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nfable

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 9, 2007
180
26
Using iPhone 12 Mini recording a charity concert at a local theatre and editing in FCPx. I notice on some of the scenes, the shadows look really odd.

Shadows on the stage from colored LED back lights look almost 'punched out', it is difficult to explain - where a shadow you'd think would be just black or darker, it appears lighter. Like a nuclear explosion leaves the shadow of someone.

Footage is Rec. 2020 HLG, 4K editing in 1080p Rec. 2020 HLG Mulicam in 1080p Rec. 2020 HLG Project in Wide Gamut HDR Library.

No amount of color wheelin' can seem to make it look right.

Any advice / tips welcome.

Screen Shot 2022-08-09 at 11.23.13 PM.png
 

sevoneone

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2010
951
1,290
Does it look like that when you play the clip on the iPhone? Many multi color LEDs that are not made for video give this hyper saturated wash effect, especially in the blue/violet range. Notice where the light is less blue/purple the less pronounced the effect.

Given the amount of light hitting the front of the performers, I think the "shadows" are true. I say "shadows" because with all that light hitting the front of the stage, I doubt there were much of any dark shadows, and just areas where the light from the LED backlights were blocked by the performers. If you've been focusing only on trying to adjust those shadows, I would leave them alone and try using some Hue vs. Saturation and/or Saturation vs. Saturation curves to reduce the punch of the LEDs to make those colors look true to life before applying any other correction.
 
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Reactions: lin2log

lin2log

macrumors member
Mar 21, 2011
77
38
It's the stage lighting. 🙄

It has exactly zero to do with the iPhone.
 
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