Is it possible to brighten a part of a scene

[jparnold]

I am wondering if it is possible to select a part of a video scene and apply brightness/contrast just to that part of the scene. I have a scene with a sign in the foreground which is in shade whereas the rest of the scene is well lit.

I am thinking how it is possible to select part of an image using the 'magic wand' feature of Paint Shop Pro and wondering if this can be done within VSX4.

I guess it could be done the hard way of splitting the clip into separate frames and then brighten the sign in each frame using Paintshop Pro and then 'reassemble' the frames back into a video clip but this would be very time consuming.

[Ron P.]

Yes doing it that way is going to be time consuming, however it might be the only way to get good results. You could also try cutting the clip where this sign is in the scene. Then try applying a filter to that clip. The Brightness/Contrast filter can be key-framed, where the same settings found on the Video Tab can not.

[alanball]

Hi John

what about capturing a frame as a graphic with the sign on it, cutting around the sign in a paint program and lightning it , remove everything else around the sign and just insert that modified graphic on to a layer and locate it over you sign.

[jparnold]

Hi Alan
I thought of what you suggested but unfortunately the scene is not perfectly still as there was a small amount of camera movement. I guess it's worth a try though. Maybe it is possible to move the overlay using keyframes to keep it in synch with the main clip.
I also thought of making a video clip of one frame but the main part of the video clip is of water with small waves (lake) which are moving.
John

[lata]

Hi John

Add a duplicate clip to the overlay track, immediately below original.

Try the Detailed Enhancer to increase the quality.
Then apply the Cropping Filter to select the sign, I used a green colour for the background,
then make the background transparent using the Chroma Key.
The cropping filter will allow you to pan.

[jparnold]

Hi Trevor,

Thanks for the advice especially regarding the cropping filter - I didn't know it existed.

What I have done so far is take a snapshot of part of the clip, imported it into Paintshop Pro, selected the area of the sign, inverted the selection and then did a 'flood' fill of the rest of the image with a bright purple color (the color I usually use when applying the chroma key) and then dropped the image onto the overlay track.
I will try what you suggested. I had forgotten that there are more than one overlay tracks available.

One last problem I encountered was where to place the key frames and then move the image of the sign at each one so that it follows the slight (camera) movement while the scene was being recorded (I should have used a tripod). I used pan and zoom (pan only) to move the image of the sign slightly to keep it over the correct place to counter the slight camera movement. When in pan and zoom you only see the overlay image and not the video clip it overlays so its just a matter of trial and error to get it in the correct place. Hope that I explained that so that you understand.

[jparnold]

I had a quick look at the cropping filer and on first look I'm not sure it if will help me as the sign also has a large supporting leg which would need brightening also to make it look 'right'.