Filtering out Black & White but Keeping Red (one color) is this possibl

[WedgeX]

I would really like to edit my video so that its black and white but retains anything red....and only that color ...


such as some recent black and white movies that have only one object or person in color.

I think this should be pretty simple but I have no idea what to do

any ideas?

[guns1inger]

It's actually not that easy to do. Here is one method, using Premiere from Adobe

http://wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tutdes_colorpass.htm

[grannyGeek]

This is something you can do fairly easy in Pinnacle Studio, with a freeware 3rd-party plugin. (too bad Studio is sooooo buggy, and only works in DV and Mpeg)


just in case you are a Pinnacle user, here is link to JP's plugins page (some of his others are very good as well)

http://www.jpseffects.de/JPEColorChange_EN.html

[WedgeX]

YOU CAN'T DO IT IN VEGAS?

how awful .... I just dont have time to learn another editor

does anyone know for sure u can't do it with vegas or are you guys just more familiar with those programs?

[guns1inger]

I'm sure you can - I just haven't tried it. Won't have time to try tonight.

Watch the link I posted - you may find you can work out the same or similar filters in Vegas

[mimage]

Hello.. you could kill colors for blue/green screen type editing..

OK..

alright.. I'm not entirely sure.. but I think the filter "Chroma Keyer" could help..

[guns1inger]

The chroma key approach will work in Vegas if you don't have too many colours to kill off. Put your video on a time line. Put a second copy on the timeline underneath. We will call the top track T1, and the bottom track T2.

On T2, add an HSL Adjust video effect, and drop the saturation down to 0. This is now your black and white versioin that you want to reveal.

On T1, add a Chroma Key effect. Using the eye dropper, isolate a colour range from a large area - e.g. grass. You should now see everything with that colour range turn to grayscale in the preview window. Add a second Chroma Key effect and repeat for a second colour. The effects will be additive - the masks will grow as you add more. You can adjust the low threshold and blur factors to smooth things out.

This seems to work OK for one or two colours, but isn't practical for large ranges. You might have to look at using the cookie cutter to create rough garbage mattes as well.

[mimage]

I thought it could work with multiple colors. I've messed with it before and all I have to do is add the filter to the same track over and over and filter out the colors I want with each tab.

I'm not entirely sure what effect he wants. He should take a screencap, edit it in photoshop and edit with it so it looks like the way he wants it to look in a video then show us the before and after. That would help

[guns1inger]

You can add as many keys as you want, but it is a crude way of doing it. The problem becomes one of thresh holds and overlapping masks. Red is a particularly hard colour to do using this method because flesh tones contain a lot of red tones as well. You keep the red, you end up keeping a lot of bleed as well (no pun intended).

Taking out grass on a sports field is easy, so is sky. It's when you get down to finessing the details that you appreciate a dedicated effects package like AE or Fusion.

To the OP - the type of effect you are talking about is done in high-end effects kit, with good quality lighting and often a lot of help from other factors. Sometimes red isn't red until the effect is over. Dedicated effects packages also have features like garbage mattes and rotosplines, which can reduce the amount of work required by the mask by excluding most of the screen from the outset. It may look simple, but to do it well - such as the red dress in the opening of Sin City - takes work.

[Guiboche]

This effect is actually easier then it first appears to be.

I'm certain there is a Vegas equivalent (someone can probably confirm), but the effect you're looking for is "Leave Color."

It's available in Premiere Pro, and this is what it can do with no advanced masking:



For more complicated scenes, where colours pass over each other, etc, advance masking definitely helps.

The effect is also in After Effects and Final Cut Pro

[vegasarian]

You can do it in Vegas like this.......
Step 1: Drop the Secondary Color Corrector filter on the clip/event to be modified.
Step 2: Use the eyedropper/pipette tool to select the color to be kept/passed.
Step 3: Check the Invert Mask checkbox in the Secondary Color Correction filter dialog box.
Step 4: Set Saturation in the Secondary Color Correction filter to zero.


Remove all color except the color to be passed with the Saturation slider. Set it fully to the left, or at zero. Use the "Show Mask" to convert the visible image to black & white, showing the mask only, making it easier to see what area of the image you are adjusting.

[guns1inger]

Nice - must play with this idea some more

[WedgeX]

yea, ... wow, Thanks

I played with these settings quite a bit but wasn't really sure what to do.


i'll have to try this and get back too you !

[guns1inger]

It does work, but ti still suffers from the fact that colours appear in all sorts of places. For instance, red is prevalent in skin tones, so while you might be able to easily isolate a bright red dress, you will also usually pick up a ghost of colour from surrounding flesh. As with most effects, they work best if you plan for them, including lighting, make up etc.

[Guiboche]

It does work, but ti still suffers from the fact that colours appear in all sorts of places. For instance, red is prevalent in skin tones, so while you might be able to easily isolate a bright red dress, you will also usually pick up a ghost of colour from surrounding flesh. As with most effects, they work best if you plan for them, including lighting, make up etc.

Premiere or Vegas? Because if it's Premiere, I can help, Vegas, I can't.....

As well, can you post a still pic of the vid you're trying this effect on?

[guns1inger]

Using the Vegas method posted above. I have no specific project in mind, but was making an observation for the original poster to be aware of.