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Gradualted Filter available?
I have a great panoramic shot of the hills where I live, which I’m using as an establishing shot in a short documentary film. However, the sky is slightly over-exposed, while the exposure of the land is fine. I’ve tried reducing the exposure setting in FCPX which shows me that there is more detail in the sky, but then this makes the land under-exposed. So what I need is a way of darkening the sky only, perhaps by using a graduated filter. I haven’t found such a filter as standard in FCPX: can anyone suggest either a way of accomplishing this within the application as it stands, or a third-party plug-in which would do the job well (and cheaply!).
Many thanks
John Paul Irvine
Raemoir
Scotland -
9 Replies
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[John Irvine] “So what I need is a way of darkening the sky only, perhaps by using a graduated filter. “
Brendan Gibbons, one of the star FCPX Techniques filter creators, published this back in the summer. Its pretty versatile so might help you out.
https://f1.creativecow.net/2615/fcp-x-the-skys-the-limit-v2
Brendan has been absent from the forum for a while now, hope he is ok. Maybe he just got tired of FCP X!
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You can also use the color corrector and the shape mask control within it.
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Thanks guys, I’ll check these suggestions out…I believe I have a tutorial on using the colour correction mask 🙂
John Paul Irvine
Raemoir
Scotland -
Thanks for the plug-in, Mark – I’m having fun with it! Nice price, too 🙂
John Paul Irvine
Raemoir
Scotland -
As an alternative, a LUMA KEY will often be able to isolate a blown out sky while ignoring the land beneath it. That can allow you to simply “replace” the sky with a stock shot if you’re simply after a nice look and aren’t producing something where scenic truth or “reality” are important goals.
YMMV.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Interesting idea, Bill. Will keep it in mind, but this shot needs its scenic truth!
John Paul Irvine
Raemoir
Scotland -
[Mark Dobson] “Brendan has been absent from the forum for a while now, hope he is ok. Maybe he just got tired of FCP X!”
More a casual observer now…
Having a little 1 year old boy who is just soaking the world up at an amazing rate is taking up all my time….but definitely in a good way!!
With how quickly he took to a touch screen interface it is a reminder of the way things are heading!!!
Cheers,
Brendan
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[John Irvine] “Interesting idea, Bill. Will keep it in mind, but this shot needs its scenic truth!”
I completely understand that. And appreciate your desire to keep the “real” in your work.
I’ve actually spent a good bit of time recently working around architectural photographers, who’s workflow is typically about “idealizing” each part of a still image using masks, multiple exposures, and stuff like sky, grass, paint and even people replacement, as needed.
It’s a whole new perspective on the idea of what constitutes a “picture.”
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Well, we get some pretty amazing skies where I live as it is! Keeping it real with this documentary clip I’m making 🙂
John Paul Irvine
Raemoir
Scotland
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