I have NB Flash Remover Pro -- it was sold as a standalone package much like the old NB Stabilizer. It does work pretty well in the instances I have used it, although I've only had to remove one or two flashes per clip.

I believe it is now packaged with the new bundles. Maybe the Tier II bundles? I cannot remember the name and I don't have a fast connection right now to look it up.

I don't know of a freeware flash remover but others may have some suggestions.

Regards,

Kimberly

I have a two-step approach to removing photographer's flashes:

1. I use my "Replace Bad Frame at Cursor" script to replace the flash frame with a duplicate of the previous frame. If there is little motion, this produces results that are good enough to not be noticed, and certainly better than having the flash.

2. For truly professional results, I use an AVISynth script to replace the duplicate frame with a motion estimated frame. In most cases, this produces a result that is virtually indistinguishable from video that would have resulted without the flash.

If you want to upload 10-15 seconds of original footage to Dropbox or Mediafire, I'll post the result without the flashes. Also, if you are comfortable with using AVISynth, I can post my AVISynth script that replaces the duplicates, created by my Vegas script, with synthesized, motion-estimated frames.

Years ago, when I briefly had the ear of the development team, I wrote a long letter to the head of development suggesting that he consider investing in motion estimation technology. It is at the heart of so many solutions to video issues. Unfortunately (IMHO), they didn't do any development on that technology.

I feel that as a Wedding/Event Videographer your job is to capture/document said Event as it happened. Photographers were there taking pictures, right? Therefore you have camera flashes. The bride and groom know this and would probably like to remember THEIR DAY that way. After all, they were getting the Rock-Star treatment with photographers, videographers, and everyone being all about THEM. You have to remember, the photographer's job/product is probably valued more than yours anyways. His/Her work will definitely be displayed, viewed, and shown more.

As an event videographer nearly 100% of what you shoot, edit, & deliver is NOT about you or your edit. It's about the event. If you captured/documented the event accurately AND presented it accurately; I think your client would be super happy. I guarantee the bride/groom would not have anything negative to say about the camera flashes.

If you want to remove the camera flashes for 'Artistic' sake, I think you're stepping on THEIR event that was planned a certain way and should be documented as such. If you want to remove the flashes because of 'Rolling Shutter' or the like, I think you need to upgrade your equipment.

- I shoot lots of Weddings & events here at The Convention Center. I deliver lots of video

I have to respectfully disagree with the idea that you should deliver the wedding exactly as it was viewed by the participants. Most of the really fantastic wedding videos I have seen add a tremendous amount of artistry, and go far beyond a simple recording of the event.

If someone coughs just as the bride is saying, "I do," and you own iZotope RX which can easily remove this flaw, would you leave the cough? If someone jostles you as you are walking in front of them while people are throwing rice, would you not use a stabilizer to correct that error? If some amateur videographer shines his light directly into your lens, wiping out the scene, would you not use a cutaway to mask the lousy video, while keeping the audio?

I could go on, but in my experience, the bride and groom want a representation, not a simple recording. They want their special day remembered in the most positive light possible.

I guess some clients might like the paparazzi feel of dozens of flashes going off, and perhaps for certain segments, like the getaway, I'd leave them intact. However, leaving them for certain scenes is an artistic call, and certainly not a hard and fast rule.

In summary: a wedding video should look like something more than a police dashboard camera record of the arrest.

John:

Some people might suggest that geting married is akin to being arrested! Only joking of course and to remove any doubt I am very happily married --- and have been for fifty-three years :).

I entirely agree with your point of view. If the couple want a "warts and all" record they could rely on any of the guests who are there with a video camera. They are paying for a professional service and that means they expect to see a decent record of their happy day. This means removing the sort of flaws you have identified. If a professional produced anything else I should not be willing to pay him.

Richard.

Thanks John, your help is very appreciated.

Here's one of many clips..in this clips there are 4 bursts of flashes in about 5 seconds.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xdfcnapv6btn6os/hotFlashes.avi?dl=0

I wouldn't mind learning how AVISynth works..so I'll look at your link posted once I deliver this other project.

I see flashes more and more often, so getting a good work flow now, will benefit me greatly for the future.

Julias, I am also a wedding videographer. Looking at the clip at your dropbox link, I'd leave the flashes in. They are obviously having their photo taken. Why would camera flash be unexpected? Or even unwanted? Your clients will just notice....errr...a camera flash when they have their picture taken! I sometimes make a feature of it with a 'snap' still taken from the timeline.
This kinda reminds me of another post on another forum a while back. He was trying to white balance the evening dancing - complete with' disco' lights. ;-)

The biggest problem for me these days is the shutter noise from DSLRs. When you get 2 or 3 'togs firing away the noise is horrendous. I've worked in a few churches lately that would NOT let photographers in for that very reason. Happy enough to accommodate little silent me though.. :-)

Here's a link to the clip with the flashes removed:

No Flashes.avi

I used the Lagarith codec.

