Filter setttin creep?

babel · Post by **babel** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:43 pm

I have applied the Brigthness & Contrast filter to a clip to compensate for the image being too dark.

I customize the filter to set Brightness to, say, +20.

However, when I play the clip in the project the Brightness setting is automatically increased so that at the end of the clip it has increased to, say, +60.

What's happening? Why is not the filter setting staying at the number I adjasted it to?

(VideoStudio 11)

babel · Post by **babel** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:52 pm

Perhaps I need to clarify this.

I set the Brightness to +20. When I play the clip I notice that it becomes gradually brighter during playback (the clip is 1.5 min long).

This is curious since the lighting was constant during the whole recording.

To compensate for the brighter and brighter image I figure I can do a workaround. I cut the clip (on which I have already applied the Brightness filter in two) thinking that I can then turn down the filter on the second half. It will give me a slight "jump" in brightness where the joint is but that's better than having a completely washed out image at the end.

When I now check the filter settings on the two halves it turns out that on the first half the filter has Brightness at +20 (but it is still clearly brighter at the end than at the beginning). BUT the second half has, it turns out, brightness set to +60 (instead of +20 that the filter was set to originally).

Somehow it seems that VS is gradually turning up the strength of the filter.

Any idea what's happening?

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:55 pm

When applying any preset filters, be sure to check the Customize Filter options. This opens up a dual window display dialog, with a time-line and the options you can further customize beneath it.

Notice on the Time-Line there are a minimum of 2 red diamonds. One at the start, one at the end of the clip. Those are called Key Frames. If you want your attributes (brightness, contrast and Gamma in this case) to remain the same throughout the clip, you need to set the last key frame's attributes to match that of the first key frames. The fast, easy way to do this is right-click on the first key frame (diamond), from the menu, choose copy, or (Copy and Paste to All if you have no other key frames in between the first and last), then go to the last key frame, right-click and paste.

You'll notice in the right-click menu other options such as Copy and Delete Intermediate, Copy and Paste to All Right, and others. These are real helpful short-cuts when key framing effects and filters.

babel · Post by **babel** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:39 pm

Perfect. And it showed me how to do anther thing I was wondering about: adjusting filter settings during the clip.

Thanks !!

babel · Post by **babel** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:44 pm

But isn't it odd that it doesn't set the start and the end to the same settings as per default?

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:47 pm

Not really, because this is based on one of the presets chosen. The presets will offer changes, however not one shoe fits all, so we need a way to tailor it to fit our needs.

babel · Post by **babel** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:52 pm

Quite. (And it helps when you understand how it works!) Thanks again.