addressed Old movies too bright in center, is there a gradient brightness tool to compensate?

[VidTode]

I have some recordings from old movies that are too bright in the center. This can be caused by a misaligned condenser lens, and also by the way that the camera making the recording processes the image. The effect is static, so if I could set a variable radial brightness level I could solve the problem. But nowhere can I find a tool that would allow me to do this, and to be honest I am having a difficult time coming up with a search term for center brightness. This is a known problem so I was surprised to find nothing designed to do this. I suppose I could play the movie in PowerPoint and overlay a gray gradient but that would cause a loss of clarity of the image. Anyone have an idea on this? If I were a programmer it seems to me that this would be a straightforward sort of effect. You can see an example of the problem in this screenshot from an old movie. 

Thanks in advance!

[borate]

You might play with the Gradient Map effect in Videopad...   

 

And see if this tool has anything for you...  https://www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/index.html

[VidTode]

Thank  you for the suggestion.

Photopad is for still images only. I provided a still image only to illustrate the problem in a video. Is there a similar gradient editor for Videopad?

[borate]

The image above utilized the Gradient Map in Videopad, which may be about the best one can do.  Play with the effects.

And drop by here again;  someone else may have better ideas.

[VidTode]

Hello again Borate, 

I cannot find a mention of gradient in the titles of the 59 VideoPad FAQ files I accessed through this support page. I consulted the online help through my running VideoPad app, which lists 89 effects, but none of them seem to contain the word "gradient". I could not find a full manual for the PC version of Videopad but the Mac user manual makes only three mentions of gradient, and none of them refer (in a way that I can understand) to selectively altering geometric regions within the raster. My attempts to find instructions to use gradients in VideoPad via Google search only provide results that point back to PhotoPad, and those instructions refer to changing colors, not greyscales and do not refer to geometric regions. I would be grateful if you could point me to VideoPad gradient documentation that would assist me in this matter. 

Referring to your sample image, it does not appear to me that there is a helpful improvement. Actually I get a better, but still unsatisfactory result by using "auto levels". 

I'm thinking that the sort of feature I need would be the inverse of the existing effect called "spotlight". If that could be set up as an inverse effect, it would provide the solution. But I don't see a way to invert the effect. I can get a poor approximiation of the result I want by setting the spotlight to white and the opacity to 0.10 and playing with the radius but the net result is a loss of clarity.

Thanks,

VidTode

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

This is a defect which is quite difficult to remedy and VP doesn't have any filters to do this.  Probably the best result obtainable is by using the Auto Levels effect. Although in principle it would seem simple to add a graded image of a vignette, VP doesn't add or subtract the image from the defective one as in some photo correction programs. There are some vignette images such as this you can try......

You can copy and play with. It would need to be placed on Track 2 and made Negative with Contrast and Transparency adjusted.......but don't expect too much.......or more realistically don't expect any real improvement.

It's worth a play with though.. An alternative approach is to add the same clip to the upper track and apply the Negative effect, then use Contrast and Transparency to reduce the centre and lighten the corners in Sequence Preview.  Finally create a sequence, load it back and then alter contrast/exposure........Might work but I doubt it. You can nullify the main image as you are using a negative one above it but altering the brightness or contrast of this might have some mileage. In most attempts I have made the result is pretty muddy!

Nat

[borate]

The Gradient Map effect is available in version 10.64 running here, but it may not appear in your version. 

As you note, it likely won't do what you want.

[VidTode]

Borate, I have a paid license for VideoPad and I see now that I have to pay $25 to get the current version that probably won't do me any good. I will be polite and just say that I don't like the upgrade policy.

[borate]

You can always test drive the latest 'pro' release without paying a dime though in time certain features will be disabled.  It's a trial unless licensed.

The free version has limitations but won't time out.  In any case, retain your old installer and registration info.

But, yes, the newer features likely won't solve this issue - just give you more to play with.

[borate]

Using a combo of masking with Transparency and Gradient Map effects, this was a slightly improved result.