Under the effects browser (Cmd-5), search for “noise.” The filter is called simply “Reduce Noise.”Īpply the filter to the selected clip in your timeline by double clicking the filter. It’s totally worth it if you’re getting paid for your work. You can get a free trial, but it overlays a watermark, so to do any useful work, you’ll need to cough up $99.
#Neat video for final cut free install#
(Click the image above to view at 100 percent)įirst, download and install the Neat Video plugin for Final Cut. The noise is almost completely eliminated. To help you see the noise, here’s a portion of the image cropped to 100 percent, at which the noise is most visible: The color-adjusting and grading has improved the image dramatically, but also introduced lots of noise in the background. Notice there isn’t too much noise, but the image needs to be lightened quite a bit. It’s essentially a gradation from darker shades of grey to middle shades of grey (actually, it was light green on left and grey on right before grading – grey throughout after). In the example below, take a look at the grey background behind the subject.
There just isn’t enough data available to make the subtle transitions appear totally smooth, especially when you have a gradient or subtle variations in color (a totally clear blue sky is another area where this problem often shows up). But because of their highly compressed 8-bit codec, DSLR footage doesn’t hold up very well in large areas with the same color value.
The second problem was the even tonality of the interview background, which was a bare, colored wall, which I hit with a Lowel ProLight to give it some life. But that’s where the problem comes in: lifting the levels in post introduces noise. But, not so dark that I couldn’t bring them up to where I wanted them in post. The drawback to turning off overheads is that now the overall ambience of the room is darker.
My solution was to turn off the overheads, and set my white balance to daylight at 5400K, which I did with the employee interviews I’ll talk about shortly. This office interior, like many, was lit by overhead fluorescent fixtures. Two challenges on this shoot combined to produce the noisy footage: mixed light at low levels, and monochromatic backgrounds. Let’s start by taking a look at the finished video, and I’ll work backward from there. We shot this piece on two Canon 60Ds, which like virtually all DSLRs, produce heavily compressed files that can get noisy when you lift the exposure levels.
#Neat video for final cut free pro#
My most recent commercial piece, which Lisa Cooper and I made for Seattle startup, is a great example of how a powerful Final Cut Pro X plugin called Neat Video can improve murky DSLR footage.
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