Removing Camera Flashes

[Rob Harlan]

I saw a thread somewhere with a wedding clip showing the removal of stills camera-flashes.

The before/after shots looked quite impressive.

Cannot find the thread - anyone know which application/plugin is best used to remove camera flashes?

Some photographer flashes are acceptable in wedding videos, but others can cause rather unsightly brief whiteouts.

[Don Bloom]

NewBlueFX Video Essentials 1 has a 'Flash Remover' that works pretty well.
I don't know of any other plugin but I'd guess there are some.

[Richard Wakefield]

correct from Don Bloom there

it was Danny O'Neill (mintyslippers) that showed the superb before and after shots, and also NewBlueFX did a tutorial on it using some of my footage too - that plugin works amazingly well but i guess don't overdo it or it might seem unnatural...also, not sure how it copes with annoying (roller-shutter) flashes on SLR footage...

[Danny O'Neill]

We did a side by side comparison on our blog

And as if by magic | The flash disappeared Mintyslippers.com Wedding Blog

[Steven Davis]

Baseball bat on the photogs flash?


I apologize for that comment. I'm with Don, try the New Blue

[Philip Howells]

Because we use CCDs not CMOS, flashes aren't a technical problem for us but I suppose removal of all traces of the photographer has some appeal!

Before I invest (to use the term governments prefer now - I still think of it as spending) $100 on the NB product, could those who've used the NBfx let me know if there's any downside to the filter?

Presumably they do it by frame or even field doubling - is there any visible disruption?

Any blurring or loss of absolute sharpness?

Does it ever affect the sync either with the TC or the soundtrack?

[Don Bloom]

Philip,
I can't say that I ever had a problem with the NewBlue Flash Remover doing anything to sync, audio or anything else. I can say that every once in a while if there are multiple flashes af high intensity the flash remover seems to miss one but it's not a big deal nor a major problem for me. If it removes 80% of the unsightly flahes than I'm fine with it. I don't bother with it fir receotion dancing but use it mainly in the post ceremony.

[Philip Howells]

Don, thanks. I wonder if you were able to confirm that it works by frame or field doubling ie removal of the "flashed" frame and its substitution with an adjacent frame without the flash.

If it had a limit as to how many frames could be substituted in any given time period that might account for it "missing" some flashes.

The only alternative I can think of is that the software identifies the "un-flashed" colours from the previous/following frame and substitutes those colours in the "flashed" frame. That sounds much more complicated to achieve but would avoid the inherent problems of frame substitution.

[Don Bloom]

Philip,
I'm one of those guys that don't care HOW it works just that it DOES work. Pretty much on most everything so I really don't know if it's frame or field. All I know is it helps out a lot. Honestly I don't expect perfection out of anything, maybe I should but I know when anything is touched by human hands it won't be perfect. Close maybe and that's what makes it work for me.
So anyway, no idea how, just that it does (mostly) but perhaps you could contact NewBlue and ask them. IMO their CS is 2nd to none.
Sorry I can't be more help.

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[Dave Blackhurst]

I tested the demo version, and was pretty impressed (free to download and test). I did notice that it seemed like there was frame doubling going on - I picked up slight motion stutter when there was movement, for want of a better term. In the end I decided that the flashes weren't "that" annoying... part of the "ambiance" of the moment.

[Danny O'Neill]

Sorry, meant to say. Yes, was newblue FX from their video essentials pack.

Sometimes we leave flashes in, but for the shoot in the example we had some wonderful moments where we wanted it to look like it was just the couple in a room on their own and having a camera flash go off ruined that.

[Tom Hardwick]

It is indeed most impressive and if you stop your comparison movie on a flash frame (easily done with so many to choose from) there's no evidence that a flash was ever there. So it's done by frame blending the before and after flash frames is it? It's certainly not just a simple exposure reduction of that flashed frame.

Wonder how it looks with slo-mo shot footage, or footage slowed in post - do you know?

tom.

[Danny O'Neill]

Dont really do slow mo so couldnt say ;)

You can download a free demo so give it a go.

[Ryan ONeil]

Maybe an off-topic question, but when you use an effect like this in After effects or w/e, do you typically run it on the raw video, then do edits on the resulting video or just run it along with all the other effects?

[Don Bloom]

I never run any effects on the RAW only on the edit. Just something I learned to do years ago. Why run something thru all the footage that is needed on all the footage.