• Auto Color, Auto Contrast, and Auto Levels effects

• Convolution Kernel effect

• Extract effect

• Levels effect

• Lighting Effects effect

• ProcAmp effect

• Shadow/Highlight effect

• Antialias effect (Windows only)

• Camera Blur effect (Windows only)

• Channel Blur effect

• Compound Blur effect

• Directional Blur effect

• Fast Blur effect

• Gaussian Blur effect

• Ghosting effect (Windows only)

• Sharpen effect

• Unsharp Mask effect

• Arithmetic effect

• Blend effect

• Calculations effect

• Compound Arithmetic effect

• Invert (video) effect

• Set Matte effect

• Solid Composite effect

• Brightness & Contrast effect

• Broadcast Colors effect

• Change Color effect

• Change To Color effect

• Channel Mixer effect

• Color Balance effect

• Color Balance (HLS) effect

• Equalize effect

• Fast Color Corrector effect

• Leave Color effect

• Luma Corrector effect

• Luma Curve effect

• RGB Color Corrector effect

• RGB Curves effect

• Three-Way Color Corrector effect

• Tint effect

• Video Limiter effect

• Bend effect (Windows only)

• Corner Pin effect

• Lens Distortion effect (Windows only)

• Magnify effect

• Mirror effect

• Offset effect

• Spherize effect

• Transform effect

• Turbulent Displace effect

• Twirl effect

• Wave Warp effect

• 4-Color Gradient effect

• Cell Pattern effect

• Checkerboard effect

• Circle effect

• Ellipse effect

• Eyedropper Fill effect

• Grid effect

• Lens Flare effect

• Lightning effect

• Paint Bucket effect

• Ramp effect

• Write-on effect

• Black & White effect

• Color Balance (RGB) effect

• Color Pass effect (Windows only)

• Color Replace effect (Windows only)

• Gamma Correction effect

• Alpha Adjust effect

• Blue Screen Key effect (Windows only)

• Chroma Key effect (Windows only)

• Chromakey with the Ultra Key effect

• Color Key effect

• Difference Matte effect

• Eight-Point, Four-Point, and Sixteen-Point Garbage Matte effects

• Image Matte Key effect

• Luma Key effect

• Non Red Key effect

• RGB Difference Key effect (Windows only)

• Remove Matte effect

• Track Matte Key effect

• Dust & Scratches effect

• Median effect

• Noise effect

• Noise Alpha effect

• Noise HLS and Noise HLS Auto effects

• Basic 3D effect

• Bevel Alpha effect

• Bevel Edges effect

• Drop Shadow effect

• Radial Shadow effect

• Alpha Glow effect

• Brush Strokes effect

• Color Emboss effect

• Emboss effect

• Find Edges effect

• Mosaic effect

• Posterize effect

• Replicate effect

• Roughen Edges effect

• Solarize effect

• Strobe Light effect

• Texturize effect

• Threshold effect

• Echo effect

• Posterize Time effect

• Camera View effect (Windows only)

• Crop effect

• Edge Feather effect

• Horizontal Flip effect

• Horizontal Hold effect (Windows only)

• Vertical Flip effect

• Vertical Hold effect (Windows only)

• Cineon Converter effect

• Timecode effect

• Cube Spin

• Curtain (Windows only)

• Doors (Windows only)

• Flip Over

• Fold Up (Windows only)

• Spin (Windows only)

• Spin Away (Windows only)

• Swing In (Windows only)

• Swing Out (Windows only)

• Additive Dissolve transition

• Cross Dissolve transition

• Dip To Black transition

• Dip To White transition

• Dither Dissolve transition (Windows only)

• Film Dissolve transition (CS5.5 and later)

• Non-Additive Dissolve (Windows only)

• Random Invert (Windows only)

• Iris Box transition

• Iris Cross transition

• Iris Diamond transition

• Iris Round transition

• Page Peel transition

• Page Turn transition

• Center Split transition

• Push transition

• Slide transition

• Split transition

• Barn Doors Wipe transition

• Gradient Wipe transition

• Inset Wipe transition

• Wipe transition

• Block Dissolve effect

• Gradient Wipe effect

• Linear Wipe effect

• Radial Wipe effect

• Venetian Blinds effect

The Auto Color, Auto Contrast, and Auto Levels effects make quick global adjustments to a clip. Auto Color adjusts contrast and color by neutralizing the midtones and clipping the white and black pixels. Auto Contrast adjusts the overall contrast and mixture of colors, without introducing or removing color casts. Auto Levels automatically corrects the highlights and shadows. Because Auto Levels adjusts each color channel individually, it may remove or introduce color casts.

Each effect has one or more of the following settings:

Temporal Smoothing

The range of adjacent frames, in seconds, analyzed to determine the amount of correction needed for each frame, relative to its surrounding frames. If Temporal Smoothing is 0, each frame is analyzed independently, without regard for surrounding frames. Temporal Smoothing can result in smoother looking corrections over time.

Scene Detect

If this option is selected, frames beyond a scene change are ignored when the effect analyzes surrounding frames for temporal smoothing.

Snap Neutral Midtones (Auto Color only)

Identifies an average nearly neutral color in the frame and then adjusts the gamma values to make the color neutral.

Black Clip, White Clip

How much of the shadows and highlights are clipped to the new extreme shadow and highlight colors in the image. Be careful of setting the clipping values too large, as doing so reduces detail in the shadows or highlights. A value between 0.0% and 1% is recommended. By default, shadow and highlight pixels are clipped by 0.1%—that is, the first 0.1% of either extreme is ignored when the darkest and lightest pixels in the image are identified; those pixels are then mapped to output black and output white. This clipping ensures that input black and input white values are based on representative rather than extreme pixel values.

Blend With Original

Determines the effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

The Convolution Kernel effect changes the brightness values of each pixel in the clip according to a mathematical operation known as a convolution. A convolution overlays a matrix of numbers onto a matrix of pixels, multiplies each underlying pixel's value by the number that overlays it, and replaces the central pixel's value with the sum of all of these multiplications. This is performed for each pixel in the image.

The Convolution Kernel Settings include a set of controls that represent cells in a 3x3 grid of pixel brightness multipliers. Labels on the controls, which begin with the letter “M,” indicate their position in the matrix. The M11 control, for example, affects the cell in the first row and first column of the grid; the M32 control affects the cell in the third row and second column. The pixel being evaluated falls in the center of the grid, at the M22 location. Use this effect for fine control over the properties of various emboss, blur, and sharpen effects. For a given effect, it is easier to apply one of the Convolution Kernel presets and to modify it, than to create the effect from scratch using the Convolution Kernel effect itself.

Convolution Kernel pixel grid, showing the position of each control in the matrix

The Extract effect removes colors from a video clip, creating a grayscale image. Pixels with luminance values less than the Black Input Level or greater than the White Input Level are made black. Everything between those points will appear gray or white.

The Levels effect manipulates the brightness and contrast of a clip. It combines the functions of the Color Balance, Gamma Correction, Brightness & Contrast, and Invert effects. This effect functions much the same as the Levels effect in After Effects.

The Levels Settings dialog box displays a histogram of the current frame (Windows only).

The Lighting Effects effect applies lighting effects on a clip with up to five lights to introduce creative lighting. Lighting Effects lets you control lighting properties such as lighting type, direction, intensity, color, lighting center, and lighting spread. There is also a Bump Layer control to use textures or patterns from other footage to produce special lighting effects such as a 3D-like surface effect.

See examples of using this effect in this video tutorial.

The ProcAmp effect emulates the processing amplifier found on standard video equipment. This effect adjusts the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and split percent of a clip's image.

The Shadow/Highlight effect brightens shadowed subjects in an image and reduces the highlights in an image. This effect doesn’t darken or lighten an entire image; it adjusts the shadows and highlights independently, based on the surrounding pixels. You can also adjust the overall contrast of an image. The default settings are for fixing images with backlighting problems.

Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the use of the Shadow/Highlight effect.

Auto Amounts

If this option is selected, the Shadow Amount and Highlight Amount values are ignored, and automatically determined amounts are used that are appropriate for lightening and restoring detail to the shadows. Selecting this option also activates the Temporal Smoothing control.

Shadow Amount

The amount to lighten shadows in the image. This control is active only if you deselect Auto Amounts.

Highlight Amount

The amount to darken highlights in the image. This control is active only if you deselect Auto Amounts.

Temporal Smoothing

The range of adjacent frames, in seconds, analyzed to determine the amount of correction needed for each frame, relative to its surrounding frames. If Temporal Smoothing is 0, each frame is analyzed independently, without regard for surrounding frames. Temporal Smoothing can result in smoother looking corrections over time.

Scene Detect

If this option is selected, frames beyond a scene change are ignored when surrounding frames are analyzed for temporal smoothing.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

Expand the More Options category to reveal the following controls:

Shadow Tonal Width and Highlight Tonal Width

The range of adjustable tones in the shadows and highlights. Lower values restrict the adjustable range to only the darkest and lightest regions, respectively. Higher values expand the adjustable range. These controls are useful for isolating regions to adjust. For example, to lighten a dark area without affecting the midtones, set a low Shadow Tonal Width value so that when you adjust the Shadow Amount, you are lightening only the darkest areas of an image. Specifying a value that is too large for a given image might introduce halos around strong dark to light edges. The default settings attempt to reduce these artifacts. They can be further reduced by decreasing these values.

Shadow Radius and Highlight Radius

The radius (in pixels) of the area around a pixel that the effect uses to determine whether the pixel resides in a shadow or a highlight. Generally, this value should roughly equal the size of the subject of interest in your image.

Color Correction

The amount of color correction that the effect applies to the adjusted shadows and highlights. For example, if you increase the Shadow Amount value, you bring out colors that were dark in the original image; you may want these colors to be more vivid. The higher the Color Correction value, the more saturated these colors become. The more significant the correction that you make to the shadows and highlights, the greater the range of color correction available.

Note: If you want to change the color over the whole image, use the Hue/Saturation effect after applying the Shadow/Highlight effect.

Midtone Contrast

The amount of contrast that the effect applies to the midtones. Higher values increase the contrast in the midtones alone, while concurrently darkening the shadows and lightening the highlights. A negative value reduces contrast.

Black Clip, White Clip

How much of the shadows and highlights are clipped to the new extreme shadow and highlight colors in the image. Be careful of setting the clipping values too large, as doing so reduces detail in the shadows or highlights. A value between 0.0% and 1% is recommended. By default, shadow and highlight pixels are clipped by 0.1%—that is, the first 0.1% of either extreme is ignored when the darkest and lightest pixels in the image are identified. These are then mapped to output black and output white, ensuring that input black and input white values are based on representative rather than extreme pixel values.

The Antialias effect blends the edges between areas of highly contrasting colors. When blended, colors create intermediate shades that make transitions between dark and light areas appear more gradual.

The Camera Blur effect simulates an image leaving the focal range of the camera, blurring the clip. For example, by setting keyframes for the blur, you can simulate a subject coming into or going out of focus, or the accidental bumping of the camera. Drag the slider to specify a blur amount for the selected keyframe; higher values increase the blur.

The Channel Blur effect blurs a clip’s red, green, blue, or alpha channels individually. You can specify that the blur is horizontal, vertical, or both.

Repeat Edge Pixels blurs the pixels beyond the edge of the clip as though they have the same values as the edge pixels. This effect keeps edges sharp, preventing the edges from darkening and becoming more transparent—which would result from them being averaged with many zeroes. Deselect this option to make the blur algorithm operate as if the pixel values beyond the edge of the clip are zero.

The Compound Blur effect blurs pixels based on the luminance values of a control clip, also known as a blur layer or blurring map. By default, bright values in the blur layer correspond to more blurring of the effect clip. Dark values correspond to less blurring. Select Invert Blur for light values to correspond to less blurring.

This effect is useful for simulating smudges and fingerprints. Also, it can simulate changes in visibility caused by smoke or heat, especially when used with animated blur layers.

Original (left), blur layer (center), and result (right)

Maximum Blur

The maximum amount, in pixels, that any part of the affected clip can be blurred.

Stretch Map To Fit

Stretches the control clip to the dimensions of the clip to which it is applied; otherwise, the control clip is centered on the effect clip.

The Directional Blur effect gives a clip the illusion of motion.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

Direction

The direction of the blur. The blur is applied equally on either side of a pixel’s center. Therefore, a setting of 180° and a setting of 0° look the same.

Fast Blur is a close approximation of Gaussian Blur, but Fast Blur blurs large areas more quickly.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

The Gaussian Blur effect blurs and softens the image and eliminates noise. You can specify that the blur is horizontal, vertical, or both.

The Ghosting effect overlays transparencies of the immediately preceding frames on the current frame. This effect can be useful, for example, when you want to show the motion path of a moving object, such as a bouncing ball. Keyframes cannot be applied to this effect.

The Sharpen effect increases the contrast where color changes occur.

