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adjust – levels video effect and superwhites
i have hd footage from the fdr-x3000 (action cam) that captures video with superwhites. i’d like to bring these down to proper values using the video effects – adjust – levels effect. however, as soon as i add that effect to my clip, it automatically brings down my superwhites to 100 (from 110) in my waveform, but does not change the video preview. on that same note, when i actually use the effect and attempt to pull the whites down, there is no additional detail being saved.
now, if instead of using the adjust – levels effect, i use the fast color corrector to adjust my levels, it works fine (it does not clamp my whites and delete the detail over 100). however, i prefer the adjust – levels effect because it keeps colors more accurate (i’ve tested this by clipping my input levels in both the adjust – levels effect and the levels slider in the fast color corre with a video that has it’s input lvls washout out.
so what i’m asking is, how can i use the adjust – levels effect without it deleting my superwhites and clamping whites at 100 as soon as i add the effect to my clip? does it have something to do with 8bit/32bit editing? ive tried using the float setting as well as max bit depth in the sequence settings to no avail.
if someone doesn’t understand what i’m saying, i can provide some pics later today.
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12 Replies
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Which version of Premiere Pro? Why aren’t you using Lumetri?
Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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hello oliver. i’m using premiere version 13.0.2. i’m a novice – intermediary when it comes to video editing & premiere just fyi. if i were to use lumetri to bring down the whites, which option would i use? the exposure slider? the whites slider? or should i just do it manually with the curves graph?
anyway, here is an example of what’s happening as soon as i add the adjust – levels effect to my clip. this is with NO alterations to the effect, just the second i slap it on the clip, this happens on my scopes and my video preview is not affected.
untouched video clip – https://i.imgur.com/HFtdBLQ.jpg
same clip with “adjust – levels” effect added – https://i.imgur.com/2kGiO3t.jpg
as you can see, it’s cutting off my whites, and if i try to pull them down with the effect, there’s no additional information. as you can see form the untouched clip in the first image, there IS indeed additional information in the original clip. it’s also doing something weird to my rgb parade. what’s going on here? thanks
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The adjust levels filter is a legacy filter that may no longer be processing the video in the best manner. Different filters work differently in the video pipeline. For color correction use the Lumetri color controls and adjust where you get the best results. Generally you should turn off “clamping” in the scopes to see full range. Then apply an adjustment layer on the topmost track and apply a broadcast limiter effect to that adjustment layer. You can set it to clip at 100 or 103.
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/color-workflows.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/lumetri-color-overview.html
https://youtu.be/9BknsPGyFeEAlso, what timeline preset are you using? Some of these have been known to affect levels. I typically start with a modified version of one of the ARRI sequence presets.
Hope that helps.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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i’m using the legacy ‘obsolete’ ‘rgb curves’ instead of the levels effect now, and it’s great. it’s giving me the accurate colors that i wanted. it’s way more accurate than lumetri’s curves for some reason, as well as the fast color corrector. the fcc amplifies reds greens & blues for some reason.
anyway, thanks for your time, i do appreciate it.
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I’m curious. More accurate than the Lumetri curves in what way? Curves, in general, are a rather destructive method for color correction, since they can introduce banding rather quickly. The danger in using older filters like this is that they are no longer supported by Adobe’s development. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that you won’t see odd results after some future update. But I’m glad you found something that works for you.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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sorry, been busy the last few days. i’ll post some screenshot examples of what i was talking about soon.
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so i took a handful of screenshots of the different kinds of affects the different effects (lol) have on my video clip. for these examples i clipped the black levels as accurately as i could. you can open the images in succession in different broswer tabs and switch between them for comparison. i can’t be sure of the video source… it’s either a mediocre digital rip or a very good analog one. the first image is the original untouched, and the others are labeled respectively. the last image is from the actual digital master included for comparison’s sake. so to be clear, the final image is from a different rip of the same video.
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btw – it’s a music video.
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No offense, but what are these images supposed to be showing? They all look equally bad with a very clipped white t-shirt. I’m not sure this explains anything.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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the images demonstrate the differences that each effect has on increasing the input levels (blacks/shadows). the ‘adjust – levels’ effect produces the most accurate colors, while everything else distorts them in one way or another. if we’re not on the same page then forget it. i didn’t touch the whites btw- as a matter if fact they’re not even clipped to begin with.
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