bad shadow on wall, can it be removed?

[Roddey_Phipps]

I've been given a series of interviews on mp4 format.

The interviewers are seated in front of a wall, there was a strong light off to the right, and there is a very strong shadow on the wall, to the left of the person.

Its too late to film them with a green screen, I have to work with what I already have. IS there any way I can remove or lessen the intensity of the shadow on the wall?

Unfortunately the wall is not a single color, its a pattern of sorts.

Is there a filter? A blur of some kind? Could something like that be run on only half of the screen? Please dont tell me to use a chroma mask, those things are impossible to use and figure out and there is almost ZERO documentation on how to create custom masks.

any other help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

[BrianCee]

Well first I would have to disagree with you big time - Chroma key is incredibly easy - requiring only that the background is a fairly consistent single colour which does not appear in the rest of the picture - - originally it had to be green -- then blue became the favourite - now we can use any colour we want and just call it up in Videostudio and "Bingo" job done

I would think the lack of tutorials or instructions is because the whole thing is so simple

the problem is though you say you have a multi colour wall and that is not good for chroma key

difficult to give exact suggestions without seeing the image you are working with - but would something along the lines of my screen shot below work - a coloured background dropped into the overlay track and distorted to just cover the area you don't want ? -- or maybe a mask which you would make like the second image would maybe work

[Roddey_Phipps]

I'm not going to argue about chroma key as I probably didnt explain that very well, I was discussing trying to make a custom mask frame in photoshop and apply it via the "mask frame" dialog box. Theres no documentation on how to do this, not really. I've experimented and the masks always come in the wrong size and/or get distorted. This is a lot different than using chroma key.

In any event, no they arent going to go for what you described, a color mask over the entire area. The wall has a pattern and they want the shadow removed or lessened. Covering it up with a solid color, nope.

I was wondering if I could apply some kind of blur filter or color lightening filter to the shadow-only area. I dont know how this could be done, and if the only way was to use a custom mask frame, I'm not sure I'd be able to do that...

[asik1]

There are few blur filters you can set and position like NB,vitascen,
you can key a grad png over your video.
you can paint mask with the painting creator

[Roddey_Phipps]

thanks

are the NB and vitascen included with VideoStudio 9X or do I have to purchase them separately? I did not see them in my FX menu.

[asik1]

So you don't have X9 ultimate? why?
for it's price it's no brainier over just X9 pro.

[Roddey_Phipps]

I fixed this using another method, easy when you think about it...

screencapped a video frame in photoshop, made a new layer and cloned the heck out the background pattern without the shadow,, filled up the space as best I could... used a gradient mask on the edge to make it blend in

saved as a transparent .png, opened in video, overlayed entire video track

seems to work, client is ok... now I have another issue they have asked for so I'll create a new thread, this question will hopefully be a no-brainer for many of you

[JaRo]

Roddey_Phipps,

Maybe Vignette FX would have been another way. There are two in VS. One in Dark Room, the other in NewBlue Video Essentials II.

You can see examples on YouTube :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4RHl5LToVw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-CKDNSz418
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFf38GSMakU

I've made two Instant Projects as example a few months ago. You can see them by clicking on the link in the adress below. They are called : Adding Character -2 and Adding Character Vignette 2. Very important : Ensure to set Transparency to 1 (in Attributes/Mask and Chroma Key). Check the box to apply, set Transparency to 1, uncheck the box. See image.