Note: because of the photog's pre-flash, there are several cases where there are two flashes in a row (i.e., on consecutive frames). In one of these cases, there is one good frame after the pre-flash and before the main flash. The flash removal works best if there is a good (non-flash) frame on either side of any flash. On the first instance where there are two flashes in a row, I went ahead and did the replacement anyway. If you put the restored clip into Vegas, below the original clip, and A/B between them, you will see a slight artifact of the chin of one of the girls on this first two-flash replacement. This is because the motion estimation has to estimate across too great a gap in time. It's pretty minor, but the other replacements are basically perfect.

For the final instance where there were flashes across two consecutive frames, I left the pre-flash intact, but replaced the big flash that is truly offensive.

Let me know what you think.

John

Arthur:
Thanks for your feedback.
What you saw is just a 5 second clip with 4 flashes, I have a 4 minute "preparation" segment and the flashes are just too much to bear, I wouldn't be surprised if there are over 200 flashes in that 4 minutes, and at times they aren't even posing for a photo (i.e. just walking out of the room or dad is giving bride a hug, etc)

Usually when I shoot, I shoot after the photographer has taken his pictures..but in this case there was 2 happy trigger photographers that even on "my time" as I set them up for my shoot, they would snap away. At that time I didn't realize it.

I do about 30 weddings a year and most time I don't mind the flashes, but in this case, it was simply way overdone that it's very annoying.

John:
Wow...what can I say..I am very grateful for your help. Thank you soo much for going that extra mile and helping me out. If ever your in Montreal, Canada let me know! Thank you for all your efforts.

Yes I like it!! I saw the slight artifact but it's soooo minor and non noticeable..I had to do a frame-by-frame search to see it.

Can you tell me what you did and used? (flash remover or that AVIsync stuff). I want to master this!!! Did I mention how grateful I am?

P.S. This could be another selling point for future couples...if you have the knowledge of making things look better why suppress it?

This is the AVISynth script I used. It is designed for progressive footage. I have a slight variation that is used for interlaced footage.

loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MVTools\mvtools2.dll")



global source=AVISource("e:\fs.avi").ConvertToYV12



corrected=filldrops(source)

#stackvertical(source,corrected)

return corrected



function filldrops (clip c)

{

  super=MSuper(c,pel=2)

  vfe=manalyse(super,truemotion=true,isb=false,delta=1)

  vbe=manalyse(super,truemotion=true,isb=true,delta=1)

  filldrops = mflowinter(c,super,vbe,vfe,time=50)

  fixed = ConditionalFilter(c, filldrops, c, "YDifferenceFromPrevious()", "lessthan", "1.1")

  return fixed

}

I first went through your video, on the Vegas timeline, and used the script I wrote for Vegas which replaces a "bad" frame with a duplicate of the previous frame. Here is a link to that script:

Fix Bad Frame at Cursor

As I mentioned in my earlier post, for low motion content, this is often sufficient for a quick and dirty fix.

Once I have done this work, I frameserve the result into the AVISynth script I showed above, open the result of that script in VirtualDub, and then save the result using Lagarith. The AVISynth script that I posted above looks for frames that are virtually identical (you can change the difference parameter from 1.1 to 1.0 and then it will only find exact duplicates, but I always cheat it up a little, just so the script doesn't miss anything), and then replaces the second of the two identical frames with one which is synthesized from the two adjacent frames. As you can see, the synthesized frame can be remarkably accurate.

There is a genius programmer over at doom9.org who is creating the world's most advanced flash frame detection script. It would be tempting to combine his work with my AVISynth script, and make the whole process automatic. In this mode, the whole thing could be done outside of Vegas, automatically.

However, for the present, you do have to find each flash frame, run my "fix bad frame" script (you can assign it to a keyboard shortcut), and then either save that using Lagarith and read that into the AVISynth script, or frameserve it into the AVISynth script.

I've posted this before, but here is my restoration of film that was taken with a camera that had a bad sprocket and was losing the loop when filming. I replace every single jump frame with a duplicate of the previous frame and then ran it through my AVISynth script. I wish I'd posted instead the film taken in the next scene where the truck drives away because it really shows how remarkable the estimated frame can be.

Flash Remover Pro is still available in the Essentials Elite or Essentials Ultimate packages.

Flash Remover Pro in the old product line was a separate product. The original Flash Remover plugins was in Video Essentials 1.

Usually when I shoot, I shoot after the photographer has taken his pictures..but in this case there was 2 happy trigger photographers that even on "my time" as I set them up for my shoot, they would snap away. At that time I didn't realize it.

The referenced clip does NOT look like it was taken from "Your Time" as the ladies are looking directly at a photographer. If this truly was "Your Time", they showed you where they place the value... w/ the photographer. Maybe elsewhere you have flashes that I would agree need to be removed, but in this sample, I feel the flashes are indicative of what was going on. I think the real problem is that beautiful Rolling Shutter followed by a bad shot choice during the edit.

Sounds like you've got it under control though.

Thanks everyone for their input...and a special thanks to John.. I downloaded your little "bad frame"script and gave it a try and works great! I'll stick with it as long as it works.
I also installed AVIsync, but I think I'll stick to the quick scripting for now...

Quick question...is there a shortcut I can add or press to bring up the scripting menu?

Thanks again!

On V9 one goes to "Options/Customize toolbar" and you can find icons representing the scripts there. Just move them to your toolbar.

I imagine all the other versions of Vegas work in a similar way.