Shooting with a standard video camera you'll often notice that the original contrast of the scene just cannot be reproduced. The basic problem is that a CCD chip cannot match the amazing contrast range of the eye.

CGM DVE Vol.3+ (also included in CGM DVE Complete) contains some tools which can repair these problems without affecting the quality of your video footage.

First place the video on the timeline, then apply the CGM Lows filter (located in: Video Filters / CGM DVE Image Control) and open its input controls in the viewer. In the Range section you can modify the brightness range where the filter is applied. The Edge Thin slider allows you to expand or reduce the area and Edge Feather slider allows you to blur the edges. The Amount slider defines the visibility of the filter.

If you'd like to see the range you've selected, switch the View Mode to the option Matte.

Sometimes it's necessary to limit the area where the filter works. You can do this by defining the points of the eight-point garbage matte in the Area section.

In the example you can see the very dark palm trees have a very low contrast range.

Now the contrast of the palm trees is higher and they look brighter. The video looks similar to the footage of a 35mm film camera.

What happens:

Point here to see the Video Scope of the original movie.
Point here to see the Video Scope of the corrected movie.

You'll notice that the contrast of the lower areas in the range between 0 and 55 IRE was increased, but the rest of the image was not affected.