• Adobe Premiere Pro

  any drawbacks to using levels effect on clips?

  Posted by Ruby Gold on March 29, 2006 at 1:50 am

  I’ve shot some footage that came out looking too “flat.” By this I mean the colors look a little washed out or undersaturated, the blacks not strong blacks, etc. I made it look significantly bettery by applying and adjusting the levels effect. Since I’ll need to do this with all the clips from this footage, I’m just wondering if there’s any downside to using the effect, e.g. does it add visual noise or anything like that?

  thanks!

  Mike Velte replied 20 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Mike Velte

  March 29, 2006 at 3:56 pm

  With the levels effect you are analyzing ONE frame and then changing luma values for every frame in the clip BY THE SAME AMOUNT. If there is any changes to lighting during the scene, those frames might be changed too much or too little.
  Try it and preview every frame.
• 

  Ruby Gold

  March 29, 2006 at 4:21 pm

  Thanks for this info Mike. This particular clip looks fine to me in the PPro environment (after rendering the effect, in the monitor window). Luckily, in this interview the lighting is controlled (no natural light), and the subject’s movements are minimal, but if the light catches his face differently as he moves in other clips, I can imagine that there might be some blips on the radar–flashes or whatever?

  Is there another correction effect that also improves the “flatness” that is more stable across frames? Thanks-
  Ruby
• 

  Mike Velte

  March 30, 2006 at 1:02 pm

  Levels or now Curves would be the choice to increase contrast…but less is better!

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