The Unsharp Mask effect increases the contrast between colors that define an edge.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

Radius

The distance from the edge at which pixels are adjusted for contrast. If you specify a low value, only pixels near the edge are adjusted.

Threshold

The greatest difference between adjacent pixels for which contrast isn’t adjusted. A lower value produces a greater result. A value that is too low causes an adjustment to the contrast of the entire image. A low value can also generate noise or cause unexpected results.

The Arithmetic effect performs various simple mathematical operations on an image’s red, green, and blue channels.

Operator

The operation to perform between the value you specify for each channel and the existing value of that channel for each pixel in the image:

And, Or, and Xor

Apply bitwise logical operations.

Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Difference

Apply basic math functions.

Max

Set the pixel’s channel value to the greater of the specified value and the pixel’s original value.

Min

Set the pixel’s channel value to the lesser of the specified value and the pixel’s original value.

Block Above

Set the pixel’s channel value to 0 if the pixel’s original value is greater than the value specified; otherwise, leave the original value.

Block Below

Set the pixel’s channel value to 0 if the pixel’s original value is less than the value specified; otherwise, leave the original value.

Slice

Set the pixel’s channel value to 1.0 if the pixel’s original value is above the specified value; otherwise, set the value to 0. In both cases, the values for the other color channels are set to 1.0.

Screen

Apply a screen.

Clip Result Values

Prevents all functions from creating color values that exceed the valid range. If this option isn’t selected, some color values may wrap around.

The Blend effect blends two clips using one of five modes. After you blend clips using this effect, disable the clip you selected from the Blend With Layer menu. Select the clip and choose Clip > Enable.

Blend With Layer

The clip to blend with (the secondary or control layer).

Mode

Blend mode:

• Color Only colorizes each pixel in the original image based on the color of each corresponding pixel in the secondary image.

• Tint Only is similar to Color Only but tints pixels in the original image only if they are already colored.

• Darken Only darkens each pixel in the original image that is lighter than the corresponding pixel in the secondary image.

• Lighten Only lightens each pixel in the original image that is darker than the corresponding pixel in the secondary image.

• Crossfade fades out the original image while the secondary image fades in.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip. If you set this value to 0%, the original image does not show through.

If Layer Sizes Differ

Specifies how to position the control layer.

The Calculations effect combines the channels of one clip with the channels of another clip.

Original images (left and center), and with effect applied (right)

Input Channel

The channel to extract and use as input to the blending operation. RGBA displays all channels normally. Gray converts all color channel values for a pixel to the luminance value of the original pixel. Red, Green, or Blue converts all color channel values for a pixel to the value of the selected color channel for the original pixel. Alpha converts all channels to the value of the alpha channel for the original pixel.

For instructions on using the Calculations effect and the Ramp effect, see Coloring A Washed-out Sky With A Gradient In Premiere Pro CS by Jeff Schell.

Invert Input

Inverts the clip before the effect extracts the specified channel information.

Second Layer

The video track with which Calculations blends the original clip.

Second Layer Channel

The channel to be blended with the input channels.

Second Layer Opacity

The opacity of the second video track. Set to 0% for the second video track to have no influence on the output.

Invert Second Layer

Inverts the second video track before the effect extracts the specified channel information.

Stretch Second Layer To Fit

Stretches the second video track to the dimensions of the original clip before blending. Deselect this option to center the second video track on the original clip.

Preserve Transparency

Ensures that the original layer’s alpha channel isn’t modified.

The Compound Arithmetic effect mathematically combines the clip to which it’s applied with a control layer. The Compound Arithmetic effect is intended only to provide compatibility with projects created in earlier versions of After Effects that use the Compound Arithmetic effect.

Second Source Layer

Specifies the video track to use with the current clip in the given operation.

Operator

Specifies the operation to perform between the two clips.

Operate On Channels

Specifies the channels to which the effect is applied.

Overflow Behavior

Specifies how pixel values that exceed the allowed range are treated:

Clip

Indicates that the values are limited to the allowed range.

Wrap

Indicates that values exceeding the allowed range wrap around from full on to full off, or from full off to full on.

Scale

Indicates that the maximum and minimum values are calculated and the results are stretched down from that full range to the range of allowable values.

Stretch Second Source To Fit

Scales the second clip to match the size (width and height) of the current clip. If this option is deselected, the second clip is placed at its source’s current size, aligned with the upper left corner of the source clip.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip. If you set this value to 0%, the original image does not show through.

The Invert (video) effect inverts the color information of an image.

Channel

Which channel or channels to invert. Each group of items operates in a particular color space, inverting either the entire image in that color space or just a single channel.

RGB/Red/Green/Blue

RGB inverts all three of the additive color channels. Red, Green, and Blue each invert an individual color channel.

HLS/Hue/Lightness/Saturation

HLS inverts all three of the calculated color channels. Hue, Lightness, and Saturation each invert an individual color channel.

YIQ/Luminance/In Phase Chrominance/Quadrature Chrominance

YIQ inverts all three NTSC luminance and chrominance channels. Y (luminance), I (in-phase chrominance), and Q (quadrature chrominance) each invert an individual channel.

Alpha

Inverts the alpha channel of the image. The alpha channel isn’t a color channel; it specifies transparency.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

The Set Matte effect replaces the alpha channel (matte) of a clip with a channel from a clip in a different video track. This creates traveling matte results.

Original images (left and center), and with effect applied (right)

To create a traveling matte using the Set Matte effect, set up a sequence with two overlapping clips on different video tracks. Apply the Set Matte effect to one of the clips and specify which clip provides the replacement matte. Although you can use Set Matte for a traveling matte, it is easier and faster to create traveling mattes by using the Track Matte Key effect.

Take Matte From Layer

The video track to use as the replacement matte. You can specify any video track in the sequence.

Use For Matte

The channel to use for the matte.

Invert Matte

Inverts the transparency values of the matte.

Stretch Matte To Fit

Scales the selected clip to match the size of the current clip. If Stretch Matte to Fit is deselected, the clip designated as the matte is centered in the first clip.

Composite Matte With Original

Composites the new matte with the current clip, rather than replacing it. The resulting matte lets the image show through only where the current matte and the new matte both have some opacity.

Premultiply Matte Layer

Premultiplies the new matte with the current clip.

The Solid Composite effect offers a quick way to create a composite of a solid color behind the original source clip. You can control the opacity of the source clip, control the opacity of the solid, and apply blend modes all within the effect’s controls.

Source Opacity

The opacity of the source clip.

Color

The color of the solid.

Opacity

The opacity of the solid.

Blending Mode

The blend mode used to combine the clip and the solid color.

The Brightness & Contrast effect adjusts the brightness and contrast of an entire clip. The default value of 0.0 indicates that no change is made. Using the Brightness & Contrast effect is the easiest way to make simple adjustments to the tonal range of the image. It adjusts all pixel values in the image at once—highlights, shadows, and midtones.

Andrew Devis from Creative Cow demonstrates in this video why the Brightness & Contrast effect may not be the best choice and provides an alternative option for better results.

Original (left) and with Brightness & Contrast effect applied (right)

The Broadcast Colors effect alters pixel color values to keep signal amplitudes within the range allowed for broadcast television.

Use the Key Out Unsafe and Key Out Safe settings for How To Make Color Safe to determine which portions of the image are affected by the Broadcast Colors effect at the current settings.

The Change Color effect adjusts the hue, lightness, and saturation of a range of colors.

View

Corrected Layer shows the results of the Change Color effect. Color Correction Mask shows the areas of the layer that will be changed. White areas in the color correction mask are changed the most, and dark areas are changed the least.

Hue Transform

The amount, in degrees, to adjust hue.

Lightness Transform

Positive values brighten the matched pixels; negative values darken them.

Saturation Transform

Positive values increase saturation of matched pixels (moving toward pure color); negative values decrease saturation of matched pixels (moving toward gray).

Color To Change

The central color in the range to be changed.

Matching Tolerance

How much colors can differ from Color To Match and still be matched.

Matching Softness

The amount that unmatched pixels are affected by the effect, in proportion to their similarity to Color To Match.

Match Colors

Determines the color space in which to compare colors to determine similarity. RGB compares colors in an RGB color space. Hue compares on the hues of colors, ignoring saturation and brightness—so bright red and light pink match, for example. Chroma uses the two chrominance components to determine similarity, ignoring luminance (lightness).

Invert Color Correction Mask

Inverts the mask that determines which colors to affect.

The Change To Color effect changes a color you select in an image to another color using hue, lightness, and saturation (HLS) values, leaving other colors unaffected.

Change To Color offers flexibility and options unavailable in the Change Color effect. These options include tolerance sliders for hue, lightness, and saturation for exact color matching, and the ability to select the exact RGB values of the target color that you wish to change to.

Paul Trani shows Auto Contrast and Change To Color effects in this video tutorial.

For more information about the Change To Color effect in Premiere Pro, see this video by Learn by Video and Video2Brain by Jan Ozer.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to use the Change to Color effect in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Original image (left), with saturation removed in the planet (center), and with light green changed to yellow in the planet (right)

From

The center of the color range to change.

To

The color to change matched pixels to.

To animate a color change, set keyframes for the To color.

Change

Which channels are affected.

Change By

How to change colors. Setting To Color performs a direct change of affected pixels to the target color. Transforming To Color transforms affected pixel values towards the target color, using HLS interpolation; the amount of change for each pixel depends on how close the pixel’s color is to the From color.

Tolerance

How much colors can differ from the From color and still be matched. Expand this control to reveal separate sliders for Hue, Lightness, and Saturation values.

Note: Use the View Correction Matte option to better identify which pixels are matched and affected.

Softness

The amount of feather to use for the edges of the correction matte. Higher values create smoother transitions between areas affected by the color change and those unaffected.

View Correction Matte

Shows a grayscale matte that indicates the amount to which the effect affects each pixel. White areas are changed the most, and dark areas are changed the least.

The Channel Mixer effect modifies a color channel by using a mix of the current color channels. Use this effect to make creative color adjustments not easily done with the other color adjustment tools: Create high-quality grayscale images by choosing the percentage contribution from each color channel, create high-quality sepia-tone or other tinted images, and swap or duplicate channels.

[output channel]-[input channel]

The percentage of the input channel value to add to the output channel value. For example, a Red-Green setting of 10 increases the value of the red channel for each pixel by 10% of the value of the green channel for that pixel. A Blue-Green setting of 100 and a Blue-Blue setting of 0 replaces the blue channel values with the green channel values.

[output channel]-Const

The constant value (as a percentage) to add to the output channel value. For example, a Red-Const setting of 100 saturates the red channel for every pixel by adding 100% red.

Monochrome

Uses the value of the red output channel for the red, green, and blue output channels, creating a grayscale image.

Removing all Red input from the Red channel, and adding 50% of the Green channel and 50% of the Blue channel to the Red channel

The Color Balance effect changes the amount of red, green, and blue in the shadows, midtones, and highlights of an image.

Preserve Luminosity

Preserves the average brightness of the image while changing the color. This control maintains the tonal balance in the image.

The Color Balance (HLS) effect alters an image’s levels of hue, luminance, and saturation.

Hue

Specifies the color scheme of the image.

Lightness

Specifies the brightness of the image.

Saturation

Adjusts the image’s color saturation. The default value is 0 which doesn’t affect the colors. Negative values decrease saturation, with -100 converting the clip to grayscale. Values greater than 0 produce more saturated colors.

Note: If the Color Balance Saturation control does not give you the results you want, try the Saturation control in the Fast Color Corrector effect.

The Equalize effect alters an image’s pixel values to produce a more consistent brightness or color component distribution. The effect works similarly to the Equalize command in Adobe Photoshop. Pixels with 0 alpha (transparent) values aren’t considered.

Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to use the Equalize effect to correct color and exposure.

Equalize

RGB equalizes the image based on red, green, and blue components. Brightness equalizes the image based on the brightness of each pixel. Photoshop Style equalizes by redistributing the brightness values of the pixels in an image so that they more evenly represent the entire range of brightness levels.

Amount To Equalize

How much to redistribute the brightness values. At 100%, the pixel values are spread as evenly as possible; lower percentages redistribute fewer pixel values.

The Fast Color Corrector effect adjusts a clip’s color using hue and saturation controls. This effect also has levels controls for adjusting intensity levels of image shadows, midtones, and highlights. This effect is recommended for making simple color corrections that preview quickly in the Program monitor.

Here are links to some additional resources describing the Fast Color Corrector effect:

• Using the Fast Color Corrector Effect by Karl Soule

• Basics of Color Correction podcast with Aanarav Sareen

• Color Correction Made Simple by Charlie White

In this tutorial Andrew Devis from Creative Cow demonstrates how to use the Fast Color Corrector for primary color correction.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to work with the Fast Color Corrector in his article, "Streamlining Color Correction in Premiere Pro" on the Pro Video Coalition website.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite), tonal value adjustments (Luma), or display of the alpha matte (Mask).

