Strange Hotspots in Cameras and Capture

[JakeLB]

I'm struggling to sort out a strange thing that's happening.

Most up to date OBS (31.0.1), on a Mac pro (m2 ultra sequoia 15.1.1)

When using my Elgato Facecam mk 2 OR my Mirabox Video Capture -- it looks like there is some sort of auto face-tracking brightening that is happening to any person/subject that appears, and as far I can tell NOTHING is on automatic. I have the Elgato camera hub and everything is manual. There are no effects or filters on ANY sources, nor on the scenes themeselves in OBS. But its like OBS just sees a face and makes this strange bright autoexposed hotspot. Or like it its trying to darken the background?

Here is a quick video I just recorded in OBS to see the effect - you'll notice all the lighting artifacts around as I move and the effect moves: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dzkt...ey=0d8ch3sqnck4qtwcb8lqaur0u&st=cxfc9lwa&dl=0

Anyone ever experience this? I have no idea whats happening.

Zero errors show up on the log file analysis.

 

[AaronD]

My first thought is that some lighting actually does that. Close up and low power, puts "enough" light on the immediate subject, and hardly any on the background. If you leave the small cone that is lit well, then you suddenly go dim.

Then I see the chair back behind you change brightness in big blocks. That makes me wonder about your encoding settings. Some do that, especially with either too-low bitrate or poor allocation of the available bits.

 

[JakeLB]

My first thought is that some lighting actually does that. Close up and low power, puts "enough" light on the immediate subject, and hardly any on the background. If you leave the small cone that is lit well, then you suddenly go dim.

Then I see the chair back behind you change brightness in big blocks. That makes me wonder about your encoding settings. Some do that, especially with either too-low bitrate or poor allocation of the available bits.

Thanks, Aaron! Its definitely not the lighting.

Very curious about your idea that it could be the encoding settings. BUT, I can see the issue happening in real time in my scene without streaming or recording. If it was an encoding issue, would that still be the case? Wouldn't it only appear in my recordings or streams?

 

[AaronD]

I can see the issue happening in real time in my scene without streaming or recording. If it was an encoding issue, would that still be the case? Wouldn't it only appear in my recordings or streams?

That's true. Encoding doesn't affect the preview at all. If it's happening there too, then it's not that.

There *could* be some smarts in the camera - that's not at all unheard of, especially for "muggle friendly" sorts of things who don't understand anything and "just want it to work" in the lousiest of situations - but I'd think that a well-known name brand would not be *stuck* with some fancy automatic correction that often gets confused.

What settings do you have in the source itself? Or in the camera that OBS might not know about? is there a physical user interface of some kind? Or a configuration app?

Or since I'm grasping at straws here, does Mac itself have some "correction" settings that it applies to video sources by default before it passes them on?

 

[JakeLB]

That's true. Encoding doesn't affect the preview at all. If it's happening there too, then it's not that.

There *could* be some smarts in the camera - that's not at all unheard of, especially for "muggle friendly" sorts of things who don't understand anything and "just want it to work" in the lousiest of situations - but I'd think that a well-known name brand would not be *stuck* with some fancy automatic correction that often gets confused.

What settings do you have in the source itself? Or in the camera that OBS might not know about? is there a physical user interface of some kind? Or a configuration app?

Or since I'm grasping at straws here, does Mac itself have some "correction" settings that it applies to video sources by default before it passes them on?

Elgato has a "Camera Hub" interface which controls the cameras and the settings are all really clear and easy, and there is no auto-correction or anything of the sort going on there.

You bring up a GREAT point about maybe it being a Mac thing, but I can't find anything whatsoever in the OS! Will continue to google. But also, it doesn't happen in the aforementioned Elgato Camera Hub and if it WAS a mac thing, I feel like maybe it would? Also, camera looks completely fine in other apps outside of OBS like Zoom Meetings for instance.

It HAS to be an OBS thing. Man this is frustrating. Still hoping someone out there has seen this issue and can help.

 

[JakeLB]

Elgato has a "Camera Hub" interface which controls the cameras and the settings are all really clear and easy, and there is no auto-correction or anything of the sort going on there.

You bring up a GREAT point about maybe it being a Mac thing, but I can't find anything whatsoever in the OS! Will continue to google. But also, it doesn't happen in the aforementioned Elgato Camera Hub and if it WAS a mac thing, I feel like maybe it would? Also, camera looks completely fine in other apps outside of OBS like Zoom Meetings for instance.

It HAS to be an OBS thing. Man this is frustrating. Still hoping someone out there has seen this issue and can help.

HOLY CRAP I finally figured it out. After two days of fighting I finally clicked the stupid video icon in the apple menu bar at the top right of the screen (on my mac, not within obs at all) and found that "studio light" was turned on. I've never even seen these settings.