Simulating a camera flash & viewfinder

L

lalugela

Active member
Hi I'm having some issues trying to simulate a camera flash. I have a scene in my music video where it's from a photographer's POV, and I'm trying to simulate the camera flash as well as the viewfinder you would see inside a Digital SLR.

Any tips?

I tried using Nattress Film Effects, the G Film Flash, but it's super buggy. It actually speeds up my footage and throws the whole clip off.
 
I would apply a brightness/contrast filter over 1-3 frames and play a little bit with the settings. You probably will never get a completely realistic effect because a real flash creates distinctive shadows and also reflects off shiny surfaces that might be in the frame. To simulate the viewfinder, I would "draw" one in photoshop and export it with an alpha channel. You can then create a second track in FCP and put your photoshop file on top of the video footage and play with the composite modes. By the way, through the viewfinder of an SLR camera you wouldn't see the flash because the viewfinder will turn black at the moment the picture is taken....
 
Hey thanks so much for responding.

The flashes I need and the viewfinder are for separate shots. (and yeah, I'm gonna do a shutter close for the viewfinder part) I actually made a decent one in photoshop, but I had to work around some issues I had when I brought it into FCP. Why does FCP mess up the Photoshop document when I bring it in? Am I doing something wrong? What do you mean by alpha channel?

As for the flash part, I tried a couple of things. I used color correction to boost the mids and highs and even a little bit of the blacks— but three frames was too short. Anyone have any suggestions for length?

LAST QUESTION. Anyone else experience issues with the Nattress Film Effect G Film Flash? When I applied it, it would change the in and out point of the clip and have a random burst of speed in the clip.
 
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