Show Split View

Displays the left or upper part of the image as the corrected view and the right or lower part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

White Balance

Assigns a white balance to an image using the Eyedropper tool to sample a target color in the image or anywhere on your monitor’s desktop. You can also click the color swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select a color to define the white balance.

Hue Balance And Angle

Controls hue balance and hue angle using a color wheel. The small circle moves about the center of the wheel and controls the hue (UV) translation. This changes the balance magnitude and balance angle. The small perpendicular line sets the relative coarseness/fineness of the control, which controls the balance gain.

Adjustments to the Hue Balance And Angle can be viewed in the vectorscope.

Hue Angle

Controls the hue rotation. The default value is 0. Negative values rotate the color wheel to the left and positive values rotate the color wheel to the right.

Balance Magnitude

Controls the amount of color balance correction as determined by the Balance Angle.

Balance Gain

Adjusts brightness values by multiplication so that lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels.

Balance Angle

Controls the selection of desired hue value.

Saturation

Adjusts the image’s color saturation. The default value is 100, which doesn’t affect the colors. Values less than 100 decrease saturation, with 0 completely removing any color. Values greater than 100 produce more saturated colors.

Auto Black Level

Raises the black levels in a clip so the darkest levels are above 7.5 IRE (NTSC) or 0.3v (PAL). A portion of the shadows is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto Black Level lightens the shadows in an image.

Auto Contrast

Applies both the Auto Black Level and Auto White Level simultaneously. Auto Contrast makes the highlights appear darker and shadows appear lighter.

Auto White Level

Lowers the white levels in a clip so the lightest levels do not exceed 100 IRE (NTSC) or 1.0v (PAL). A portion of the highlights is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto White Level darkens the highlights in an image.

Black Level, Gray Level, White Level

Sets the levels for darkest shadow, midtone gray, and lightest highlight using the different Eyedropper tools to sample a target color in the image or anywhere on your monitor’s desktop. You can also click the color swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select a color to define the black, midtone gray, and white.

Input Levels

The outer two Input Levels sliders map the black point and white point to the settings of the Output sliders. The middle Input slider adjusts the gamma in the image. It moves the midtone and changes the intensity values of the middle range of gray tones without dramatically altering the highlights and shadows.

Output Levels

Map the black point and white point input level sliders to specified values. By default, the Output sliders are at level 0, where the shadows are completely black, and level 255, where the highlights are completely white. So, in the default position for the Output sliders, moving the black input slider maps the shadow value to level 0, and moving the white point slider maps the highlight value to level 255. The remaining levels are redistributed between levels 0 and 255. This redistribution decreases the tonal range of the image, in effect reducing the overall contrast of the image.

Input Black Level, Input Gray Level, Input White Level

Adjust the black point, midtone, and white point input levels for the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

Output Black Level, Output White Level

Adjust the mapped output levels for the input black and input white levels for the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

The Leave Color effect removes all colors from a clip except those similar to the Color To Leave. For example, a shot of a basketball game could be decolored except for the orange of the ball itself.

How to leave two colours in a clip in the video tutorial by Ann Bens.

Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the Leave Color effect in Adobe Premiere Pro.

For more information about the Leave Color effect in Premiere Pro, see this video by Learn by Video and Video2Brain by Jan Ozer.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (right)

Amount To Decolor

How much color to remove. 100% causes areas of the image dissimilar to the selected color to appear as shades of gray.

Color To Leave

Use the eyedropper or Color Picker to determine which color to leave.

Tolerance

The flexibility of the color-matching operation. 0% decolors all pixels except those that exactly match Color To Leave. 100% causes no color change.

Edge Softness

The softness of the color boundaries. High values smooth the transition from color to gray.

Match Colors

Determines whether colors’ RGB values or hue values are compared. Choose Using RGB to perform more strict matching that usually decolors more of the image. For example, to leave dark blue, light blue, and medium blue, choose Using Hue and choose any shade of blue as Color To Leave.

The Luma Corrector effect lets you adjust the brightness and contrast in the highlights, midtones, and shadows of a clip. You can also specify the color range to be corrected by using the Secondary Color Correction controls.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite) or tonal value adjustments (Luma), display of the alpha matte (Mask) or a tritone representation of where the shadows, midtones, and highlights fall (Tonal Range).

Show Split View

Displays the left or upper part of the image as the corrected view and the right or lower part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Tonal Range Definition

Defines the tonal range of the shadows and highlights using threshold and threshold with falloff (softness) controls. Click the triangle to display the Tonal Range Definition controls. Drag a square slider to adjust the threshold values. Drag a triangle slider to adjust the softness (feathering) value.

Note: Choose Tonal Range from the Output menu to view the different tonal ranges as you adjust the Tonal Range Definition sliders.

Tonal Range

Specifies whether the luminance adjustments are applied to the entire image (Master), the highlights only, midtones only, or shadows only.

Brightness

Adjusts the black level in a clip. Use this control so that the black picture content in your clip appears as black.

Contrast

Affects the image’s contrast by adjusting the gain from the clip’s original contrast value.

Contrast Level

Sets the clip’s original contrast value.

Gamma

Adjusts the image’s midtone values without affecting black and white levels. This control causes changes in contrast, much like changing the shape of the curve in the Luma Curve effect. Use this control to adjust images that are too dark or too light, without distorting shadows and highlights.

Pedestal

Adjusts an image by adding a fixed offset to the image’s pixel values. Use this control with the Gain control to increase an image’s overall brightness.

Gain

Affects the overall contrast ratio of an image by adjusting brightness values by multiplication. The lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels.

Secondary Color Correction

Specifies the color range to be corrected by the effect. You can define the color by hue, saturation, and luminance. Click the triangle to access the controls.

Note: Choose Mask from the Output menu to view the areas of the image that are selected as you define the color range.

Center

Defines the central color in the range that you’re specifying. Select the Eyedropper tool and click anywhere on your screen to specify a color, which is displayed in the color swatch. Use the + Eyedropper tool to extend the color range, and use the – Eyedropper tool to subtract from the color range. You can also click the swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select the center color.

Hue, Saturation, and Luma

Specify the color range to be corrected by hue, saturation, or luminance. Click the triangle next to the option name to access the threshold and softness (feathering) controls to define the hue, saturation, or luminance range.

Soften

Makes boundaries of the specified area more diffuse, blending the correction more with the original image. A higher value increases the softness.

Edge Thinning

Makes the specified area more sharply defined. The correction becomes more pronounced. A higher value increases the edge definition of the specified area.

Invert Limit Color

Corrects all colors except for the color range that you specified with the Secondary Color Correction settings.

The Luma Curve effect adjusts the brightness and contrast of a clip using a curve adjustment. You can also specify the color range to be corrected by using the Secondary Color Correction controls.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite) or tonal value adjustments (Luma), or display of the alpha matte (Mask).

Show Split View

Displays the left or upper part of the image as the corrected view and the right or lower part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Luma Waveform

Alters the brightness and contrast of the clip when you change the shape of the curve. Bowing the curve upward lightens the clip and bowing the curve downward darkens the clip. The steeper sections of the curve represent portions of the image with greater contrast. Click to add a point to the curve and drag to manipulate the shape. You can adjust up to a maximum of 16 points on the curve. To delete a point, drag it off the graph.

Secondary Color Correction

Specifies the color range to be corrected by the effect. You can define the color by hue, saturation, and luminance. Click the triangle to access the controls.

Note: Choose Mask from the Output menu to view the areas of the image that are selected as you define the color range.

Center

Defines the central color in the range that you’re specifying. Select the Eyedropper tool and click anywhere on your screen to specify a color, which is displayed in the color swatch. Use the + Eyedropper tool to extend the color range, and use the - Eyedropper tool to subtract from the color range. You can also click the swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select the center color.

Hue, Saturation, and Luma

Specify the color range to be corrected by hue, saturation, or luminance. Click the triangle next to the option name to access the threshold and softness (feathering) controls to define the hue, saturation, or luminance range.

Soften

Makes boundaries of the specified area more diffuse, blending the correction more with the original image. A higher value increases the softness.

Edge Thinning

Makes the specified area more sharply defined. The correction becomes more pronounced. A higher value increases the edge definition of the specified area.

Invert Limit Color

Corrects all colors except for the color range that you specified with the Secondary Color Correction settings.

The RGB Color Corrector effect adjusts the color in a clip by applying adjustments to the tonal ranges that you define for the highlights, midtones, and shadows. The effect lets you make tonal adjustments to each color channel individually. You can also specify the color range to be corrected by using the Secondary Color Correction controls.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to adjust color channels using RGB Color Corrector and RGB Curves effects in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

For more information about using the RGB Color Corrector effect, see the video tutorial, Tips & Tricks: Color Correction, on the Videomaker Magazine website.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite), tonal value adjustments (Luma), display of the alpha matte (Mask), or a tritone representation of where the shadows, midtones, and highlights fall (Tonal Range).

Show Split View

Displays the left or upper part of the image as the corrected view and the right or lower part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Tonal Range Definition

Defines the tonal range of the shadows and highlights using threshold and falloff controls:

Shadow Threshold

Determines the shadow’s tonal range.

Shadow Softness

Determines the shadow’s tonal range with falloff.

Highlight Threshold

Determines the highlight’s tonal range.

Highlight Softness

Determines the highlight’s tonal range with falloff.

Choose Tonal Range from the Output menu to view the highlights, midtones, and shadows as you adjust the Tonal Range Definition controls.

Tonal Range

Specifies whether the color correction is applied to the entire image (Master), the highlights only, midtones only, or shadows only.

Gamma

Adjusts the image’s midtone values without affecting black and white levels. Use this control to adjust images that are too dark or too light, without distorting shadows and highlights.

Pedestal

Adjusts an image by adding a fixed offset to the image’s pixel values. Use this control with the Gain control to increase an image’s overall brightness.

Gain

Affects the overall contrast ratio of an image by adjusting brightness values by multiplication. The lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels.

RGB

Lets you adjust the midtone values, contrast, and brightness of each color channel individually. Click the triangle to expand the options for setting the gamma, pedestal, and gain of each channel.

Red Gamma, Green Gamma, and Blue Gamma

Adjusts the red, green, or blue channel’s midtone values without affecting black and white levels.

Red Pedestal, Green Pedestal, and Blue Pedestal

Adjusts the tonal values in the red, green, or blue channel by adding a fixed offset to the channel’s pixel values. Use this control with the Gain control to increase the channel’s overall brightness.

Red Gain, Green Gain, and Blue Gain

Adjusts the red, green, or blue channel’s brightness values by multiplication so that lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels.

Secondary Color Correction

Specifies the color range to be corrected by the effect. You can define the color by hue, saturation, and luminance. Click the triangle to access the controls.

Note: Choose Mask from the Output menu to view the areas of the image that are selected as you define the color range.

Center

Defines the central color in the range that you’re specifying. Select the Eyedropper tool and click anywhere on your screen to specify a color, which is displayed in the color swatch. Use the + Eyedropper tool to extend the color range, and use the – Eyedropper tool to subtract from the color range. You can also click the swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select the center color.

Hue, Saturation, and Luma

Specify the color range to be corrected by hue, saturation, or luminance. Click the triangle next to the option name to access the threshold and softness (feathering) controls to define the hue, saturation, or luminance range.

Soften

Makes boundaries of the specified area more diffuse, blending the correction more with the original image. A higher value increases the softness.

Edge Thinning

Makes the specified area more sharply defined. The correction becomes more pronounced. A higher value increases the edge definition of the specified area.

Invert Limit Color

Corrects all colors except for the color range that you specified with the Secondary Color Correction settings.

The RGB Curves effect adjusts a clip’s color using curve adjustments for each color channel. Each curve lets you adjust up to 16 different points throughout an image’s tonal range. You can also specify the color range to be corrected by using the Secondary Color Correction controls.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to adjust color channels using RGB Color Corrector and RGB Curves effects in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Here's a link to a tutorial on www.premierepro.net that shows advanced color grading in Premiere Pro CS5.5 and later using (among other tools) the RGB Curves effect.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite), tonal value adjustments (Luma), or display of the alpha matte (Mask).

Show Split View

Displays one part of the image as the corrected view and the other part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Master

Alters the brightness and contrast of all channels when you change the shape of the curve. Bowing the curve upward lightens the clip and bowing the curve downward darkens the clip. The steeper sections of the curve represent portions of the image with greater contrast. Click to add a point to the curve and drag to manipulate the shape. You can add a maximum of 16 points to the curve. To delete a point, drag it off the graph.

Red, Green, and Blue

Alters the brightness and contrast of the red, green, or blue channel when you change the shape of the curve. Bowing the curve upward lightens the channel and bowing the curve downward darkens the channel. The steeper sections of the curve represent portions of the channel with greater contrast. Click to add a point to the curve and drag to manipulate the shape. You can adjust up to a maximum of 16 points on the curve. To delete a point, drag it off the graph.

