My back drop in the studio is too narrow ... how do I make it look bigger in PowerDirector 15

Tom68

Newbie Location: Vienna Joined: Jan 16, 2012 06:20 Messages: 26 Offline

Solved by

Apr 04, 2017 03:33

Hi Forum

In my studio my white back drop is 3 meters wide. When I film in 16:9 I also film areas to the left and right of the backdrop.... so I capture areas of dirty wall, and piles of junk. I'd like to get rid of all of this so my final video looks like its in a much bigger studio... so it looks like the backdrop is 5 meters wide. I don't want any fancy effects... so the entire 16:9 screen is white.

Can someone point me in the direction of the correct tutorial or make suggestions how to do this.

Thanks.

Tom

p.s. don't know why the photo will not show.... sorry.

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Filename	Snapshot(2).jpg	Download
Description	Photo of the studio and backdrop
Filesize	101 Kbytes
Downloaded:	55 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 04. 2017 03:39

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline

Apr 04, 2017 08:28

Hi,

This is a bit of a quick attempt, just using PD and no other image editing software to show the principle so it would need some fine tuning.

Make a custom colour board of the best shade of white to match your backdrop - use the color picker to try different tones.

Place the custom board on Track 1

Clip/images on Track 2

Apply a mask - but the stock PD ones may not be wholly suitable, I used the feathered circular one to test.

Play around with the position and size to mask out the offending background.

In principle it works BUT a lot will depend on the lighting, the in frame movement and the shape/design of the mask.

Custom masks can be made in other image editing sofware and imported to PD.

Might be a solution??

Cheers

Adrian


Filename	mask 2.jpg	Download
Description
Filesize	80 Kbytes
Downloaded:	44 time(s)

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Apr 04, 2017 14:08

Hi Tom -

Adrian & I are on the same track, but with a slightly different approach. Basically all you can do is cover the offending background.

Rather than masking, I just went for the overlay... but the outcome is pretty much the same. Both suggestions will work acceptably well, as long as the subject remains in a similar position.

Video clip in Track 1

Overlay in Track 2, extended to the duration of the video.

The overlay could also be used as a mask, if you wish to use Adrian's suggestion.

Cheers - Tony


Filename	Studio Overlay blur.png	Download
Description
Filesize	249 Kbytes
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Filename	Studio + Overlay.png	Download
Description
Filesize	183 Kbytes
Downloaded:	172 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 04. 2017 14:09

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BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Apr 04, 2017 19:06

Hello all. I was mulling over this and thought another workaround would be to place the video media in a 4:3 project, stretch it out to fill the screen, and render the project. Bring the rendered video into a 16:9 project and apply CLPV. There is a loss of resolution using this method, but it may not be very noticeable.

CLPV

The model is beautiful, just thought I would mention.


Filename	SnapShot(0).jpg	Download
Description	using CLPV
Filesize	88 Kbytes
Downloaded:	183 time(s)

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 04. 2017 19:09

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Tom68

Newbie Location: Vienna Joined: Jan 16, 2012 06:20 Messages: 26 Offline

Apr 05, 2017 02:20

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions. I will start experimenting.

1) I will photograph the empty studio first and use thoes photos instead of a colour board.

2) I'll try the 4:3 rendering option.

The probelm is when using 16:9 the studio needs to be really wide to get a full standing body shot.... especially when the model wants to move around. I guess anyone with a tiny studio and wanting to work in 16:9 will face this problem... its why so many YouTube videos are filmed on green screen, then get a 'homey' or 'dramatic' background inserted. Again ... easy enough for a stationary model ... but a dancing teenager!

Re the model ... yes my daughter is very beutiful ... its actually her video ... she's covering 'Starman' by Bowie for a school project.

Thanks for your suggestions! I will report back.

Tom

Quote Hi,

This is a bit of a quick attempt, just using PD and no other image editing software to show the principle so it would need some fine tuning.

Make a custom colour board of the best shade of white to match your backdrop - use the color picker to try different tones.

