New Blue Essentials: Auto Contrast puzzle

terrypin wrote on 3/16/2017, 2:41 PM

I applied NewBlue Essentials > Auto Contrast > Big Boost to a pale-looking video clip:

Looked OK in NB so I applied it, but as you see the result was totally washed out. Rendered the same.

Tried a JPG still from the clip, in a fresh project, with same result.

Same with all Auto Contrast options (except Reset). Same in both MEP 2016 Premium and MEP 2017 Premium.

Yet if instead I used MEP Gamma I got the expected result:

Anyone able to help me understand this odd result from NB please? Do others get similar behaviour?

I've also uploaded the source JPG here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/BudeMap-1.jpg

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Comments

johnebaker wrote on 3/19/2017, 11:26 AM

Hi Terry

. . . . Please don't go to any effort over that image . . . .

No problem.

. . . . I'm always torn between working on my photos in PSP or doing it in MEP. Good arguments on both sides IMO . . .

Here I would disagree with you 😭 - as you know my philosophy is use 'the right tool for the job' - which means I will have a real problem when it comes to replacing my video camera 😟.

John EB

Scenestealer wrote on 3/19/2017, 6:03 PM

Hi Terry

On that map I can detect no difference after clicking Auto exposure! Even on landscape photos like this one the difference seems rather small.

I can not explain why Auto Exposure in MEP is not creating a big change in contrast on the map picture for you.

The result however with the car picture is as expected,as John EB has explained, because there is already a full range from bright white to full black. The Auto exposure only has the correct effect when it detects the darkest elements that it thinks should be black 0 or the brightest elements it thinks should be white 255, which are not 0 and 255 and stretches the contrast range to achieve this. With your car picture you could only adjust Gamma, saturation and even HDR to give it more "pop" it in MEP.

John EB,

If the look is too strong then I would just decrease the Contrast slider in MEP . . .

I was referring to adjustment after using the MEP Auto Exposure and not the NB FX Big Boost which adds a hybrid Saturation increase "Vibrance".

The 2 entries for NB Auto Contrast are odd but either the newer compatibility with OFX in Magix just creates a new entry automatically, or they decided to leave the other entry with the NB interface so that you can use that if you prefer.

In my tests turning off GPU Accel in the NB application manager does create an even stronger effect. No idea why.

Peter

browj2 wrote on 3/19/2017, 6:24 PM

@johnebaker

What I was thinking of was using a photo with which one can work (improve significantly) along with a video at the same location and, say, get a pleasing result in PSP or one of the plugins, note the settings and try to apply them using similar effects in MEP/VPX. An image from the video would likely work best, no?. The point being that we seem to have better automated tools plus tweaking for photos in PSP than in the video editor. I just took a look and don't think that I can understand enough of what is happening using tools in PSP under Adjust, Smart Photo fix to be able to relate the commands to the video editor commands, so that is probably not feasible, at least for me, and it's maybe too much work.

But, there may be more success using Shot Match between the photo taken from the video and modified in the photo editor, and the same video in VPX. I'll try this to see what I get.