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Activity Forums Adobe Premiere Pro Auto levels in PP 2

  • Auto levels in PP 2

    Posted by Mike Carro on December 21, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    I really like the way the auto levels look for a particular scene or actually a frame. The trouble of course is – it changes. I can’t seem to duplicate the same look manually. Is there a way to see what Premiere did to the levels (of a particular frame) so I can copy the presets to the entire clip so it doesn’t change?
    Thanks, I know this is asking for a lot.
    Maybe I should take a course in color correction…

    Mike Carro replied 18 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Mike Velte

    December 21, 2007 at 7:14 pm

    Auto levels, even with a lot of temporal smoothing is almost useless for video…IMHO. I use Levels, but razor up a clip with lighting changes and tweek each section manually.
    Levels is not so much about colors as it contrast in luminance.

  • Mike Carro

    December 21, 2007 at 7:28 pm

    I know but I’m working with home movies and it will take forever. I just want to keep the levels for a particular frame for the entire clip. Theres’ got to be a way to see what Premiere changed to get that color and contrast.

  • Mike Velte

    December 21, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    As most effects that are labeled “Auto”, they are typically a compromise between the best results possible and the limitations of time or skill that it takes to it right.
    Applying the Levels command to a clip, one can copy/paste those attributes and values to one or the rest of the clips in the sequence. Although it would be most unusual to want to do much of that for your home movies. You will end up either crushing shadows or highlights indiscriminately. At least the Auto Levels function would try moderate the changes, albeit with annoying flickering.
    Having said all that I often make a moderate adjustment to both shadows and highlights on home movies and apply the same value to the whole mess. To do this requires at least a fair understanding of Levels.

  • Mike Carro

    December 21, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    Hey Mike, yeah I’m getting the hang of it. I took an hour and got it pretty much the way the auto levels did. BUT ~ as you said the levels in the film changes so much that I’m better of using the auto.

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