Place the custom board on Track 1

Clip/images on Track 2

Apply a mask - but the stock PD ones may not be wholly suitable, I used the feathered circular one to test.

Play around with the position and size to mask out the offending background.

In principle it works BUT a lot will depend on the lighting, the in frame movement and the shape/design of the mask.

Custom masks can be made in other image editing sofware and imported to PD.

Might be a solution??

Cheers

Adrian

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Apr 05, 2017 10:45

Quote Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions. I will start experimenting. 1) I will photograph the empty studio first and use thoes photos instead of a colour board.2) I'll try the 4:3 rendering option.The
probelm is when using 16:9 the studio needs to be really wide to get a
full standing body shot.... especially when the model wants to move
around. I guess anyone with a tiny studio and wanting to work in 16:9
will face this problem... its why so many YouTube videos are filmed on
green screen, then get a 'homey' or 'dramatic' background inserted.
Again ... easy enough for a stationary model ... but a dancing teenager!Re
the model ... yes my daughter is very beutiful ... its actually her
video ... she's covering 'Starman' by Bowie for a school project.Thanks for your suggestions! I will report back.Tom

The best thing to do is to have a background that is much wider than the one you are using.

A cheap background is a king size bed sheet. Bed sheets have many colors.

There is all kinds of materials available to use for photographic backgrounds. Of course you can buy real photo backgrounds. They can be very costly.

. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Tom68

Newbie Location: Vienna Joined: Jan 16, 2012 06:20 Messages: 26 Offline

Apr 07, 2017 09:55

Carl

Thanks for the idea about the big backdrop. I've got a large background as well ... the problem is that using 16:9 ratio, and wanting a full body shot, with 1.5 meters (7 ft) floor space, then the set needs to be at least 6 meters (18 feet) wide. My studio is not that big... and secondly, Its a challenge to get that large an area with flat lighting, especially working on a micro-budget... But I'm getting there! I'll keep you posted.

Tom

Quote

Quote Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions. I will start experimenting. 1) I will photograph the empty studio first and use thoes photos instead of a colour board.2) I'll try the 4:3 rendering option.The
probelm is when using 16:9 the studio needs to be really wide to get a
full standing body shot.... especially when the model wants to move
around. I guess anyone with a tiny studio and wanting to work in 16:9
will face this problem... its why so many YouTube videos are filmed on
green screen, then get a 'homey' or 'dramatic' background inserted.
Again ... easy enough for a stationary model ... but a dancing teenager!Re
the model ... yes my daughter is very beutiful ... its actually her
video ... she's covering 'Starman' by Bowie for a school project.Thanks for your suggestions! I will report back.Tom

The best thing to do is to have a background that is much wider than the one you are using.

A cheap background is a king size bed sheet. Bed sheets have many colors.

There is all kinds of materials available to use for photographic backgrounds. Of course you can buy real photo backgrounds. They can be very costly.

.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Apr 07, 2017 10:26

Carl

Thanks for the idea about the big backdrop. I've got a large
background as well ... the problem is that using 16:9 ratio, and wanting
a full body shot, with 1.5 meters (7 ft) floor space, then the set
needs to be at least 6 meters (18 feet) wide. My studio is not that
big... and secondly, Its a challenge to get that large an area with flat
lighting, especially working on a micro-budget... But I'm getting
there! I'll keep you posted.

Tom

Yes, micro-budget can be a problem. If the weather is good you can shoot outdoors, then you do not have the space problem. Outdoors with reflectors work wonders. If you set up in a shady area, you would be surprised how good the set is.

Of course having a 400 square foot (37 square meters) clean area would be great.

I do not know what kind of utility lights you have available where you live, In the USA there is a lot low cost clip-on lights that are very low cost. They would be tungsten, which means changing your white balance.

In the USA our govnerment has outlawed many tungsten lights, so the lights that are available for utility lights is a little bit unknown.

Happy shooting.

Carl Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.