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inaniloquent
Participant
March 6, 2016
Answered

How to fix fluctuating white balance/exposure in a video

  • March 6, 2016
  • 5 replies
  • 40466 views

Hello

I feel like this is a relatively common issue with filming where for example you have a dark background and are wearing light clothes; everytime your arms move into shot your camera tries to compensate for this new light and adjusts the contrast etc. It resulted in my video having very noticible fluctuation in contrast and white balace, changing often. It distracts from the content. I am very new to this software and was wondering if there was a way to fix this.

P.S. I have edited my video into lots of seperate clips so preferably a solution that I don't have to apply to...70 seperate teeny little clips haha.

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer chrisw44157881

    as far as I know, there are no plugins that can do all of this all at once fully automatically.

    Luckily,

    I made an AE template that automatically fixes constantly changing white balance, shadows, saturation, contrast, flicker, on the fly.

    about the only thing you need to move is if you enable the text layer and scroll Gamma Clamp at gamma*10 so that the text box reads @ 25 as an average every minute or so.

    it will also fix timelapse and old movie's flicker.



    auto white balance cs3 and up

    CreativeCOW

    5 replies

    rebane2001
    rebane2001
    Participant
    March 1, 2023

    Ignore what R Neil said, there are plenty of reasons a pro might still need to work with fluctuating footage even if they're a true pro or whatever, so here's how to actually do it:

     

    1. Apply the built-in "Color Stabilizer" effect.

    2. Find mostly static dark and bright areas in your shot and move the black/white point positions there.

    3. Click "Set Frame" button beside the effect title.

    4. Adjust "Sample Size" as necessary for a more stable result.

     

    That's how quick and simple it is! 🙂

    R Neil Haugen
    R Neil Haugen
    Legend
    March 1, 2023

    I never said nor implied a "true pro" wouldn't have to deal with fluctuating footage ... just that if it's avoidable, one should avoid creating such a mess. Because it's a right royal pain to fix, from personal experience.

     

    Um ... I assume you mean the Color Stabilizer effect in AfterEffects? As I can't find that in Premiere ... not even through all the ones in the Obsolete bin.

     

    So I presume you left out a rather key step, that of either "replace with Ae comp" or simply opening the clip in AfterEffects. Because Ae has that effect, Pr does not.

     

    How well does it handle color shifts during different lighting situations? I've not tried it for this use. Most of the times I've needed this fix it was because of clouds over sun, then not. Especially when filming indoors yet lit by huge windows. When it got a bit darker (not so you noticed at the time of course ... ) it also shifted a bit cooler color.

     

    The more you can tell us how well this works, the better! And thanks for posting about it.

     

    Neil

    Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    rebane2001
    rebane2001
    Participant
    March 1, 2023

    Yes, it's an After Effects effect, my bad. I googled for "fluctuating exposure after effects" earlier and this thread came up as the first result - I didn't notice that this thread was actually in the PP subforum (the sticky banner just says "Adobe Support Community" and AE was discussed on this page as well).

     

    I absolutely agree that it is best to fix things beforehand, but most people googling for this problem and finding this thread here already have the broken footage they're trying to fix, so discussing fixing this in camera is moot here and an actual solution is a lot more helpful.

     

    I've only tried this on footage where the light source itself stays consistent and only the wb/exposure of the camera changes (eg smartphone footage with auto-adjust). On this kind of footage this method works wonderfully and saves otherwise unusable clips. This also applies to the color shift as long as you're using the levels mode (default) of the effect. I'd imagine this would also work well in your outdoors scenario, but as mentioned I haven't tried it myself.

      O
      Ordiscene
      Participant
      December 3, 2020

      Here is a little Tutorial how you can fix it in Premiere Pro

      https://youtu.be/SP7Qh-rGSq8

        Alan5E11
        Alan5E11
        Participant
        March 16, 2021

        Thanks, I take timelapses very early in the morning and the exposure difference between "before sunrise" to "sunrise" is so great that I don't feel I can just set the exposure and let it run. If I'm wrong, I'd love to find a better way since I'm still learning filmmaking (and know I have a lot to learn). I also have my most incredible sunrises back when I was a beginning beginer (unlike now, when I'm just a beginner 😉 ), and didn't know to lock White Balance at the time.

         

        I look forward to watching the tutoral and appreciate you putting out this info.

         

         

        Pratibha Bibyan
        Pratibha Bibyan
        Known Participant
        April 26, 2016

        how to apply a background to a video

          E
          excited_Genie16B8
          Legend
          March 7, 2016

          I feel like this is a relatively common issue

          Not for professionals, at whom this software is targeted.

          J
          janieo95
          Participant
          May 5, 2017

          @Jim_Simon Wow, such a helpful response! Thanks SO much for taking the time to share.

            R Neil Haugen
            R Neil Haugen
            Legend
            May 5, 2017

            It's very easy to avoid the situation the OP was in, and very hard in post to recover from it. A pro can't afford to blow the time ... no DP will get a second job if they shoot that kind of camera setup for a first one. It's simple ... set your camera to all manual settings and properly CONTROL the shoot. When you need to, you add controlled and crafted lighting setups to the scene. The constant changing of exposure ... goes buh-bye.

            That's professional work. You eliminate all variables that cause problems later. All the way through the job. Or you don't last long in the business.

            Jim's response was pithy ... but accurate. DP's need to know their part of the craft, but further ... what the choices they make do to the next person down the line, the editor. Editors need to know what their choices mean to a colorist or f/x person. The DP should also know how to set things up for the colorist also. As far as their work does have a ripple effect on down the line.

            This software is designed to allow professionals to push their content way down the line. They didn't build in things to recover work that few people using it would have produced, but concentrated on the things to allow editors working with good professionally created media to work to get fantastic results.

            Neil

            Everyone's mileage always varies ...
            chrisw44157881
            chrisw44157881Correct answer
            Inspiring
            March 6, 2016

            as far as I know, there are no plugins that can do all of this all at once fully automatically.

            Luckily,

            I made an AE template that automatically fixes constantly changing white balance, shadows, saturation, contrast, flicker, on the fly.

            about the only thing you need to move is if you enable the text layer and scroll Gamma Clamp at gamma*10 so that the text box reads @ 25 as an average every minute or so.

            it will also fix timelapse and old movie's flicker.



            auto white balance cs3 and up

            CreativeCOW

            I
            inaniloquentAuthor
            Participant
            March 6, 2016

            thanks! i'll give it a shot

            R Neil Haugen
            R Neil Haugen
            Legend
            March 7, 2016

            The better permanent solution is to get the camera OFF auto settings for white-balance and contrast at least, if not going totally manual. It's one thing to try and match stills in RAW formats with auto camera settings but horridly more complex to try and fix video.

            Neil

            Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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