Camera Flash effect

Colin Basterfield wrote on 3/7/2013, 8:57 PM
Hi,

I'm playing around with the flash transition to see if I can simulate someone taking a photograph using a flashgun. I can't seem to get it to appear as anything other than a white screen, even if I only do it for two frames. I was thinking it would look better if it left the video footage underneath visible, as though the flash was illuminating the folks in the picture.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers
Colin

Comments

Former user wrote on 3/7/2013, 9:40 PM
I have done it by making the image b&w and inverted (negative) for a frame and then 10 frame dissolve to real image.

If you do the white frame, do a 10 frame dissolve from white to image. The 2 frame flash looks like lightning.

Dave T2
musicvid10 wrote on 3/7/2013, 9:53 PM
It's been a long time, but iirc I did it with contrast and brightness and keyframes, keeping "some" image rather than letting it go all white.

I had some actual footage with camera flashes to model my effect from, and it came out very convincing.
Laurence wrote on 3/7/2013, 11:05 PM
These days, a real flash looks lie a bright horizontal strip about a quarter of the frame high. The fake ones look so much better!
JackW wrote on 3/8/2013, 12:02 AM
Sweeten the visual effect with a shutter sound. Helps to sell the effect.

Jack
Rory Cooper wrote on 3/8/2013, 2:18 AM
The part where you want the flash to go off take a snap add it to the top track frame or two and composite it add set the amount in slider
farss wrote on 3/8/2013, 6:18 AM
Yes, setting the Compositing mode to Add helps no end.
Also if outputting Interlaced adding fast fade ins and outs will make Vegas render some nice interlace artifacts :(
As others have mentioned, as most cameras today use CMOS sensors the flash rarely affects the whole frame and may appear in a couple of frames in different positions. Red Eye Reduction makes this much more overt. If you want to add the 14th coat of wax to you simulation this can also be done in Vegas.

No matter what, be aware, such effects are a nightmare for encoders, what you get at the end of your production's delivery pipeline might not be what you saw in the preview.

Bob.
Colin Basterfield wrote on 3/10/2013, 11:20 PM
Hi guys,

Many thanks for all the input. I'm trialling each one, not sure which one to go with yet, but beyond answering my request, I've also learned heaps more about the awesome power of video editing software...

Thanks again
Colin
musicvid10 wrote on 3/10/2013, 11:36 PM
Since I did my only "camera flash" effect, I've wondered about Compositing and was sure it could help.
rs170a wrote on 3/11/2013, 1:40 PM
The reality of it is that a flash only shows for one frame.
Here's a very short video segment from a banquet I shot recently along with a frame grab of the effect of the flash (it was a pro photographer so it was a powerful flash unit).
Flash video
Flash frame

Mike