Secondary Color Correction

Specifies the color range to be corrected by the effect. You can define the color by hue, saturation, and luminance. Click the triangle to access the controls.

Note: Choose Mask from the Output menu to view the areas of the image that are selected as you define the color range.

Center

Defines the central color in the range that you’re specifying. Select the Eyedropper tool and click anywhere on your screen to specify a color, which is displayed in the color swatch. Use the + Eyedropper tool to extend the color range, and use the – Eyedropper tool to subtract from the color range. You can also click the swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select the center color.

Hue, Saturation, and Luma

Specify the color range to be corrected by hue, saturation, or luminance. Click the triangle next to the option name to access the threshold and softness (feathering) controls to define the hue, saturation, or luminance range.

End Softness

Makes boundaries of the specified area more diffuse, blending the correction more with the original image. A higher value increases the softness.

Edge Thinning

Makes the specified area more sharply defined. The correction becomes more pronounced. A higher value increases the edge definition of the specified area.

Invert Limit Color

Corrects all colors except for the color range that you specified with the Secondary Color Correction settings.

A user on the Premiere Pro user-to-user forum shares a RGB Curves effect preset mimicking Canon Technicolor custom camera profile.

The Three-Way Color Corrector effect lets you make subtle corrections by adjusting a clip’s hue, saturation, and brightness for the shadow, midtones, and highlights. You can further refine your adjustments by specifying the color range to be corrected by using the Secondary Color Correction controls.

Output

Lets you view adjustments in the Program monitor as the final results (Composite), tonal value adjustments (Luma), display of the alpha matte (Mask), or a tritone representation of the shadows, midtones, and highlights (Tonal Range).

Show Split View

Displays one part of the image as the corrected view and the other part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Black Balance, Gray Balance, White Balance

Assigns a black, midtone gray, or white balance to a clip. Use the different Eyedropper tools to sample a target color in the image, or choosing a color from the Adobe Color Picker.

Tonal Range Definition

Defines the tonal range of the shadows, midtones, and highlights in a clip. Drag the square sliders to adjust the threshold values. Drag the triangle sliders to adjust the amount of softness (feathering).

Choose Tonal Range from the Output menu to view the highlights, midtones, and shadows as you adjust the Tonal Range Definition controls.

Shadow Threshold, Shadow Softness, Highlight Threshold, Highlight Softness

Determine the threshold and softness of the shadows, midtones, and highlights in a clip. Enter values or click the triangle next to the option name and drag the slider.

Tonal Range

Chooses the tonal range adjusted by the Hue Angle, Balance Magnitude, Balance Gain, Balance Angle, Saturation, and Levels controls. Highlights is the default. Other options in the menu are Master, Shadows, and Midtones.

Note: You can still adjust all three tonal ranges using the three color wheels even after you choose from the Tonal Range menu.

Three-Way Hue Balance and Angle

Controls hue and saturation adjustments using three color wheels for the shadows (left wheel), midtones (middle wheel), and highlights (right wheel). A single master wheel appears when Master is chosen from the Tonal Range menu. A circular thumb moves about the center of the wheel and controls the hue (UV) translation. A perpendicular handle on the thumb controls the balance magnitude, which affects the relative coarseness or fineness of the control. The outer ring of the wheel controls hue rotation.

Three-Way Hue Balance And Angle color wheels

Highlights/Midtones/Shadows Hue Angle

Controls the hue rotation in the highlights, midtones, or shadows. The default value is 0. Negative values rotate the color wheel to the left and positive values rotate the color wheel to the right.

Highlights/Midtones/Shadows Balance Magnitude

Controls the amount of color balance correction as determined by the Balance Angle. The adjustment can be applied to highlights, midtones, and shadows.

Highlight/Midtones/Shadows Balance Gain

Adjusts brightness values by multiplication so that lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels. The adjustment can be applied to highlights, midtones, and shadows.

Highlights/Midtones/Shadows Balance Angle

Controls the hue translation in the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

Highlights/Midtones/Shadows Saturation

Adjusts the color saturation in the highlights, midtones, or shadows. The default value is 100, which doesn’t affect the colors. Values less than 100 decrease saturation, with 0 completely removing any color. Values greater than 100 produce more saturated colors.

Auto Black Level

Raises the black levels in a clip so the darkest levels are above 7.5 IRE. A portion of the shadows is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto Black Level lightens the shadows in an image.

Auto Contrast

Applies both the Auto Black Level and Auto White Level simultaneously. This makes the highlights appear darker and shadows appear lighter.

Auto White Level

Lowers the white levels in a clip so the lightest levels do not exceed 100 IRE. A portion of the highlights is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto White Level darkens the highlights in an image.

Black Level, Gray Level, White Level

Sets the levels for darkest shadow, midtone gray, and lightest highlight using the different Eyedropper tools to sample a target color in the image or anywhere on your monitor’s desktop. You can also click the color swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select a color to define the black, midtone gray, and white.

Input Levels

The outer two Input Levels sliders map the black point and white point to the settings of the Output sliders. The middle Input slider adjusts the gamma in the image. It moves the midtone and changes the intensity values of the middle range of gray tones without dramatically altering the highlights and shadows.

Input Levels slider

Output Levels

Map the black point and white point input level sliders to specified values. By default, the Output sliders are at level 0, where the shadows are completely black, and level 255, where the highlights are completely white. So, in the default position for the Output sliders, moving the black input slider maps the shadow value to level 0, and moving the white point slider maps the highlight value to level 255. The remaining levels are redistributed between levels 0 and 255. This redistribution increases the tonal range of the image, in effect increasing the overall contrast of the image.

Output Levels slider

Input Black Level, Input Gray Level, Input White Level

Adjust the black point, midtone, and white point input levels for the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

Output Black Level, Output White Level

Adjust the mapped output levels for the input black and input white levels for the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

Secondary Color Correction

Specifies the color range to be corrected by the effect. You can define the color by hue, saturation, and luminance. Click the triangle to access the controls.

Note: Choose Mask from the Output menu to view the areas of the image that are selected as you define the color range.

Center

Defines the central color in the range that you’re specifying. Select the Eyedropper tool and click anywhere on your screen to specify a color, which is displayed in the color swatch. Use the + Eyedropper tool to extend the color range, and use the – Eyedropper tool to subtract from the color range. You can also click the swatch to open the Adobe Color Picker and select the center color.

Hue, Saturation, and Luma

Specify the color range to be corrected by hue, saturation, or luminance. Click the triangle next to the option name to access the threshold and softness (feathering) controls to define the hue, saturation, or luminance range.

Soften

Makes boundaries of the specified area more diffuse, blending the correction more with the original image. A higher value increases the softness.

Edge Thinning

Makes the specified area more sharply defined. The correction becomes more pronounced. A higher value increases the edge definition of the specified area.

Invert Limit Color

Corrects all colors except for the color range that you specified with the Secondary Color Correction settings.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to use the Three-way Color Corrector effect to change the color of an object in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Karl Soule shows the basic Use of the 3-Way Color Corrector in this video tutorial.

Karl Soule shows how to set up the 3 wheels of the Three-Way Color Corrector in this video tutorial.

Karl Soule shows use of Three-Way Color Corrector effect for secondary color correction in this video tutorial.

Maxim Jago demonstrates the Three Way Color Corrector effect for secondary color correction on the video2brain website.

Andrew Devis demonstrates how to use the Secondary Color Correction option in this video tutorial.

The Tint effect alters an image’s color information. For each pixel, the luminance value specifies a blend between two colors. Map Black To and Map White To specify to which colors dark and bright pixels are mapped. Intermediate pixels are assigned intermediate values. Amount To Tint specifies the intensity of the effect.

The Video Limiter effect lets you limit the luminance and color in a clip so that they fall within parameters that you define. These parameters are useful for preserving the video as much as possible while making its signal fall within the broadcasting limits.

Show Split View

Displays one part of the image as the corrected view and the other part of the image as the uncorrected view.

Layout

Determines whether the Split View images are side by side (Horizontal) or above and below (Vertical).

Split View Percent

Adjusts the size of the corrected view. The default is 50%.

Reduction Axis

Lets you set the limits defining the range of luminance (Luma), color (Chroma), both color and luminance (Chroma and Luma), or the overall video signal (Smart Limit). The Min and Max controls available depend on the Reduction Axis option you choose.

Luma Min

Specifies the darkest level in an image.

Luma Max

Specifies the brightest level in an image.

Chroma Min

Specifies the lowest saturation for the colors in an image.

Chroma Max

Specifies the maximum saturation for the colors in an image.

Signal Min

Specifies the minimum video signal including both brightness and saturation.

Signal Max

Specifies the maximum video signal including both brightness and saturation.

Reduction Method

Lets you compress specific tonal ranges to preserve detail in important tonal ranges (Highlights Compression, Midtones Compression, Shadows Compression, or Highlights and Shadows Compression) or compress all tonal ranges (Compress All). Compress All is the default.

Tonal Range Definition

Defines the tonal range of the shadows, midtones, and highlights in a clip. Drag the square sliders to adjust the threshold values. Drag the triangle sliders to adjust the amount of softness (feathering).

Shadow Threshold, Shadow Softness, Highlight Threshold, Highlight Softness

Determine the threshold and softness of the shadows, midtones, and highlights in a clip. Enter values or click the triangle next to the option name and drag the slider.

The Bend effect distorts a clip by producing the appearance of a wave traveling both vertically and horizontally through the clip. You can produce a number of different wave shapes at various sizes and rates.

Direction

Specifies the direction of the wave:

Left

Specifies that waves move toward the left.

Right

Specifies that waves move toward the right.

Up

Specifies that waves move upward.

Down

Specifies that waves move downward.

In

Specifies that waves move toward the center of the clip.

Out

Specifies that waves start in the center and move to the edge of the clip.

Wave

Specifies the shape of the wave. Choose from a sine wave, circle, triangle, or square.

Intensity

Specifies the height of the wave.

Rate

Specifies the frequency of the wave. To produce a wave only vertically or horizontally, move the Rate slider all the way to the left for the direction you do not want.

Width

Specifies the wave width.

The Corner Pin effect distorts an image by changing the position of each of its four corners. Use it to stretch, shrink, skew, or twist an image, or to simulate perspective or movement that pivots from the edge of a clip, such as a door opening.

Note: You can directly manipulate the Corner Pin effect properties in the Program monitor when you click the Transform icon  next to Corner Pin in the Effect Controls panel. Drag one of the four corner handles to adjust the properties.

Original image (left), corner moved (center), and final image (right)

The Lens Distortion effect simulates a distorted lens through which the clip is viewed.

Curvature

Changes the curvature of the lens. Specify a negative value to make the image concave, or a positive value to make the image convex.

Vertical and Horizontal Decentering

Displace the focal point of the lens, making the image bend and smear. At extreme settings, the image wraps in on itself.

Vertical and Horizontal Prism FX

Create a result similar to vertical and horizontal decentering, except that at extreme values the image doesn’t wrap in on itself.

Fill Color

Specifies the background color.

Fill Alpha Channel

Makes the background transparent so that underlying tracks are visible. In the Effect Controls panel, click Setup to access this option.

The Magnify effect enlarges all or part of an image. This effect can act like a magnifying glass placed over an area of the image, or you can use it to scale the entire image far beyond 100% while maintaining resolution.

Original image (left), and with variations of effect applied (center and right)

Shape

The shape of the magnified area.

Center

The center point of the magnified area.

Magnification

Percentage by which to scale the magnified area.

Link

How the size and edge feathering of the magnified area are affected by the Magnification setting. Setting Link to any value other than None disables the Resize Layer option.

None

The size and edge feathering of the magnified area don’t depend on the Magnification setting.

Size To Magnification

The radius of the magnified area is equal to the Magnification value (a percentage) times the Size value.

Size & Feather To Magnification

The radius of the magnified area is equal to the Magnification value (a percentage) times the Size value. The thickness of the edge feather is equal to the Magnification value times the Feather value.

Size

The radius of the magnified area, in pixels.

Feather

The amount of edge feather, in pixels.

Opacity

The opacity of the magnified area, as a percentage of the opacity of the original clip.

Scaling

The type of scaling used to magnify the image:

Standard

This method maintains sharpness in the image but produces pixelated edges at higher values.

Soft

Uses spline algorithms. If you scale the image beyond 100%, Soft reduces edge pixilation and maintains image quality. Soft works well at large magnification amounts.

Scatter

Creates scatter or noise in the image as the image enlarges.

Blending Mode

The blend mode used to combine the magnified area with the original clip. The None option displays transparent pixels around the magnified area.

Resize Layer

If Resize Layer is selected, the magnified area can extend beyond the original clip’s boundaries.

The Mirror effect splits the image along a line and reflects one side onto the other.

Reflection Center

The position of the line about which the reflection occurs.

