Pinnacle Studio provides a pretty good selection of image controls. You can use these controls to improve brightness and contrast, adjust colors, or add a stylized appearance to a video image. To access the color controls, doubleclick a clip that you want to improve or modify. When the Clip Properties dialog box appears, click the Adjust Color or Add Visual Effects tab on the left side of the Clip Properties window. The Color Properties window appears as shown in Figure.At the top of the Color Properties window is the Color Type menu. Here you can choose a basic color mode for the clip. The normal mode is All Colors, but you can also choose Black and White (shown in Figure), Single Hue, or Sepia. Below that menu are eight controls (listed in the order they appear) that you manipulate using sliders:
- Hue: Adjusts the color bias for the clip. Use this if skin tones or other colors in the image don’t look right.
- Saturation: Adjust the intensity of color in the image.
- Brightness: Makes the image brighter or darker.
- Contrast: Adjust the contrast between light and dark parts of the image. If the image appears too dark, use brightness and contrast together to improve the way it looks.
- Blur: Adds a blurry effect to the image.
- Emboss: Simulates a carving or embossed effect. It looks cool, but is of limited use.
- Mosaic: Makes the image look like a bunch of large colored blocks. This is another control you probably won’t use a whole lot.
- Posterize: Reduces the number of different colors in an image. Play with it; you might like it.
