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They say the grass is always greener on the other side. Today, we’re going to prove them wrong. Or right. At any rate, we’re going to change the color of grass. And we’re going to do it with Sony Vegas’ Secondary Color Corrector. Whereas the main Color Corrector FX operates on the Highlight, Midtone, and Shadow areas of video, the Secondary Color corrector can be used to isolate a specific color or range of colors to adjust. This leads to a number of possibilities from basic color correction to some very interesting effects. In this example, I’m going to edit a fishing scene so that the grass in the background is no longer green but rather a brownish color you’d see in the fall or winter. (Depending on where you live, of course.) The clip I’m using is from Stock Footage For Free. Feel free to download it from there (as of this writing, registration and downloads are free), use your own footage with green grass in it, or any footage that has a color you want to change. Understand that if you use different footage, the steps will be the same, but exact settings will probably be different.

Figure 1: Added Media

Start a new Vegas Project by going to File > New and use the Properties settings appropriate for your video. The clip I’m using is in standard NTSC DV format, so I can leave everything at the default. So can you if you’re using the same clip. Activate the Explorer window, browse for the video you will be altering, and drag it to the timeline. Vegas will create a video track and add an event with your video.

Next, activate the Video FX window, find Color Corrector (Secondary) in the list, and drag it onto the video event you just added. For the least hassle, do not use any of the existing presets. Either drag the FX directly from the main list or use the Reset to None preset. You want to start off with a blank slate here. Vegas will display the Video Event FX window.

Figure 2: The FX, Default

The first thing to do is select the color to adjust. This is done using the tools on the bottom half of the Video Event FX window. You’ll need to be able to see and interact with the video preview, so be sure that the Video Event FX window is fully visible but not covering up the preview window. Now click the eyedropper icon labeled “Select effect range,” and use it to draw a rectangle around an area of your image that contains the color(s) you want to change.

Now comes the cool part. You have a range of colors selected as indicated by all of the sliders in the lower half of the Video Event FX window. You can either tick the Show Mask checkbox to have Vegas display a mask based on your selection — white for the affected colors, black for everything else — and adjust all those sliders until you have a black and white image; or, for instant gratification, you can go ahead and start changing the color now and then fine tune those sliders.

3. The FX, Adjusted

I’m going for instant gratification. I like to see the output and work from there. If you’re with me, grab the Rotate Hue slider and find a color you like. If you left Show Mask unchecked, you will immediately see the change in the Video Preview window. I’m making the grass turn brown, so I’ve set Rotate Hue over to 298. Most of the rest of the image was not affected, but there are some areas that were. Furthemore, some of the grass that extends into the water was not affected. This is where fine tuning comes in. Adjust the sliders back in the lower half of the Video Event FX window until your intended area is affected, and the rest is not. For the fishing clip, I’m using these values:

• Rotate Hue: 298
• Limit Saturation
  • Low: 0
  • High: 162
  • Smooth: 8
• Limit Hue
  • Center: 216
  • Width: 0
  • Smooth: 128
• Limit Luminance
  • Low: 70
  • High: 124
  • Smooth: 8

Lastly, preview your clip to be the appropriate color change is consistent throughout. Since you’ve been making adjustments just based on a single frame so far, other areas of the video may introduce a color variation that wasn’t present in that frame. Fine tune as needed, and you’re done! Below is an example of this technique (with an added visual aid to show the clip before and after the Secondary Color Corrector FX was applied).

Tags: color corrector (secondary), effects