Reflection Angle

The angle of the line about which the reflection occurs. An angle of 0° reflects the left side onto the right. An angle of 90° reflects the top onto the bottom.

Note: You can directly manipulate the Mirror effect in the Program monitor. Click the Transform icon  and then drag the adjustment handle.

The Offset effect pans the image within a clip. Visual information pushed off one side of the image appears on the opposite side.

Shift Center To

The new position of the original image’s center point.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

The Spherize effect distorts a layer by wrapping a region of the image onto a sphere.

Here’s an example of using this effect in this video.

The Transform effect applies two-dimensional geometric transformations to a clip. Apply the Transform effect instead of using clip Fixed effects if you want to render clip anchor point, position, scale, or opacity settings before other Standard effects are rendered. Anchor Point, Position, Rotation, Scale, and Opacity properties function much the same as the Fixed effects.

Skew

Skew amount.

Skew Axis

The axis about which skew occurs.

The Turbulent Displace effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image. For example, use it to create flowing water, funhouse mirrors, and waving flags.

Original image (left), and with variations of effect applied (center and right)

Displacement

The type of turbulence used. Turbulent Smoother, Bulge Smoother, and Twist Smoother each perform the same operations as Turbulent, Bulge, and Twist, except that the Smoother options create smoother warps and take longer to render. Vertical Displacement warps the image vertically only. Horizontal Displacement warps the image horizontally only. Cross Displacement warps the image both vertically and horizontally.

Amount

Higher values cause more distortion.

Size

Higher values cause larger areas of distortion.

Offset (Turbulence)

Determines the portion of the fractal shape used to create the distortion.

Complexity

Determines the level of detail in the turbulence. Lower values cause smoother distortions.

Evolution

Animating this setting results in changes of the turbulence over time.

Note: Although the Evolution value is set in units called revolutions, it’s important to realize that these revolutions are progressive. The evolution state continues to progress infinitely at each new value. Use the Cycle Evolution option to return the Evolution setting to its original state at each revolution.

Evolution Options

Evolution Options provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for the duration of your clip. Use these controls to pre-render turbulence elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time.

Cycle Evolution

Creates a loop that forces the evolution state to return to its starting point.

Cycle (In Revolutions)

The number of revolutions of the Evolution setting that the fractal cycles through before it repeats. The timing of the Evolution cycles is determined by the amount of time between Evolution keyframes.

Note: The Cycle control affects only the state of the fractal, not geometrics or other controls, so you can get different results with different Size or Offset settings.

Random Seed

Specifies a value from which to generate the fractal noise. Animating this property results in flashing from one set of fractal shapes to another within the same fractal type. For smooth transition of the roughness, use the Evolution control.

Note: Create new turbulence animations by reusing previously created Evolution cycles and changing only the Random Seed value. Using a new Random Seed value alters the noise pattern without disturbing the evolution animation.

Pinning

Specifies which edges to pin so that the pixels along those edges aren’t displaced.

Anti-aliasing For Best Quality

Specify the amount of anti-aliasing by selecting Low or High.

The Twirl effect distorts an image by rotating a clip around its center. The image is distorted more sharply in its center than at the edges, causing a whirlpool result at extreme settings.

Angle

How far to twirl the image. Positive angles twirl the image clockwise; negative angles twirl it counterclockwise. For a whirlpool result, animate the angle.

Twirl Radius

How far the twirl extends from the twirl center. This value is a percentage of width or height of the clip, whichever is greater. A value of 50, for example, produces a twirl that extends to the edges of the clip.

Twirl Center

Sets the position of the center of the twirl.

The Wave Warp effect produces the appearance of a wave traveling across an image. You can produce a variety of different wave shapes, including square, circular, and sine waves. The Wave Warp effect is automatically animated at a constant speed across the time range (without keyframes). To vary speeds, you need to set keyframes.

Wave Type

The shape of the wave.

Wave Height

The distance, in pixels, between wave peaks.

Wave Width

The size of the wave in pixels.

Direction

The direction the wave travels across the image. For example, a value of 225° makes the waves travel diagonally from upper right to lower left.

Wave Speed

The speed (in cycles per second) at which the waves travel. A negative value reverses the wave direction, and a value of 0 produces no movement. To vary wave speed over time, set this control to 0, and then set keyframes for the Phase property.

Pinning

Which edges to pin so that the pixels along those edges aren’t displaced.

Phase

The point along the waveform at which a wave cycle begins. For example, 0° starts the wave at the midpoint of its downward slope, and 90° starts it at the lowest point in the trough.

Antialiasing (Best Quality)

Sets the amount of anti-aliasing, or edge smoothing, to perform on the image. In many cases, lower settings produce satisfactory results; a high setting can significantly increase rendering time.

An example of the Wave Warp effect can be found in this video.

The 4-Color Gradient effect produces a four-color gradient. You define the gradient by four effect points, the positions, and colors of which can be animated using the Positions & Colors controls. The gradient is composed of four solid-color circles blended together, each with an effect point as its center.

Blend

Higher values create more gradual transitions between colors.

Jitter

The amount of jitter (noise) in the gradient. The jitter, which reduces banding, affects only those areas where banding could occur.

Opacity

The opacity of the gradient, as a fraction of the clip’s Opacity value.

Blending Mode

The blend mode to use in combining the gradient with the clip.

The Cell Pattern effect generates cellular patterns based on cellular noise. Use it to create static or moving background textures and patterns. The patterns can be used in turn as textured mattes, as transition maps, or as a source for displacement maps.

Original image (left); Cell Pattern effect creates a displacement map (center), which is used for the Displacement Map effect (right).

Cell Pattern

The cell pattern to use. HQ denotes high-quality patterns that render with more definition than their unmarked counterparts. Mixed Crystals is available only as a high-quality option.

Note: The Static Plates option is identical in appearance to the Plates option. However, when evolving, the static plates retain a uniform lightness value, whereas the plates shift the lightness of the cell pattern.

Invert

Inverts the cell pattern. Black areas become white, and white areas become black.

Contrast/Sharpness

Specifies the contrast of the cell pattern when you use the Bubbles, Crystals, Pillow, Mixed Crystals, or Tubular cell pattern. The control specifies sharpness for any of the Plate or Crystallize options.

Note: The contrast is affected by the option chosen in the Overflow menu.

Overflow

How the effect remaps values that fall outside the grayscale range of 0-255. Overflow isn’t available if sharpness-based cell patterns are chosen.

Clip

Values above 255 are mapped to 255. Values below 0 are mapped to 0. Contrast amount controls how much of the image falls outside the range 0-255; higher contrast amounts result in a mostly black or white image, with less gray. Therefore, less subtle cellular detail appears at higher contrast settings.

Soft Clamp

Remaps grayscale values to fall inside the 0–255 range. Contrast appears reduced; cells are mostly gray with very few areas of pure black or white.

Wrap Back

Values above 255 or below 0 are reflected back into the 0-255 range. For example, a value of 258 (255+3) is reflected to 252 (255-3), and a value of -3 is reflected to 3. With this setting, Contrast values above 100 increase complexity and detail.

Disperse

How randomly the pattern is drawn. Lower values cause more uniform or grid-like cell patterns.

Size

The size of the cells. The default size is 60.

Offset

Determines the portion of the cell pattern that is used.

Tiling Options

Choose Enable Tiling to create a pattern built of repeating tiles. Cells Horizontal and Cells Vertical determine how many cells wide and how many cells high each tile is.

Evolution

Animating this setting results in changes of the pattern over time.

Note: Although the Evolution value is set in units called revolutions, it’s important to realize that these revolutions are progressive. The evolution state continues to progress infinitely at each new value. Use the Cycle Evolution option to return the Evolution setting to its original state at each revolution.

Evolution Options

Provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for the duration of your clip. Use these controls to pre-render the cell pattern elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time.

Cycle Evolution

Creates a loop that forces the evolution state to return to its starting point.

Cycle

The number of revolutions of the Evolution setting that the cell pattern cycles through before it repeats. The timing of the Evolution cycles is determined by the amount of time between Evolution keyframes.

Note: The Cycle control affects only the state of the cell pattern, not geometrics or other controls, so you can get different results with different Size or Offset settings.

Random Seed

Specifies a value from which to generate the cell pattern. Animating this property results in flashing from one cell pattern to another within the same cell pattern type. For smooth transition of the cell pattern, use the Evolution control.

Note: Create new cell pattern animations by reusing previously created Evolution cycles and changing only the Random Seed value. Using a new Random Seed value alters the cell pattern without disturbing the evolution animation.

The Checkerboard effect creates a checkerboard pattern of rectangles, half of which are transparent.

Matching color produces subtle result (center); using red with high Width and low Height settings (right) creates striped result.

Anchor

The point of origin of the checkerboard pattern. Moving this point offsets the pattern.

Size From

How the dimensions of the rectangles are determined:

Corner Point

Each rectangle’s dimensions are those of the rectangle with opposite corners defined by the Anchor and Corner points.

Width Slider

A rectangle’s height and width are equal to the Width value, meaning the rectangles are squares.

Width & Height Sliders

A rectangle’s height is equal to the Height value. A rectangle’s width is equal to the Width value.

Feather

Thickness of the edge feather within the checkerboard pattern.

Color

The color of the non-transparent rectangles.

Opacity

The opacity of the colored rectangles.

Blending Mode

The blend mode to use to composite the checkerboard pattern on top of the original clip. The default None mode renders the checkerboard pattern only.

The Circle effect creates either a customizable solid circle or ring.

Edge

None creates a solid disk. The other options all create rings. Each option corresponds to a different set of properties that determine the shape and edge treatment of the ring:

Edge Radius

The difference between the Edge Radius property and the Radius property is the thickness of the ring.

Thickness

The Thickness property sets the ring’s thickness.

Thickness * Radius

The product of the Thickness property and the Radius property is the ring’s thickness.

Thickness & Feather * Radius

The product of the Thickness property and the Radius property is the ring’s thickness. The product of the Feather property and the Radius property is the ring’s feather.

Feather

The thickness of the feather.

Invert Circle

Inverts the matte.

Blending Mode

The blend mode used to combine the shape and the original clip. The default None displays only the shape, without the original clip.

The Ellipse effect draws an ellipse.

Original image (left), with effect applied to the background once (center), and then applied multiple times (right)

The Eyedropper Fill effect applies a sampled color to the source clip. This effect is useful for quickly picking a solid color from a sample point on the original clip or picking a color value from one clip and using blend modes to apply this color to a second clip.

Original image (left), and with different color samples applied (center and right)

Sample Point

The center of the sampled area.

Sample Radius

The radius of the sampled area.

Average Pixel Color

Which color values are sampled:

Skip Empty

Samples the average RGB color values, excluding those of transparent pixels.

All

Samples the average of all RGB color values, including those of transparent pixels.

All Premultiplied

Samples the average of all RGB color values, premultiplied with the alpha channel.

Including Alpha

Samples the average of all RGB color and alpha channel values. The result is that the sampled color also contains the average transparency of the sampled pixels.

Maintain Original Alpha

When selected, the effect maintains the original clip’s alpha channel. If you choose Including Alpha from the Average Pixel Color menu, the original alpha is stenciled over the sampled color.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

Use the Grid effect to create a customizable grid. Render this grid in a color matte or as a mask in the alpha channel of the source clip. This effect is good for generating design elements and mattes within which other effects can be applied.

Original image (left) and with variations of effect applied (center and right)

Anchor

The point of origin of the grid pattern. Moving this point offsets the pattern.

Size From

How the dimensions of the rectangles are determined:

Corner Point

Each rectangle’s dimensions are those of the rectangle with opposite corners defined by the Anchor and Corner points.

Width Slider

A rectangle’s height and width are equal to the Width value, meaning the rectangles are squares.

Width & Height Sliders

A rectangle’s height is equal to the Height value. A rectangle’s width is equal to the Width value.

Border

The thickness of the grid lines. A value of 0 causes the grid to disappear.

Note: The anti-aliasing of the grid borders may cause the visible thickness to vary.

Feather

The softness of the grid.

Invert Grid

Inverts the transparent and opaque areas of the grid.

Color

The color of the grid.

Opacity

The opacity of the grid.

Blending Mode

The blend mode to use to composite the grid on top of the original clip. The default None mode renders the grid only.

The Lens Flare effect simulates the refraction caused by shining a bright light into the camera lens.

See an example of the Lens Flare effect in this video.

Flare Center

Specifies a location for the center of the flare.

Flare Brightness

Specifies the percentage of brightness. Values can range from 0% to 300%.

Lens Type

Selects the type of lens to simulate.

Blend With Original

Specifies the degree to which the effect is blended with the source clip.

The Lightning effect creates lightning bolts, Jacob’s Ladders, and other electrical visuals between two specified points in a clip. The Lightning effect is automatically animated without keyframes across the time range of the clip.

See an example of the Lightning effect in this video tutorial.

