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Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Stills from FCPX are high contrast with crushed blacks?

FCPX 11.

If I 'Save Current Frame' from the FCPX timeline -- the still (PNG) I get is not like the image on the timeline: the contrast is jacked up and the blacks are so black they appear to have been crushed.

It didn't used to be like this. I'm wondering what has happened with FCPX, and if there is a way to correct this?

Note. If I pull the mastered film into Quicktime and isolate the same frame and do a Command C, and the 'New From Clipboard' in Preview I get a perfect exact still.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Jan 14, 2025 4:04 PM

38 replies

Jan 17, 2025 8:40 AM in response to Ben Low

I have tested out my Resolve theory and it doesn't work!

The exported frame matches the frame in the Resolve timeline but when reimported into FCP it is a tad darker than the original. However, regarding the quality, they are both OK . . . which is better, the lighter or the darker . . . who can say?

I certainly don't get any crushed blacks or ruined photos when I export a frame from FCP. It's just that side by side they are not quite identical.

It is possible to be too critical as your videos will never be shown under as perfect conditions as you see it when viewed from your editing timeline.

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 17, 2025 9:17 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hey Luis, do you mean in FCPX (from the timeline) or from a Resolve timeline? I'm not at my edit suite at the moment or would just try it.

I take that back. Just tried it. When I go to export from the FCPX timeline ... I put my 'Settings' at Video Only, Apple ProRes 4444 XQ, which makes a single Quicktime frame ... which I then copy and convert to a .PNG with Preview. Right? I chose the highest resolution I could get from the FCPX timeline -- to get the final 'still' matching the resolution of the still I get working ONLY with Quicktime (and the master file of the whole film).

This is good. Thank you Luis. It allows me to more easily select my desired frame ... please correct me if I've got something wrong. This seems to work just fine.

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 17, 2025 9:21 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Hey Ian,

I'm making a coffee table photo book to go with the film ... so I'm trying to get as high quality an image as possible. No problem with the 4K material, but a lot of the film was shot back in HD times ... and needs help.

Working only with Quicktime does just fine. And as Luis suggested, pulling a still from the FCPC timeline and turning it into a single frame movie, which produces a single shot Quicktime ... which I then convert using Preview to an actual .png ... works perfectly. The image on the FCPX timeline and the final still are identical.

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 17, 2025 10:34 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Darn Tootn', I'll look it up and try it Tom. I've been using Topaz Photo AI, which does some pretty interesting things, the strong point being faces.

Going to check out Photo Zoom Pro 9. Will report back ...

BenB

Level 6

12,715 points

Jan 18, 2025 5:06 AM in response to Ben Low

If you have Topaz, Photo Zoom isn't any better (or worse). Use what you already have.

I just had to do this with a new edit yesterday, and sure shootin' the stills are much too dark. Filled out feedback form, let the dev team know there's a bug. And it is a bug, because in the past I had a project that I did this a lot on and it was fine. But now it's not. gggrrr...

Jan 18, 2025 7:54 AM in response to Ben Low

Ben Low wrote:

Today I've got a couple of hundred stills to pull that way. My fingers are not happy campers.

You may be averse to paying a years subscription ($120 or so) to Adobe but you would save yourself hours and maybe days of work as you could automate the entire process in Lightroom Classic. All you would need to do is export the chosen stills, import them into Lightroom and re-export them with a Rec709G2.4 tag using an automated preset. Job done.

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 18, 2025 8:40 AM in response to Clint Gryke

Good point Clint. Though exporting them directly from Quicktime through Preview is a 3 click process. And exporting them from FCPX is about a 6-7 click process. And exporting them old-style from FCPX is still a 2-3 click process ... plus then bringing everything into Lightroom and batch exporting everything out ... at least 3 click process.

I'm adding up clicks here. Seems both processes are about equal. And the reality of filmmaking: lots of clicks regardless. I love shooting a film. Click, the camera is on, click, the camera is off: 2-click process. Editing, on the other hand ... a gazillion clicks no matter how one approaches it.

But. When I complain ... I immediately think of other jobs I could be doing ...

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 18, 2025 9:01 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Dang!!! You're absolutely right. I hadn't thought of that. I'm so glad you mentioned it. I was blithely producing stills here ... at 72 dpi ... duh? ...

