I am no fan of the "fix it in post" theory... but it looks ugly.

Is there a way I can fix what the studio messed up? They didn't use any makeup, and on top of it, they shot some very close shots, where the whole picture is from chin to middle of the forehead. While most of the face of a fairly dark skinned Hispanic girl for example is at IRE 40-50, but some spots are as high as 95; even worse on Caucasians.

So far I tried to double the video track and add blur to the top one, reducing the transparency to ~50%. It helps quite a bit, but it takes away too much sharpness. Any other ways to do this? It's wide screen SD NTSC video if that matters.

Thanks,

Sounds like a case of overexposure and "clipping".

Like other types of "clipping" in digital media (audio can get clipped, too), once the information is gone it can't really be brought back.

You might be able to take portions of a channel that didn't clip -- maybe the blue or green channel -- and see if you can replace the clipped spots.

Otherwise the only options are to live with it or do a re-shoot... and find someone who will be more careful with exposure.

Ervin, rather than adjusting the transparency on the top layer, try changing Blend Modes and see if you get any improvement. Not sure where to start, but I've seen a couple of tutorials that worked reasonably well.