made to each frame. As the subject, lighting, etc. changes from frame to frame the correction is different. When there is a constant subject (such as the whiteboard) that does not change you will see the effect of the different settings that 'auto' applies to each frame. You can often minimize this blinking by applying 'Temporal Smoothing' to the 'Auto Color' and 'Auto Contrast' effects. In the 'Auto' effect control window try a few diffent settings for the temporal smoothing option. This makes the effect average several frames together rather than adjusting them frame by frame and should smooth out the blinking you are seeing.

Another (probably better) option is to not use the auto controls and apply the corrections using other effects such as the regular Levels control, the Fast Color Corrector, or any of the other non-auto controls.

Hello Lloyd,

What you said seems very logical and almost sure has to be the problem and the answer. I'm going to check and try what you said.

Thanks,

Jose

Sorry for the late reply...that was the problem, using auto touch-ups, using regular manual tools solved the problem.

Thanks.

I have a general question about effects: I know brightness filters affect definition, but do color effects?