Highlighting a Single Color

I love this effect. If you've ever wondered how they leave in a certain color in an image while turning the rest of the clip black-and-white, look no further. It's amazing how simple this is to do. For example, imagine a car commercial in which you want the audience to focus on the car. Assume the car is red. You can drop out every color in the shot that does not contain any red. This means that, assuming the surrounding scenery does not have any red objects, everything but the red in the car turns to black-and-white (see Figure 6.29). How do you do this? Simple. Use the filter called Color Pass.

1. Open the Video Effects window (if it's not already open).

2. Scroll down or double-click the Image Control folder to display the effects inside.

3. Select Color Pass and drag it onto the desired clip in your timeline.

4. Open the Effect Controls window (if it's not already open).

5. Click Setup to open the Color Pass Settings window, shown in Figure 6.30. This lets you compare the original clip with the output clip displaying the effect.

   Figure 6.30. The Color Pass Settings window.

   

6. Click and hold the color patch to choose the color you want to remain in the image, or use the eyedropper to select the exact value from your clip.

7. Drag the slider back and forth to adjust the clipping level of the selected color, or enter a numeric value in the Similarity field. The further to the left (or the lower the similarity number value), the more precise the color needs to be in the clip. The further to the right (or the higher the similarity number value), the more tolerance of that color value Premiere allows to be visible. Moving the slider to the extreme left or extreme right either drops all color from the image or leaves all the color in the image, respectively.

8. After you have set the desired value, click OK.

Figure 6.29. The Color Pass filter retains any single color value from an image while turning the rest black-and-white.

note

You can achieve the opposite effect (dropping a selected color) by clicking the Reverse check box.

Use the two monitors to compare the original image in the Clip Sample monitor on the left of the screen to the new image containing the Color Pass filter in the Output Sample monitor on the right. This filter works extremely well considering how much work it would take to use Photoshop (or some other paint program) and color-correct each exported frame one frame at a time. The other option might be to use a matte key with an alpha channel and have the color car be visible through the mask. But if any objects appear between the car and the camera, they appear in color. So the only real way (and the relatively simple method) is to use the Color Pass Filter.