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nickw12320246
nickw12320246
Participant
March 11, 2016
Answered

How Do You Improve Video Quality Using Effects and Settings in Premiere Pro?

  • March 11, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 14352 views

Hello, I cut out a short clip of a video I made and as you can see, the quality is poor. What effects and settings can I use to make this video look more professional and higher quality so I can export a nice looking video for youtube?

Thank you for the help

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer nickw12320246

I think your comment about a green screen not having to be bright is something way too many people trying it don't "see". They put so much light on the screen they must have bounce back on the edges of their subject. Even yes ... brilliantly bright  ... no.

And that should make it so  much easier than the reputation of the technique sounds like.

Saw a bts of the final battle scene in Hogwarts last movie. They had 30 or 40 foot high green scrims running for 80 or 100 feet behind their set of ruined castle. .Lit evenly enough  but only to a very midtone level. Seemed to work ok in the final product  ...

Neil

quoting deleted by mod

A lot of good advice here. Thank you! I am going to work on lighting and watch all those tutorials.

Thanks again for the help!

3 replies

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
March 11, 2016

I've taken a still from the video, played a bit in both PrPro's Color workspace & over to SpeedGrade also ... although it's not as accurate of course as having the actual clip, there's enough base green tinge to your colors that I really doubt this can be cleaned up in post.

So ... yea, a shooting lesson here. Had quite a few of these myself, don't worry about it ... we all have.

Be VERY careful about both the quality of the lighting AND the white-balance while shooting. If this had fluorescent lighting, either 1) you didn't really nail the WB in shooting, or ... they've got too much of a set of green spikes & magenta canyons in their output to work with. Fix this issue first ...

And with a white-out high-key setup like this, be VERY careful of how much blast reflected off the background gets to the lens. Lens flare is so common with this setup (which we've done in our portrait studio for 38 years now ... sort of a specialty) that you need either high-quality lenses with very low internal flare or a card held in front of the lens, with a hole just large enough for the image area to get through to the camera ... or both.

And of course ... the initial exposure balance between the light coming from the background and that illuminating your subject needs to be the 'smallest' it can be and still have the background stay white. With our scrim, and it's reflectance, with film that was 1 stop more on the background than the subject ... no more, no less. Now, with our digital cameras, it's only about 2/3rds stop more light falling on the background than the subject.

High-hey is a difficult thing to pull off really, really well. Yea, it's SO useful to give space for text insertions ... but you have to learn it cold.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    S
    SAFEHARBOR11
    Participating Frequently
    March 11, 2016

    Neil,

    For the average shooter, might it almost be easier to pull off a decent green screen key, and add the white background in post?

    Thanks

    Jeff

    R Neil Haugen
    R Neil Haugen
    Legend
    March 11, 2016

    Green screen can also be a bear to get really clean ... I know some who insist you can't do it with 8-bit cameras, only 10-bit, but I've seen righteously done green screen with rather minimalist stuff ... but again, being very careful to have the subject well out away from the background with as much scrims, go-bo's, and blocking stray light as possible.

    In general, perhaps the white background might be a little easier ... but if you've got green-screen available, well ... and master it ... you can make that background anything you want, which is, in all, pretty useful ... but I've just stuck with the white, hey ... the scrim is always 'up', and we know the lights/setup 'cold'.

    Neil

    Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    Peferling
    Peferling
    Inspiring
    March 11, 2016

    In addition to the great advice already given.  For all the efforts involved to fix, it's best take this as a lesson learned and just re-shoot anyways.  Do not get into the habit of thinking software will fix everything.  Ten minutes of finesse on site will save you hours of labor in post.

    The tutorial you referenced is fine. I would add that if you follow it, to ensure that you properly block the light used in blowing out the background from bleeding onto your talent.  A cheap trick solution is standing up some solid bi-fold doors, the kind used for closets, (avoid those with french louvers).  Great for full body shielding over the barn doors found on some light kits.

    The only example I have (on this machine) is a setup used for product shooting with strobe, but it's the same for video using continuous lighting.

    S
    SAFEHARBOR11
    Participating Frequently
    March 11, 2016

    What don't you like about it? Give us something to work with please. Was this shot in front of a green screen? The face appears to have a greenish cast to it, but the video doesn't look "bad" to me

    Thanks

    Jeff

      nickw12320246
      nickw12320246Author
      Participant
      March 11, 2016

      It was shot in front of a white screen. And it is not vibrant and sharp looking and doesn't look professionally done. I am going for a look like this:

      What effects and settings should I use to get my video to look like this? Thank you!

      Ann Bens
      Community Expert
      Ann BensCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 11, 2016

      Your talent does look a bit green (skintone)

      Also I would use a plain shirt instead of a checkered one.

      And make the talent fill the screen more, he looks a bit far away.

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