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Fixing underexposed footage
Im sure this has been asked before but I couldn’t find the answer. I shot an outdoor wedding on a very bright sunny day, the problem is that the couple were standing under a tent and made them appear very dark in the footage while the background is exposed properly. I shot the footage to be underexposed rather then overexpose it and blow out the background. Is there an easy way to fix this?
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4 Replies
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I’d bring it into After Effects, separate the foreground from the banckground, and correct the couple separately.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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Hi Brandon,
There is only so much you can do in post if the subjects are really dark. I’ve been shooting weddings for 20 years, and I always shoot to properly expose the couple and just don’t worry about the background. Learned this the hard way, courtesy of second cameraman.
Many times I’ve had to really blow out the background to where it is just white, but the important thing is that the couple is more than a mere silhouette. Of course you can sometimes pick a happy medium where the couple is bright enough that you can give them a bump in post without having a totally blown-out background. Comes with experience I guess, no easy answer as every situation is unique.
As I use Matrox color correction plug-ins, can’t say which is the best native Adobe tool for the job, but probably a 3-way color corrector that will allow separate adjustment of shadows, midtones and highlights, or curves may even be better.
Good luck with your fixes
Jeff Pulera
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PPro does have that auto shadow/highlight effect, which sometimes works amazing, you could get lucky with that. Otherwise, get that compositor hat on and take this into AE.
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@Chris, sometimes does indeed work amazing – thanks for the tip!
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