How to fix overexposed video in Final Cut Pro

One of the most frequent and frustrating things for any editor is working with overexposed video. There are many reasons the clips or iPhone footage you’re editing are overexposed, but they all come down to the same issue — the camera wasn’t set up correctly for the light in the shot.  Fortunately, you can learn how to fix overexposed video in Final Cut Pro. While the picture will never be perfect, these tricks go a long way to help you save a poorly lit shot.

Part 1: How to tell if your poorly lit footage can be saved

Sometimes a shot just can’t be saved, no matter how much time and effort you put in. It’s probably easier to reshoot or use a stock footage replacement in these instances. But how bad is too bad? To figure out if a shot can be saved, it helps to understand what’s caused the overexposure in the first place.

Overexposure happens when the camera receives too much light through the lens. Adjusting your camera’s shutter speed, ISO, and aperture can help resolve this during filming.

When too much light enters the camera, it has trouble distinguishing white areas from super bright regions, resulting in white ‘hotspots’ or ‘blown out’ areas. While shooting in natural light is fantastic for lighting your shots, you’ll often find that the sky gets blown out on a sunny or overcast day.

Since the camera can’t tell what’s white and what’s light, it can’t create the digital information needed to rebuild the shot, so you end up with significant white areas or over-bright highlights in the clip.

To determine if overexposed footage can be salvaged:

• Check the histogram: Recovery may be difficult if the histogram tool on your camera is heavily skewed to the right, with a large spike at the far-right edge.
• Look for clipping: If you see large patches of pure white with no detail in extremely overexposed areas, they’re likely unrecoverable.
• Examine highlight detail: There’s a better chance of recovery if you can still see some texture or color variation in bright areas. 
• Try adjusting exposure in editing: Pull down the exposure and see if hidden details emerge. If not, the footage may be too far gone.
• Review your footage’s bit depth: Higher bit depth (like 10-bit or RAW) retains more information and offers better recovery options than 8-bit footage.

Remember, minor overexposure is often fixable, but severely blown-out areas usually can’t be fully restored.

Part 2: Final Cut Pro color quick fixes

Fixing overexposed video in Final Cut Pro is just a special form of color grading. Final Cut Pro has 2 quick fixes for color correction. While these won’t fix every shot every time, they can help you save what you can.

Balance color

The Balance Color tool auto-balances your shots in a single click, so it’s great for when white balance is an issue. The Final Cut Pro Balance Color tool, which is also used for color matching, doesn’t affect the overall exposure of a shot, but it can help you separate exposure and white balance issues.

1. Select the clip in the timeline
2. Go to the bottom of the Media Viewer and click the magic wand.
3. Choose Balance from the drop-down menu and let Final Cut Pro get to work.

Color match

Color match is another tool primarily used for adding consistency to the color tones across shots. It will boost your exposure a little which, in some cases, might improve your shot enough to use. For this tool to work, you’ll need a second clip with good color and lighting to match it. This tool works best with 1 or 2 poorly lit shots among other exposed footage.

1. Place both clips in the timeline — they don’t need to be next to each other.
2. Select the clip with the bad exposure. 
3. Go to the magic wand at the bottom of the Media Viewer.
4. Choose Match Color from the list.
5. Move your cursor to the well-exposed clip and find the frame you want to match.
6. Click on the clip and, if you’re happy with your selection, hit Match at the bottom of the viewer.

Part 3: Fix footage with the color board

The Final Cut Pro Color Board lets you correct and grade your video clips. Switching on the video scopes can be super helpful as you can see what’s happening to your color as it changes.

1. Search for the Color Board in the Effects Panel and add it to your clip.
2. Clip the Color Board options in the Inspector to view the Exposure levels.
3. Grab the white circle and drag it downward to decrease the light levels.
4. Next, grab the black circle and adjust the Shadows in your shot.
5. Click the Color Board drop-down at the top of the Inspector and choose Color Curves.
6. For the Luma Settings, add handles to the diagonal line and drag up and down to create a slight S-curve in the line.
7. Return to the Inspector and click the Color Board option, followed by the Saturation tab.
8. Adjust the Saturation settings for the Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows.
9. Play with the settings until you’ve created a look that works for your shot.

Top Tip: To switch on the video scopes, click the View drop-down at the top of the Media Viewer and choose Scopes.

Part 4: Create a look for your video with overlays

Overlays are excellent for creating a stylistic look, but they can also help hide issues with your shot’s lighting. Of course, doing as much color correction as possible before applying the overlay is always good practice. Still, these handy, downloadable assets come in various styles and designs. Let’s explore a few categories of overlay designs.

Film burns, noise, and grain

Giving your video clips a vintage look is super easy with overlays, and you can find a variety of burn effects as well as noise and grain to download. The point of this style of effects is to degrade your footage, giving it an old-film vibe. 

Overexposure was a common problem with older cameras because they didn’t have the advantage of digital, in-camera review. As a result, vintage film often suffers from hotspots and blown-out areas. So if your shot lighting is particularly bad, creating a vintage feel can work to your advantage.

Light leaks

Light leaks are a lot of fun and can add movement and style to otherwise flat visuals. Light leaks are patterns of white or colored light that streak across your image, digitally recreating the types of optical flare captured in the camera.

They come in various styles, colors, and intensities, and can be used in layers to create new styles. As the name suggests, light leaks often add brightness and exposure to your shot, but they can also be used to cover large, blown-out areas such as skies in a landscape shot.

Video looks

A massive variety of video looks like glitches, smoke, clouds, and fire are available as overlays. You can also find overlay elements designed to sit over your videos, such as badges and stickers.

Creating a video look should extend beyond your poorly lit shot and be consistent across the entire footage. It isn’t always practical to change the look of a video to save 1 or 2 shots, but if you think creatively, there are many uses for these assets.

Part 5: How to add overlays to your video

If you’re keen to use a cool overlay, like these fire effects, in Final Cut Pro to fix overexposure, here’s how to install one.

1. Add your clips to the timeline and place your overlay in the track above your clip.
2. Trim the length of the overlay to match the clip length.
3. With the overlay selected, go to the Inspector.
4. Go to the Blend Mode drop-down menu and browse the options to find one that works for your shot.
5. Adjust the Opacity of your overlay until you have the intensity you like.

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Overexposed video clips can be a nightmare for an editor. But after learning how to fix overexposed videos in Final Cut Pro, you can get on with your editing knowing that your clips are savable. Of course, the color correction tips we’ve shown you here today will never be a replacement for filming your shots correctly. To learn more about video lighting, check out these 5 lighting hacks.