The Paint Bucket effect is a nondestructive paint effect that fills an area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use Paint Bucket for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing areas of color in an image.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to use the Paint Bucket effect to change the color of an object in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Colors fill spiral shapes on separate tracks (left and center); effect applied to saucer with Color blend mode (right)

Fill Point

The effect fills an area that contains the Fill Point. The area is determined by analyzing pixels that neighbor the Fill Point and expanding the fill area by adding matching pixels. How far the fill color spreads depends upon the Tolerance setting, as well as the option you choose from the Fill Selector menu.

Fill Selector

Which values to operate on:

Color & Alpha

Specifies that the effect fills the fill point’s RGB and alpha channels with the new color.

Straight Color

Specifies that the effect fills only the fill point area’s RGB channel with the new color.

Transparency

Specifies that the effect fills only the transparent areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in a transparent area for this option to work.

Opacity

Specifies that the effect fills only the opaque areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in an opaque area for this option to work.

Alpha Channel

Specifies that the effect fills either the opaque or transparent areas in the whole image, depending upon the alpha channel value at the point you set the fill point.

Tolerance

How far a pixel’s color values can be from the Fill Point color values and still match. Higher values expand the range of pixels that the effect fills.

View Threshold

Shows what pixels match—that is, which pixels are within the Tolerance value of the color values of the Fill Point pixel. This option is especially useful in tracking leaks. If there is a small gap, the color can flow over and fill areas not intended to be filled.

Stroke

How the effect treats the edges of the filled area:

Antialias

Anti-aliases the edges of the filled area.

Feather

Creates a feathered edge for the filled area. Feather Softness values create a more gradually disappearing edge.

Spread

Expands the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color extends beyond the edge of the fill area.

Choke

Contracts the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color shrinks from the edge of the fill area.

Stroke

Confines the fill to just the border of the selected area. The Stroke Width value indicates the width of the stroke, in pixels.

Color

The fill color.

Opacity

Opacity of the filled area.

Blending Mode

The blend mode to use to composite the result of effect on top of the original clip. Use Fill Only to show only the fill.

Note: If you apply multiple instances of Paint Bucket to a clip, be sure not to set more than one to use the Fill Only blend mode. If you set more than one instance to use this blend mode, only the first application of the effect is shown.

The Ramp effect creates a color gradient. You can create linear or radial ramps and vary the position and colors of the ramp over time. Use the Start Of Ramp and End Of Ramp properties to specify the start and end positions. Use the Ramp Scatter control to disperse the ramp colors and eliminate banding. For a video tutorial on using the Ramp effect and the Calculations effect, see Coloring A Washed-out Sky With A Gradient In Premiere Pro CS by Jeff Schell on his Digital Media Net blog.

See an example of the Write-on effect in this video tutorial.

The Write-on effect animates strokes on a clip. For example, you can simulate the action of hand-writing of cursive text or signatures.

For instruction on how to use the Write-on effect, see the video tutorial Using the Write-On Effect to Create Handwritten Text in Premiere Pro CS3 and The Write-on Video Effect In Premiere Pro CS3 on the Digital Media Net website.

Write-on effect: Animating strokes

Brush Position

The position of the brush. Animate this property to create a stroke.

Stroke Length (Secs)

The duration, in seconds, of each brush mark. If this value is 0, the brush mark has unlimited duration. Use a single, constant, non-zero value to create a snakelike movement of the stroke. Animate this value to make the stroke expand and contract.

Brush Spacing (Secs)

The time interval, in seconds, between brush marks. Smaller values produce smoother paint strokes but take more time to render.

Paint Time Properties and Brush Time Properties

Specifies whether paint properties and brush properties are applied to each brush mark or to the entire stroke. Choose None to apply values at each time to all brush marks in the stroke. Choose a property name for each brush mark to retain the value for that property at the time that the brush mark was drawn. For example, if you choose Color, then each brush mark keeps the color specified by the Color value at the time that the mark was drawn.

Paint Style

How the paint stroke interacts with the original image:

On Original Image

Paint stroke appears over original image.

On Transparent

Paint stroke appears over transparency; the original image doesn’t appear.

Reveal Original Image

The original image is revealed by the paint stroke.

The Black & White effect converts any color clip to grayscale; that is, colors appear as shades of gray. You cannot animate this effect with keyframes.

• In the Effect Controls panel, click the box to the left of Black & White, if necessary, to turn on the Black & White effect. Click that appears in the box to toggle the effect off.

The Color Balance (RGB) effect changes the amount of red, green, and blue in a clip.

The Color Pass effect converts a clip to grayscale, with the exception of a single specified color. Use the Color Pass effect to highlight a particular area of a clip. For example, in a clip of a basketball game, you could highlight the basketball by selecting and preserving its color, while keeping the rest of the clip displayed in grayscale. Note, however, that with the Color Pass effect, you can isolate only colors, not objects within the clip.

The Color Replace effect replaces all occurrences of a selected color with a new color, preserving any gray levels. Using this effect, you could change the color of an object in an image by selecting it and then adjusting the controls to create a different color.

The Gamma Correction effect lightens or darkens a clip without substantially changing the shadows and highlights. It does this by changing the brightness levels of the midtones (the middle-gray levels), while leaving the dark and light areas unaffected. The default gamma setting is 10. In the effect’s Settings dialog box, you can adjust the gamma from 1 to 28.

Use the Alpha Adjust effect in place of the Opacity effect when you need to change the default render order of Fixed effects. Change the opacity percentage to create levels of transparency.

The following Alpha Adjust effect settings let you interpret the alpha channel in the clip:

Ignore Alpha

Ignores the alpha channel of the clip.

Invert Alpha

Reverses the transparency and opaque areas of the clip.

Mask Only

Applies the effect only to a masked area.

The Blue Screen Key effect creates transparency from true chroma blue. Use this key to key out well-lit blue screens when creating composites.

The following Blue Screen Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Threshold

Sets the levels of blue that determines transparent areas in a clip. Dragging the slider to the left increases the amount of transparency. Use the Mask Only option to view black (transparent) areas as you drag the Threshold slider.

Cutoff

Sets the opacity of nontransparent areas specified by the Threshold setting. Dragging the Cutoff slider to the right increases the opacity. Use the Mask Only option to view white (opaque) areas as you drag the Cutoff slider.

Smoothing

Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing (softening) applied to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only

Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

Subject is photographed against blue background (left). Blue Screen Key effect is applied (right) to superimpose subject over underlying track.

For more information about using blue screen and green screen effects, see the Metacafe website.

The Chroma Key effect keys out all image pixels that are similar to a specified key color. When you key out a color value in a clip, that color or range of colors becomes transparent for the entire clip. Control the range of transparent colors by adjusting the tolerance level. You can also feather the edges of the transparent area to create a smooth transition between the transparent and opaque areas.

Chroma Key effect

A.

Original image

B.

Blue color keyed out

C.

Image on second track

D.

Final composite image

The following Chroma Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Similarity

Broadens or reduces the range of the target color that will be made transparent. Higher values increase the range.

Blend

Blends the clip you are keying out with the underlying clip. Higher values blend more of the clip.

Threshold

Controls the amount of shadows in the range of color you keyed out. Higher values retain more shadows.

Cutoff

Darkens or lightens shadows. Drag to the right to darken shadows, but do not drag beyond the Threshold slider; doing so inverts gray and transparent pixels.

Smoothing

Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing that Premiere Pro applies to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Anti-aliasing blends pixels to produce softer, smoother edges. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only

Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

Karl Soule provides an overview of the Ultra Key effect on the Adobe website.

Tracy Peterson provides a video tutorial that demonstrates the Ultra Key effect on the Adobe website.

Will Head of MacUser shows tips and tricks for keying using the Ultra Key effect here.

For more information about creating key effects with the Ultra key in Premiere Pro, see this video by Video2Brain by Jan Ozer.

Eran Stern shows you how to use the Ultra Key effect in this tutorial.

The Ultra Key effect is GPU accelerated, for improved playback and rendering performance, in computers with a supported nVIDIA card.

1. Apply Ultra Key to a clip or clips.

2. In the Timeline, place the current-time indicator over a frame containing a key color.

3. In the Effect Controls panel, select the desired options from the Output and Setting menus.

4. Do one of the following:

   • Click the Color Picker box to open the Color Picker. Then select a key color and click OK.

   • Click the Eye Dropper, and select a key color.

   • Set the other parameters as desired.

The Color Key effect keys out all image pixels that are similar to a specified key color. This effect modifies only the alpha channel of a clip.

Nonstandard blue screen (left) and background (center) are combined with Color Key effect (right).

When you key out a color value in a clip, that color or range of colors becomes transparent for the entire clip. Control the range of transparent colors by adjusting the tolerance level. You can also feather the edges of the transparent area to create a smooth transition between the transparent and opaque areas.

The Difference Matte effect creates transparency by comparing a source clip with a difference clip, and then keying out pixels in the source image that match both the position and color in the difference image. Typically, it’s used to key out a static background behind a moving object, which is then placed on a different background. Often the difference clip is simply a frame of background footage (before the moving object has entered the scene). For this reason, the Difference Matte effect is best used for scenes that have been shot with a stationary camera and an unmoving background. For more information on using the Difference Matte effect, watch the online training video on the Total Training website.

Difference Matte effect

A.

Original image

B.

Background image

C.

Image on second track

D.

Final composite image

The three Garbage Matte effects aid in cropping out extraneous portions of a shot so that you can apply and adjust a key effect more effectively. The mattes are applied with either four, eight, or 16 adjustment points for more detailed keying. Once you apply the effect, click the Transform icon next to the effect name in the Effect Controls panel. This displays the garbage matte handles in the Program Monitor. To adjust the matte, drag the handles in the Program Monitor or drag the controls in the Effect Controls panel.

Maxim Jago demonstrates animation of garbage mattes on the video2brain website.

The Image Matte Key effect keys out areas of a clip’s image based on the luminance values of a still image clip, which serves as a matte. The transparent areas reveal the image produced by clips in lower tracks. You can specify any still image clip in the project to serve as the matte; it does not have to be in the sequence. To use a moving image as the matte, use the Track Matte Key effect instead.

The Luma Key effect keys out all the regions of a layer with a specified luminance or brightness.

Use this effect if the object from which you want to create a matte has a greatly different luminance value than its background. For example, if you want to create a matte for musical notes on a white background, you can key out the brighter values; the dark musical notes become the only opaque areas.

White background of original (top and left) is removed using the Luma Key effect and composited over underlying layer (right).

Adjust the following settings as necessary:

Threshold

Specifies the range of darker values that are transparent. Higher values increase the range of transparency.

Cutoff

Sets the opacity of nontransparent areas specified by the Threshold slider. Higher values increase transparency.

You can also use the Luma Key effect to key out light areas by setting Threshold to a low value and Cutoff to a high value.

The Non Red Key effect creates transparency from green or blue backgrounds. This key is similar to the Blue Screen Key effect, but it also lets you blend two clips. In addition, the Non Red Key effect helps reduce fringing around the edges of nontransparent objects. Use the Non Red Key effect to key out green screens when you need to control blending, or when the Blue Screen Key effect doesn’t produce satisfactory results.

The following Non Red Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Threshold

Sets the levels of blue or green that determine transparent areas in the clip. Dragging the Threshold slider to the left increases the amount of transparency. Use the Mask Only option to view the black (transparent) areas as you move the Threshold slider.

Cutoff

Sets the opacity of nontransparent areas specified by the Threshold slider. Higher values increase transparency. Drag to the right until the opaque area reaches a satisfactory level.

Defringing

Removes residual green or blue screen color from the edges of the opaque areas of a clip. Choose None to disable defringing. Choose Green or Blue to remove a residual edge from green-screen or blue-screen footage, respectively.

Smoothing

Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing (softening) that Premiere Pro applies to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only

Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

The RGB Difference Key effect is a simpler version of the Chroma Key effect. It lets you select a range for the target color, but you cannot blend the image or adjust transparency in grays. Use the RGB Difference Key effect for a scene that is brightly lit and contains no shadows, or for rough cuts that don’t require fine adjustments.

The following RGB Difference Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Color

Specifies the color in the video that will be made transparent by the mask.

Similarity

Broadens or reduces the range of the target color that will be made transparent. Higher values increase the range.

Smoothing

Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing (softening) that Premiere Pro applies to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only

Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

Drop Shadow

Adds a 50% gray, 50% opaque shadow offset 4 pixels down and to the right from the opaque areas of the original clip image. This option works best with simple graphics such as titles.

The Remove Matte effect removes color fringes from clips that are premultiplied with a color. It is useful when combining alpha channels with fill textures from separate files. If you import footage with a premultiplied alpha channel, or if you create alpha channels with After Effects, you may need to remove halos from an image. Halos are caused by a large contrast between the image's color and the background, or matte, color. Removing or changing the color of the matte can remove the halos.

Use Background Color to specify the new background color when you want to change the color of a matte.

