Soft Focus Glow

Veggie_Dave wrote on 5/9/2006, 6:40 AM

I've been trying for ages to produce this effect in Vegas.

Quite simply, I want to artificially create a soft-focus/vasaline lens filter so that it adds a soft, white glow around the subject, but I'm damned if I can see a way of doing it in Vegas.

I know you can buy the effect, but I'd like to see if it's possible in Vegas first.

Thanks,

Comments

Former user wrote on 5/9/2006, 6:48 AM

Put the same video on 2 video tracks. On the top track, apply some gaussian blur. Then play with the opacity and the amount of blur. This gives a nice soft focus effect.

Dave T2

Grazie wrote on 5/9/2006, 6:51 AM

I take you aren't satisfied with the GLOW Fx? Gaussian Blur Fx? - G

Veggie_Dave wrote on 5/9/2006, 7:31 AM

I'm after more a combination of the two - a way to give the glow a soft blur without really affecting the source media's sharpness too much.

AlanC wrote on 5/9/2006, 7:34 AM

Use the 2 track method that Dave T2 suggested but add the cookie cutter with a touch of Feather to soften the edges.

DJPadre wrote on 5/9/2006, 7:43 AM

check out the FREE Halo filter from BlueFX..
http://newbluefx.com/videofx.html

i know the one your refering to, (Canopus and Edius users have this as a standard filter from canopus storm FX) however IMO its been grossly overused.. one thing though, is to create a SIMILAR look and work with that, and make it your own.. this is where Vegas excels..
The Halo filter from blue is very tweakable, very similar to the sony glow, but with afew DIFFERENT kind of tweaks..

mjroddy wrote on 5/9/2006, 9:32 AM

I did a tutorial that might be what you're looking for - maybe...
Go to
http://www.matthewroddy.com/cathy-tutorial/
It's kind of a combination of things mentioned above, but I use the compositing filters, in conjunction with the opacity slider.

GlennChan wrote on 5/9/2006, 3:01 PM

You can drop an unsharp mask on the bottom layer (use a very, very small radius i.e. 0.003) to get some of that sharpness back.

2- I slightly prefer the look of doing things optically... i.e. with a filter, or smearing vaseline over a clear filter.

The math between the two methods (optical and digital) is different... with a digital filter it's possible to simulate what happens optically by converting to linear light. In vegas, you could use the levels and gamma = 0.45, gaussian blur filter, gamma 2.2.

Veggie_Dave wrote on 5/9/2006, 3:21 PM

Superb! I never thought of doing it that way.

Thank you very much indeed.