Upcoming color-matching plugin: call for samples

Frederic Baumann wrote on 7/24/2011, 9:42 AM

Hi,

There have been several users who told me they would be interested in having a plugin that would help them match the colors between several clips, recorded by different cameras (although they record the same scene, the different sensors, different view points etc., cause objects which should lead to the same colors, to actually be recorded differently from one footage to another one).

I am working on developing an algorithm that would do this. I am getting good results so far, but would like to benchmark it on more real-world cases, and make it as robust as possible.

So if you have shoots of a same scene, taken by different cameras, I would be delighted to get them. It might be still images or footage - still images will be fine, and certainly easier to exchange.

For still images, you may either post them on the forum, or contact me by private messages.

Best regards, and thanks in advance for your help (if this leads to a working plugin, being released and sold, I will offer a special discount to the contributors).

Frédéric - www.fbmn-software.com

Comments

NickHope wrote on 7/24/2011, 10:37 AM

Here's an extreme one to start with. The shots were taken one after the other with my Sony Z1P. The first one is auto white balance with halogen lights with blue gels. The second one is manual white balance on the palm of my hand, with a UR-Pro underwater colour correction filter (reddish orange) in front of the lens.

Frederic Baumann wrote on 7/24/2011, 11:04 AM

Many thanks!
Which one would you use as a reference? (my algorithm matches one picture to another one, considered as a reference, so I would like to test the matching in the right direction).

Frédéric

NickHope wrote on 7/24/2011, 7:33 PM

It depends on the other footage surrounding these clips, but typically I would colour correct the second clip to reduce the red, and then want to match the first clip to it. For example:

This is an extreme example that I would normally not expect to make a good match, but I might try it and put a cutaway in between the two clips to make the change less obvious.

redpaw wrote on 7/25/2011, 3:35 AM

There's few more:
https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/8874706/1/CC?h=6db349

some of them dont differ that much, but all was taken with the same settings so thought it might help (somehow)...
a - sony ex1
b - jvc hm700

by the way - love your white balance plugin!

edit: fixed link

PeterDuke wrote on 7/25/2011, 4:53 AM

A problem, which Nick's first example illustrates, is what happens with mixed light sources. The foreground is lit as he describes but the background is presumably sunlight filtered by sea water. Sometimes we get both artifical and daylight lighting the same scene. Theatre stages may be lit with say blue-ish light from one side and orange-ish light from the other, as sort of happens in daylight (sky vs. sun).

In these cases, a simple overall colour mapping is not going to work for everything. Unless there is some practical way of labeling objects (or parts of curved surfaces) according to light source mix we will have to decide which objects we want to be right and which objects are allowed to have a cast.

Byron K wrote on 7/25/2011, 4:57 AM

Here are two time-lapse videos same shot on different days w/ different cameras. No color correction. Sanyo Xacti FH1A clip is the reference.

Sanyo Xacti FH1A: video shot at regular speed, then compressed in Vegas 10d:
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/Image2.jpg

TM700: Shot w/ timelapse feature at 1 frame every second:
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/bk-vegas/Image3.jpg

I've also uploaded a side by side video comparison of the two shots.
Clip on the left is the TM700. Clip on the right is the Sany Xacti FH1A

Thanks for taking this on.. If it works well this will really make a very nice feature! (:

CClub wrote on 7/25/2011, 12:21 PM

Very excited at the possibilities with this plugin; I just purchased the Exposure and White Balance plugins and they're incredibly efficient. Prior to these plugins, I was adjusting color correction, trying the Sony plugin, etc. The plugins by Frederic are a few clicks and you're back to cutting events.

amendegw wrote on 7/25/2011, 12:57 PM

Byron K,

I love my TM700 and have not seen this problem (yet!), but you might try Googling "TM700 bondi blue". Apparently, there is a "tweak" to fix this problem by going from Manual White Balance to Indoor 2 and back. Not sure how it might work on time lapse setting.

...Jerry

Byron K wrote on 7/25/2011, 8:33 PM

Thanks Amendegw for the tip on the bondi blue. I love my TM700, I actually use it more than my Xacti. (:

The minimum interval on the TM is 1fps, which is a little bit to much to get a smooth timelapse as you can probably see the slight jerky motion.

NickHope wrote on 7/25/2011, 8:52 PM

Indeed Peter, and many an hour I have spent in the secondary color corrector tweaking the mask to deal with this problem. It is an extreme and probably impossible example for a color-matching plugin.

Maybe better for Frederic to take a look at these underwater examples I shot a few years ago. There are also some in post #157 a few posts below that. They are all shot with available light, but white balanced in different ways. No mixed light sources. I can supply full size screen grabs or even HDV clips if they are of interest.

Frederic Baumann wrote on 7/26/2011, 5:02 AM

Thank you all for your quite valuable help through these files. I will use them to stress-test my algorithm and will let you know the results, publicly or privately.

Thank you as well for your nice comments about my existing plug-ins ! :-)

Frédéric - www.fbmn-software.com