The Dust & Scratches effect reduces noise and defects by changing dissimilar pixels within a specified radius to be more like their neighboring pixels. To achieve a balance between sharpness of the image and hiding defects, try various combinations of radius and threshold settings.

Original image with scratches (left), enlarged view of scratches (center), and scratches removed with loss of clarity (right)

Radius

How far the effect searches for differences among pixels. High values make the image blurry. Use the smallest value that eliminates the defects.

Threshold

How different pixels can be from their neighbors without being changed by the effect. Use the highest value that eliminates the defects.

The Median effect replaces each pixel with a pixel that has the median color value of neighboring pixels with the specified Radius. At low Radius values, this effect is useful for reducing some types of noise. At higher Radius values, this effect gives an image a painterly appearance.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

The Noise effect randomly changes pixel values throughout the image.

Amount Of Noise

The amount of noise to add.

Noise Type

Use Color Noise to add random values to the red, green, and blue channels individually. Otherwise, the same random value is added to all channels for each pixel.

Clipping

Clips color channel values. Deselecting this option causes more apparent noise.

The Noise Alpha effect adds noise to the alpha channel.

Noise

The type of noise. Unique Random creates equal amounts of black and white noise. Squared Random creates high-contrast noise. Uniform Animation creates animated noise, and Squared Animation creates animated high-contrast noise.

Amount

The magnitude of the noise.

Original Alpha

How to apply the noise to the alpha channel:

Add

Produces equal amounts of noise in the transparent and opaque areas of the clip.

Clamp

Produces noise in the opaque areas only.

Scale

Increases the amount of noise proportionate to the level of opacity and produces no noise in 100% transparent areas.

Edges

Produces noise only in partially transparent areas, such as the edge of the alpha channel.

Overflow

How the effect remaps values that fall outside the grayscale range of 0-255:

Clip

Values above 255 are mapped to 255. Values below 0 are mapped to 0.

Wrap Back

Values above 255 or below 0 are reflected back into the 0-255 range. For example, a value of 258 (255+3) is reflected to 252 (255-3), and a value of -3 is reflected to 3.

Wrap

Values above 255 and below 0 are wrapped back around into the 0-255 range. For example, a value of 258 wraps around to 2, a value of 256 wraps around to 0, and a value of -3 wraps around to 253.

Random Seed

An input value to the random number generator for the noise. This control is active only if you choose Uniform Random or Squared Random.

To produce flashing noise, animate the Random Seed control. To create smoothly animated noise, animate the Noise Phase value.

Noise Phase

Specifies the placement of noise. This control is active only if you choose Uniform Animation or Squared Animation.

Noise Options (Animation)

How noise is animated.

Cycle Noise

Produces a cycle of noise that plays through once in the specified amount of time.

Cycle (In Revolutions)

Specifies the numbers of revolutions of the Noise Phase that the noise cycles through before it repeats (available only if Cycle Noise is selected).

Alter the timing of the Noise Phase keyframes to adjust the speed of the Noise Phase cycles.

The Noise HLS effect generates static noise in clips that use still or moving source footage. The Noise HLS Auto effect automatically creates animated noise. Both effects offer various types of noise that can be added to the hue, saturation, or lightness of a clip. Controls for these effects are the same except for the final control that determines noise animation.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

Noise

The type of noise. Unique Random creates equal amounts of black and white noise. Squared Random creates high-contrast noise. Uniform Animation creates animated noise, and Squared Animation creates animated high-contrast noise. Grain produces grain-like noise similar to film grain.

Hue

The amount of noise added to hue values.

Lightness

The amount of noise added to lightness values.

Saturation

The amount of noise added to saturation values.

Grain Size

This control is active only for the Grain type of noise.

Noise Phase (Noise HLS only)

An input value to the random number generator for the noise. When you set keyframes for Noise Phase, the effect cycles through the phases to create animated noise. Greater value differences between keyframes increase the speed of the noise animation.

Noise Animation Speed (Noise HLS Auto only)

The speed of the noise animation. To accelerate or decelerate the noise animation, animate this property.

The Basic 3D effect manipulates a clip in 3D space. You can rotate an image around horizontal and vertical axes and move it toward or away from you. With Basic 3D, you can also create a specular highlight to give the appearance of light reflecting off a rotated surface. The light source for the specular highlight is always above, behind, and to the left of the viewer. Because the light comes from above, the image must be tilted backward to see this reflection. Specular highlights can enhance the realism of the 3D appearance.

Jeff Schell provides a video tutorial about the Basic 3D effect and lighting effects on the Digital Media Net website.

Basic 3D effect: Swivel (left), Swivel and Tilt (center), and Swivel, Tilt, and Distance (right)

Swivel

Controls horizontal rotation (rotation around a vertical axis). You can rotate past 90° to see the back side of the image, which is the mirror image of the front.

Tilt

Controls vertical rotation (rotation around a horizontal axis).

Distance To Image

Specifies the image’s distance from the viewer. As the distance gets larger, the image recedes.

Specular Highlight

Adds a glint of light that reflects off the surface of the rotated image, as though an overhead light were shining on the surface. If Draw Preview Wireframe is selected, the specular highlight is indicated by a red plus sign (+) if it isn’t visible on the clip (the center of the highlight doesn’t intersect the clip) and a green plus sign (+) if the highlight is visible. You must render a preview before the Specular Highlight effect becomes visible in the Program Monitor.

Preview

Draws a wireframe outline of the 3D image. The wireframe outline renders quickly. To see your final results, deselect Draw Preview Wireframe when you finish manipulating the wireframe image.

The Bevel Alpha effect adds a beveled edge and lights to the alpha boundaries of an image, often giving 2D elements a 3D appearance. If the clip has no alpha channel or if the clip is completely opaque, then the effect is applied to the edges of the clip. The edge created by this effect is somewhat softer than that created by the Bevel Edges effect. This effect works well with text containing an alpha channel.

The Bevel Edges effect gives a chiseled and lighted 3D appearance to the edges of an image. Edge locations are determined by the alpha channel of the source image. Unlike Bevel Alpha, the edges created in this effect are always rectangular, so images with non rectangular alpha channels don’t produce the proper appearance. All edges have the same thickness.

The Drop Shadow effect adds a shadow that appears behind the clip. The shape of the Drop Shadow is determined by the clip’s alpha channel.

When you add a drop shadow to a clip, a soft-edged outline of the clip’s alpha channel appears behind it, as if a shadow is cast on the background or underlying objects.

Unlike most other effects, Drop Shadow can create a shadow outside the bounds of the clip (the dimensions of the clip’s source).

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

To render the shadow without the image, select Shadow Only.

The Radial Shadow effect creates a shadow from a point light source over the clip it’s applied to, rather than from an infinite light source (as with the Drop Shadow effect). The shadow is cast from the alpha channel of the source clip, allowing the color of that clip to influence the color of the shadow as light passes through semitransparent areas.

Original (left), and with effect applied (right)

Shadow Color

The color of the shadow.

Note: The colors of the clip may override the Shadow Color if you choose Glass Edges from the Render control menu. See the Render and Color Influence controls for more information.

Opacity

The opacity of the shadow.

Light Source

The location of the point light source.

Copy and paste position keyframes from another effect (for example, Lens Flare) to quickly create a shadow that matches the other effect’s light source.

Projection Distance

The distance from the clip to the surface on which the shadow falls. The shadow appears larger as this value increases.

Softness

The softness of the shadow’s edges.

Render

The type of shadow:

Regular

Creates a shadow based on the Shadow Color and Opacity values, regardless of semitransparent pixels in the clip. (If Regular is chosen, the Color Influence control is disabled.)

Glass Edge

Creates a colored shadow based on the color and opacity of the clip. If the clip contains semitransparent pixels, the shadow uses both the color and transparency of the clip, creating the appearance, for example, of sun shining through stained glass.

The more transparent the pixels in the clip are, the closer the shadow color matches the colors of the clip. If the clip contains no semitransparent pixels, Glass Edge has little result.

Note: Anti-aliased edges produce colors in a shadow edge if you choose Glass Edge, even if the clip is fully opaque. The clip’s colors shine through these anti-aliased edges, and the Shadow Color fills the center of the shadow.

Color Influence

The fraction of the clip’s color values that appear in the shadow. At 100%, the shadow takes on the color of any semitransparent pixels in the clip. If the clip contains no semitransparent pixels, Color Influence has little result, and the Shadow Color value determines the shadow’s color. Decreasing the Color Influence value blends the colors of the clip in the shadow with the Shadow Color. Increasing Color Influence reduces the influence of the Shadow Color.

Shadow Only

Select to render only the shadow.

Resize Layer

Select to allow the shadow to extend beyond the clip’s original boundaries.

The Alpha Glow effect adds color around the edges of a masked alpha channel. You can have a single color either fade out or change to a second color as it moves away from the edge.

Glow

Controls how far the color extends from the alpha channel edge. Higher settings produce larger glows (and can cause very slow processing before playback or export).

Brightness

Controls the initial opacity of the glow.

Start Color

Shows the current glow color. Click the swatch to choose another color.

Use End Color

Lets you add an optional color at the outer edge of the glow.

Fade Out

Specifies whether the colors fade out or stay solid.

The Brush Strokes effect applies a rough painted look to an image. You can also use this effect to achieve a pointillist style by setting the length of the brush strokes to 0 and increasing the stroke density. Although you specify the direction of strokes, they are scattered randomly by a small amount to give a more natural result. This effect alters the alpha channel, as well as the color channels; if you’ve masked out a portion of the image, the brush strokes paint over the edges of the mask.

Original image (left), with effect applied (center), and with Brush Size and Length adjusted (right)

Stroke Angle

The direction in which the strokes are made. The image is effectively shifted in this direction, which may cause some clipping at the clip boundaries.

Brush Size

The size of the brush, in pixels.

Stroke Length

The maximum length of each stroke, in pixels.

Stroke Density

Higher densities result in overlapping brush strokes.

Stroke Randomness

Creates nonuniform strokes. The more randomness, the more the strokes vary from the brush and stroke settings you specify.

Paint Surface

Specifies where brush strokes are applied:

Paint On Original Image

Puts the strokes on top of the unmodified clip. This setting is the default.

Paint On Transparent

Causes only the strokes themselves to appear, leaving the clip transparent between the strokes.

Paint On White/Paint On Black

Applies strokes over a white or black background.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

The Color Emboss effect works like the Emboss effect, without suppressing the image’s original colors.

The Emboss effect sharpens the edges of objects in the image and suppresses colors. The effect also highlights the edges from a specified angle.

Direction

The direction from which the highlight source shines.

Relief

The apparent height of the embossing, in pixels. The Relief setting actually controls the maximum width of highlighted edges.

Contrast

Determines the sharpness of the image.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

The Find Edges effect identifies the areas of the image that have significant transitions and emphasizes the edges. Edges can appear as dark lines against a white background or colored lines against a black background. If the Find Edges effect is applied, images often look like sketches or photographic negatives of the original.

Invert

Inverts the image after the edges are found. When Invert isn’t selected, edges appear as dark lines on a white background. When Invert is selected, edges appear as bright lines on a black background.

The Mosaic effect fills a clip with solid-color rectangles, pixelating the original image. This effect is useful for simulating low-resolution displays and for obscuring faces. You can also animate it for a transition.

Horizontal/Vertical Blocks

The number of blocks in each row and column.

Sharp Colors

Gives each tile the color of the pixel in the center of the corresponding region in the original image. Otherwise, each tile is given the average color of the corresponding region in the original image.

The Posterize effect lets you specify the number of tonal levels (or brightness values) for each channel in an image. The Posterize effect then maps pixels to the closest matching level. For example, choosing two tonal levels in an RGB image gives you two tones for red, two tones for green, and two tones for blue. Values range from 2 to 255.

Level

The number of tonal levels for each channel.

The Replicate effect divides the screen into tiles and displays the whole image in each tile. Set the number of tiles per column and row by dragging the slider.

The Roughen Edges effect roughs up the edges of a clip’s alpha channel by using calculations. It gives rasterized text or graphics a naturally rough look, like that of eroded metal or typewriter text.

Original image (left), with Edge Type set to Roughen (center), and with Rusty Color (right)

Edge Type

What kind of roughening to use.

Edge Color

The color to apply to the edge for Rusty Color or Roughen Color, or to the fill for Photocopy Color.

Border

How far, in pixels, the effect extends inward from the edge of the alpha channel.

Edge Sharpness

Low values create softer edges. High values create sharper edges.

Fractal Influence

The amount of roughening.

Scale

The scale of the fractal used to calculate the roughness.

Stretch Width or Height

The width or height of the fractal used to calculate the roughness.

Offset (Turbulence)

Determines the portion of the fractal shape used to create the distortion.

Complexity

Determines the level of detail in the roughness.

Note: Increasing complexity results in longer rendering times. Reduce the Scale value rather than increasing Complexity to achieve similar results.

Evolution

Animating this setting results in changes of the roughness over time.

