Blackmagic Forum

I have a 4K video of a lady sitting at a desk talking to the viewer. Focus on her face is tack sharp which tends to exaggerate her age (74). Is there any simple way to soften the overall focus of the picture (the background is already extremely soft)?

Why? Just take care of her skin with the Face Refinement filter.

Tiffen 1/8 black Promist, maybe 1/4.

Try adjusting midtone dynamics (MD) in the color screen. It's on the bottom left with contrast, tint, etc.

jbeech wrote:Tiffen 1/8 black Promist, maybe 1/4.

Oh really? What filter size do you recommend for a 4K Mini Monitor?

Any one of the suggestions made by Uli or Galin will do. If you go with Galin, I suggest masking her face and then adjusting MD only to the mask, preventing the entire image from softening too.

A few suggestions:

1) Face Refinement is probably the easiest one-step process you could do. Track the face and then make some adjustments and see how it looks. Eyebags are often a very important adjustment.

2) For actors in this age range, I generally tend to add a neck mask, pull a key on skintone, and set that to "stun." Minus Mid-Tone (MD) to maybe -50 and then see how far you need to go. In some cases, lot of Y-only SNR can work. In others, Soften/Sharpen can help. I try to avoid the actual Defocus control except in difficult situations.

3) In cases where Face Refinement doesn't work (head turns or occlusions), you can create multiple tracking masks (forehead, worry lines, cheeks, mouth, under eyes, crows feet, etc.) and adjust those as needed.

4) sometimes, Glow applied to skin or using a mask can help take the curse off an unflattering shot or harsh lighting.

5) there are instances where I have to use all or some of these. Every situation is different and you have to try different things and be willing to experiment. I try to err on the side of not going too far in the hopes of leaving a few subtle wrinkles to give them some realism and expression, rather than carving out a "Barbie doll" look. Sometimes, less is more.

6) be very careful to preserve the sharpness of the mouth, the eyes, the hair, and their outfit. That will preserve the illusion of sharpness and just make them look "well-preserved" as opposed to "overprocessed." Constraining the key is mandatory, with tracking power windows or just careful qualification.

Once you create this look, save it as a PowerGrade, which will help reduce the time it takes to apply it to multiple similar shots.

Wow Marc Wielage, master level briefing! Thank you.