I shot this wedding in Big Sur and got nothing but hard shadows in the forground even when I would put my back to the sun. I've tried some basic changes with the 3-way color corrector in Final Cut 7, but it really washes out the entire picture.

1. Any tips on how to possible fix the shot so we can see his face?

2. How do I avoid this in the future? I tried many different modes, nothing seemed to fix it.
What setting would you guys use to fix the foreground?

Best,
Kelly

http://i34.tinypic.com/s1hxd2.png

I don't know exactly where this feature can be found in FCP, but I took your image and adjusted curves in Photoshop. I believe Colour (part of FCP studio) should have a Curve adjustment tool that will do what you need.

You'll need to do some research on this, though.

Adjusted same pic with Levels in Vegas, then pushed saturation up a bit. See pic attached.

If that works for you, then you got your solution.

I thought you mentioned Final Cut Pro in your first message. Where did Vegas come from???

Wow, thanks guys for showing me some examples. I would have to adjust it in FCP. I pretty much get the same results when using the color corrector in FC.

Any more suggestions are welcome.

Chris, you live in Elk Grove? I use to go to Kerr Jr. High and Florin High.

I got to here, using kind of a "Poor Man's HDR" technique.
imgur: the simple image host (http://imgur.com/1zAoC)

Using Vegas, I put the pic (in your case, the video) on two different timelines. On the top one, I inverted it, set it to black and white, and applied levels, then set the compositing mode to overlay and the opacity to 70%. This created an lower-contrast image, where the skin tones were roughly the same luminance value as the bright background.

I then copied the resulting image (you'll probably have to render-out) and applied levels and color correction. You lose detail in the background, but the background isn't the focus of your shot, is it?

I just realised the "Vegas" response came from a different poster (not the OP)... So I guess FCP it is, in which case Color 1.5 and the Curve controls.

Thanks for your help people.

Here is the final product.

YouTube - Big Sur Wedding Movie Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y4rrS_H8sw)

2. How do I avoid this in the future?

Reflectors.

Lighting tests.

Hi Kelly, Just a quick note.

Your super 'He Spent every nickel...' only displays for a few frames.

The 3-way shouldn't wash out the image; try adjusting while looking at the video scopes; bring the shadows up to about 10%, bring the midtone and highlight BALANCE more toward the yellow (it's a little blue) and see what happens. The highlights should be 90-95% with pure detail-less white at 100%. If the highlight tones start to bunch up at the top end, bring them down with the highlight tool.

The highlights have a lot of detail due to the underexposure so you have some room to bump up....the 3-way is a very comprehensive tool, you just have to play with it some to get familiar with it. /Battle Vaughan

PS: here's a link to a 3rd party free filter that is like the Photoshop highlight/shadow filter, works pretty well: http://www.lyric.com/fcp-plugins/#shadow