Note: Although the Evolution value is set in units called revolutions, it’s important to realize that these revolutions are progressive. The evolution state continues to progress infinitely at each new value. Use the Cycle Evolution option to return the Evolution setting to its original state at each revolution.

Evolution Options

Provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for the duration of your clip. Use these controls to prerender the roughen elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time.

Cycle Evolution

Creates a loop that forces the evolution state to return to its starting point.

Cycle (In Revolutions)

The number of revolutions of the Evolution setting that the fractal cycles through before it repeats. The timing of the Evolution cycles is determined by the amount of time between Evolution keyframes.

Note: The Cycle control affects only the state of the fractal, not geometrics or other controls, so you can get different results with different Size or Offset settings.

Random Seed

Specifies a value from which to generate the fractal noise. Animating this property results in flashing from one set of fractal shapes to another within the same fractal type. For smooth transition of the fractal noise, use the Evolution control.

Note: Create new roughness animations by reusing previously created Evolution cycles and changing only the Random Seed value. Using a new Random Seed value alters the noise pattern without disturbing the evolution animation.

The Solarize effect creates a blend between a negative and positive image, causing the image to appear to have a halo. This effect is analogous to briefly exposing a print to light during developing.

The Strobe Light effect performs an arithmetic operation on a clip or makes the clip transparent at periodic or random intervals. For example, every five seconds the clip could become completely transparent for one-tenth of a second, or a clip’s colors could invert at random intervals.

Strobe Color

The color of the strobe light.

Blend With Original

The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the clip. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the clip; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through.

Strobe Duration (Secs)

How long, in seconds, each strobe lasts.

Strobe Period (Secs)

The time, in seconds, between the start of subsequent strobes.

Random Strobe Probability

The probability that the strobe operation will apply to any given frame.

Strobe

Choose Makes Layer Transparent for each strobe to make the clip transparent. Choose Operates On Color Only to use the operation specified by Strobe Operator.

Strobe Operator

The operation to use for each strobe.

Random Seed

The probability that the strobe seed will apply to a given frame.

The Texturize effect gives a clip the appearance of having the texture of another clip. For example, you could make the image of a tree appear as if it had the texture of bricks, and you can control the depth of the texture and the apparent light source.

Texture Layer

The source of the texture.

Light Direction

The angle at which light hits the texture.

Texture Contrast

The magnitude of the result.

Texture Placement

How the texture layer is applied to the clip:

Tile Texture

Applies the texture repeatedly.

Center Texture

Positions the texture in the middle.

Stretch Texture To Fit

Stretches the texture to the dimensions of the clip.

The Threshold effect converts grayscale or color images to high-contrast, black-and-white images. Specify a luminance level as a threshold; all pixels that are as bright as or brighter than the threshold are converted to white, and all darker pixels are converted to black.

Effect applied with threshold settings of 44 (left), 70 (center), and 200 (right)

The Echo effect combines frames from different times in a clip. The Echo effect has a variety of uses, from a simple visual echo to streaking and smearing effects. The results of this effect are visible only if the clip contains motion. By default, any previously applied effects are ignored when you apply the Echo effect.

Original image (left), with low echo values (center), and with increased number of echoes (right)

Echo Time (seconds)

The time, in seconds, between echoes. Negative values create echoes from previous frames; positive values create echoes from upcoming frames.

Number of Echoes

The number of echoes. For example, if the value is 2, the result is a combination of three frames: the current time, the current time + Echo Time, and the current time + (2 x Echo Time).

Starting Intensity

The opacity of the first image in the echo sequence.

Decay

The ratio of the opacity of an echo to the opacity of the echo preceding it in the echo sequence. For example, if Decay is 0.5, then the opacity of the first echo is half of the Starting Intensity; the second echo is half that, or one quarter of the Starting Intensity.

Echo Operator

The blending operation used to combine the echoes.

Add

Combines the echoes by adding their pixel values. If the starting intensity is too high, this mode can quickly overload and produce streaks of white.

Maximum

Combines the echoes by taking the maximum pixel values from all of the echoes.

Minimum

Combines the echoes by taking the minimum pixel values from all of the echoes.

Screen

Emulates combining the echoes by sandwiching them optically. This setting is similar to Add, but it won’t overload as quickly.

Composite In Back

Uses the echoes’ alpha channels to composite them back to front.

Composite In Front

Uses the echoes’ alpha channels to composite them front to back.

Blend

Averages the echoes.

The Posterize Time effect locks a clip to a specific frame rate. Posterize Time is useful on its own as a special effect, but it also has more subtle uses. For example, 60-field video footage can be locked to 24 fps (and then field rendered at 60 fields per second) to give a filmlike look. This effect is sometimes called Strobe in hardware devices.

Animating the value of the Frame Rate slider can give unpredictable results. For this reason, the only interpolation method allowed for the frame rate is Hold.

The Camera View effect distorts a clip by simulating a camera viewing the clip from different angles. By controlling the location of the camera, you distort the shape of the clip.

Latitude

Moves the camera vertically. The effect makes the clip appear to be flipping vertically.

Longitude

Moves the camera horizontally. The effect makes the clip appear to be flipping horizontally.

Roll

Rolls the camera, thus appearing to rotate the clip.

Focal length

Changes the focal length of the camera lens. Shorter lengths provide wider views, whereas longer focal lengths provide narrower but closer views.

Distance

Sets the distance between the camera and the center of the clip.

Zoom

Enlarges or reduces the view of the clip.

Fill Color

Specifies the background color.

Fill Alpha Channel

Makes the background transparent (useful if the clip with the effect is superimposed). In the Effect Controls panel, click Setup to access this option.

The Crop effect trims pixels from the edges of a clip.

The Left, Top, Right, and Bottom properties specify what percentage of the image to remove.

Note: You can directly manipulate the crop in the Program monitor. Click the Transform icon  next to Crop in the Effect Controls panel. Drag the corner handles in the Program Monitor.

Select Zoom to scale the cropped image to fit the frame.

The Edge Feather effect lets you vignette the video in a clip by creating a soft black border on all four sides. The border width is controlled by entering an Amount value.

See Andrew Devis' video tutorial on Creative Cow: "Color Correction 3: Vignette Techniques."

Rich Young collects several techniques on the AETUTS+ website for creating vignettes.

The Horizontal Flip effect reverses each frame in a clip from left to right; however, the clip still plays in a forward direction.

The Horizontal Hold effect skews the frames to the left or to the right; the effect is similar to the horizontal hold setting on a television set. Drag the slider to control the clip’s slant.

The Vertical Flip effect flips a clip upside down. Keyframes cannot be applied to this effect.

The Vertical Hold effect scrolls the clip upward; the effect is similar to adjusting the vertical hold on a television set. Keyframes cannot be applied to this effect.

The Block Dissolve effect makes a clip disappear in random blocks. The width and height of the blocks, in pixels, can be set independently.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (center and right)

The Gradient Wipe effect causes pixels in the clip to become transparent based on the luminance values of corresponding pixels in another video track, called the gradient layer. Dark pixels in the gradient layer cause the corresponding pixels to become transparent at a lower Transition Completion value. For example, a simple grayscale gradient layer that goes from black on the left to white on the right causes the underlying clip to be revealed from left to right as Transition Completion increases.

For more information about using and creating a Gradient Wipe transition, see the following video by Dennis Radeke.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (center and right)

The gradient layer can be a still image or a moving image. The gradient layer must be in the same sequence as the clip to which you apply Gradient Wipe.

You can create gradient layers in many ways, such as using the Ramp effect or creating them in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Transition Softness

The degree to which the transition is gradual for each pixel. If this value is 0%, pixels in the clip to which the effect is applied are either completely opaque or completely transparent. If this value is greater than 0%, pixels are semitransparent at the intermediate stages of the transition.

Gradient Placement

How the gradient layer’s pixels are mapped to the pixels of the clip to which the effect is applied:

Tile Gradient

Uses multiple tiled copies of the gradient layer.

Center Gradient

Uses a single instance of the gradient layer in the center of the clip.

Stretch Gradient To Fit

Resizes the gradient layer horizontally and vertically to fit the entire area of the clip.

Invert Gradient

Inverts the gradient layer’s influence; lighter pixels in the gradient layer create transparency at a lower Transition Completion value than do darker pixels.

The Linear Wipe effect performs a simple linear wipe of a clip in a specified direction.

Wipe Angle

The direction that the wipe travels. For example, at 90° the wipe travels from left to right.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (center and right)

The Radial Wipe effect reveals an underlying clip using a wipe that circles around a specified point.

Start Angle

The angle at which the transition starts. With a start angle of 0°, the transition starts at the top.

Wipe

Specifies whether the transition moves clockwise or counterclockwise, or alternates between the two.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (center and right)

The Venetian Blinds effect reveals an underlying clip using strips of specified direction and width.

Original image (left), and with effect applied (center and right)

The Cineon Converter effect provides a high degree of control over color conversions of Cineon frames. To use the Cineon Converter effect, import a Cineon file and add the clip to a sequence. You can then apply the Cineon Converter effect to the clip and precisely adjust the colors while interactively viewing the results in the Program monitor. Set keyframes to adjust for changes in tone over time—use keyframe interpolation and ease handles to precisely match the most irregular lighting changes, or leave the file in its default state and use the converter.

The 10 bits of data available in each Cineon channel for each pixel make it easier to enhance an important range of tones while preserving overall tonal balance. By carefully specifying the range, you can create a version of the image that faithfully resembles the original.

Here are a couple of pages in After Effects Help that give information about Cineon files and the Cineon Converter effect.

Conversion Type

How the Cineon file is converted:

Log To Linear

Converts an 8-bpc logarithmic non-Cineon clip that you plan to render as a Cineon clip.

Linear To Log

Converts a clip containing an 8-bpc linear proxy of a Cineon file into an 8-bpc logarithmic clip so that its display characteristics are consistent with the original Cineon file.

Log To Log

Detects an 8- or 10-bpc logarithmic Cineon file when you plan to render it as an 8-bpc logarithmic proxy.

10 Bit Black Point

The black point (minimum density) for converting a 10-bpc logarithmic Cineon clip.

Internal Black Point

The black point used for the clip in Premiere Pro.

10 Bit White Point

The white point (maximum density) for converting a 10-bpc logarithmic Cineon clip.

Internal White Point

The white point used for the clip in Premiere Pro.

Gamma

Increase or decrease Gamma to lighten or darken midtones, respectively.

Highlight Rolloff

The rolloff value used to correct bright highlights. If adjusting the brightest areas makes the rest of the image appear too dark, use Highlight Rolloff to adjust these bright highlights. If highlights appear as white blotches, increase Highlight Rolloff until details are visible. An image with high contrast may require a high rolloff value.

The Timecode effect overlays a timecode display on your video to make pinpointing scenes and collaborating with team members and clients easier. The timecode display indicates whether the clip is progressive or interlaced. If the clip is interlaced video, the symbol indicated whether the frame is the upper or lower field. Settings in the Timecode effect let you control the display position, size, and opacity, as well as format and source options.

Position

Adjusts the horizontal and vertical position of the timecode.

Size

Specifies the size of text.

Opacity

Specifies the opacity of the black box behind the timecode.

Field Symbol

Makes the interlaced field symbol visible or invisible to the right of the timecode.

Format

Specifies whether timecode is displayed in the SMPTE format, in frame numbers, or in feet and frames of 35mm or 16mm film.

Timecode Source

Chooses the source for the timecode:

Clip

Displays the timecode starting at 0 from the beginning of the clip.

Media

Displays the timecode of the media file.

Generate

Starts the timecode as determined by the Starting Time In The Offset option and counts up based on the Time Display option.

Note: Setting Timecode Source to Generate enables the "Starting Timecode" field. By enabling the Starting Timecode field, you can set a custom start time.

Time Display

Sets the time base used by the Timecode effect. By default, this option is set to the project time base when the Timecode Source is set to Clip.

Offset

Adds or subtracts frames from the displayed timecode. The offset slider has a limit of plus or minus 50 frames. For higher numbers, click the Offset hot text and type the number of frames.

Label Text

Displays a three character label to the left of the timecode. Choose from None, Automatic, and Camera 1 through Camera 9.

See how to make The Timecode effect start and stop at certain points in your video in this video tutorial.  

Additive Dissolve adds the color information from clip B to clip A, and then subtracts the color information of clip A from clip B.

Cross Dissolve fades out clip A while fading in clip B.

Cross dissolve can also work well at the beginning or end of a clip when you want to fade in or out from black. Stan Arthur has made a short video describing how to do this.

Dip To Black fades clip A to black, and then fades from black to clip B.

For information on using Dip To White, watch the online training video on the Total Training website.

The Film Dissolve transition is new in Premiere Pro CS5.5. It’s a dissolve transition that blends in a linear color space (gamma = 1.0).

The Film Dissolve transition blends in a more realistic way; basically, dissolves look the way that they should.