So I checked in Topaz. I can reset the default preference output resolution to 300 ppi. Zowie.

Note: done a few tests; it appears one has to 'Upscale' the image to get the 300 ppi. Just running it through, denoise, sharpen (4K to 4K) still only gives you the 72 ppi for some reason. The 'Upscaling' is what does the trick. Apparently.

You just saved me a huge bunch of work T! I very much appreciate that. Thank you most kindly. The ones I've already done I'll bring into Preview and change the dpi/ppi to 300. I think I've done that before, regularly, and it seems to work at the printer.

Jan 18, 2025 9:36 AM in response to Ben Low

Ben Low wrote:

Good point Clint. Though exporting them directly from Quicktime through Preview is a 3 click process. And exporting them from FCPX is about a 6-7 click process. And exporting them old-style from FCPX is still a 2-3 click process ... plus then bringing everything into Lightroom and batch exporting everything out ... at least 3 click process.

I'm adding up clicks here. Seems both processes are about equal. And the reality of filmmaking: lots of clicks regardless. I love shooting a film. Click, the camera is on, click, the camera is off: 2-click process. Editing, on the other hand ... a gazillion clicks no matter how one approaches it.

But. When I complain ... I immediately think of other jobs I could be doing ...

Adding up the clicks, I’m only talking about the clicks after you have created the stills - part 2 of the job.

Doing part 2 in Lightroom would be one single click to import all of the stills, one single command-A click to select all the imported stills and one single click to export all them once you have created the export preset (a few clicks in total). You can also scale/resize as part of the export. I think that would save a huge number of extra clicks with the subsequent copying and pasting for each image however you do it. I don’t mean to be annoying, I’m just saying easy it would be to automate all of part 2 for a small investment

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 18, 2025 9:37 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hey Luis,

That's what's happening. I'm making a coffee-table photo/text book from this film ... which will be running in a museum IMAX theatre, that has a gift store (the book). The subject matter of the film is relevant enough that it would be a great teaching tool in schools. Thus, making a book to go with the film itself.

Jan 18, 2025 9:49 AM in response to Ben Low

Ben Low wrote:

Hey Luis,

That's what's happening. I'm making a coffee-table photo/text book from this film ... which will be running in a museum IMAX theatre, that has a gift store (the book). The subject matter of the film is relevant enough that it would be a great teaching tool in schools. Thus, making a book to go with the film itself.

👍

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 18, 2025 10:09 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I don't know if one can do this in a post ... but here is a temp website I've set up, prior to releasing the film.

dancingbear.info

And there are two versions of the film (long and shorter) and a trailer viewable on the 'Screening' page. The trailer gives an accurate idea of what the film is about. Someone showed up on my doorstep out of the blue one day (out in BC, Canada), with twenty minutes of raw video footage taken of a friend of his, wanting to know if a film could be made. And this is the film that got made.

Jan 18, 2025 10:18 AM in response to Ben Low

One final post from me here. If you are sending the stills off for professional printing, you may be completely wasting your time going through this whole process. The gamma change issue is only affecting some apps (mainly Apple apps such as Preview, FCP, Motion etc). It does not happen in other software such as Photoshop where the images render normally. Photoshop, for example, treats the Rec. ITU-R BT.709-5 tag (the cause of the problem) as normal Rec709. If your printer is using Photoshop or other software then the whole thing is most likely a non-issue. Before you wear your hands and eyes out it might be advisable to check with your printer to see if this issue with Rec. ITU-R BT.709-5 tag is in fact a problem at all.

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Jan 18, 2025 10:35 AM in response to Clint Gryke

Smart advice Clint.

I'm actually working a lot on the stills after-the-fact. Extra colour grading and up-rezzing and Topaz etc. to get them to look good in print. A lot of the film was shot in various forms of HD, so the 'stills' pulled need some serious attention. And I'm also formatting the book itself - so need to have a good idea of end-results before the thing goes to the printer.

If it was just a matter of pulling the stills to go straight to the printer I would take your advice for sure.

terryb

Level 4

2,784 points

Jan 14, 2025 4:38 PM in response to Ben Low

Problem with "Save Current Frame" exports… - Apple Community

Stills from FCPX are high contrast with crushed blacks?