Adobe Premiere Elements 7 Classroom in a Book

ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 7 CLASSROOM IN A BOOK 119

Note that once you apply an eff ect from the Eff ects panel to a clip, you can also

adjust its parameters and set keyframes in the Eff ects Properties view. All eff ects

that you add to a clip appear in the order in which you add them.

 ough you can apply any and all of these eff ects at any time during the course of

a project, the recommended workfl ow is to apply curative fi lters fi rst, then speed

and motion, then other artistic eff ects. You can add an eff ect to any clip in the My

Project panel, and even apply the same eff ect numerous times to the same clip, but

with diff erent settings. By default, when you add an eff ect to a clip, it is active for

the duration of the clip.

Perfecting your clips

All projects are unique and all source clips present their own unique issues.  e

project that you’re working on was shot outside on a bright, sunny day, so the light-

ing was generally good. Colors are also bright and accurate because the auto-white

balance functions on most camcorders work extremely well in sunlight. To perfect

the video in this shoot, you’ll correct backlighting in several clips, boost the color

saturation in another, apply the Sharpen and Stabilizer eff ects, and reframe a shot

using the Motion controls.

However, indoor shoots typically present a completely diff erent range of problems

since lighting is often inadequate and camcorders sometimes have problems pro-

ducing accurate colors when shooting under fl uorescent or incandescent lighting.

When your personal projects include indoor shoots, you should experiment with

the Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation adjustments in the Image Control

fi xed eff ect, and the Auto Color, Auto Contrast, and Auto Levels controls in the

Adjust folder. Often applying the latter three—either individually or concert—can

produce quite remarkable improvements in minimal time and with little eff ort.

Applying and resetting fi xed eff ects

It’s usually most convenient to start by adjusting the Brightness, Contrast, and

Saturation of a clip using the Image Control adjustments. Here’s the procedure:

1 In either the Sceneline or Timeline, click DolphinShow.avi, which is the seventh

clip in the movie.

Shot under a roof, this clip is dark and a bit drab. Let’s fi x that.

2 Click the Properties button on the upper left of the My Project panel.

3 In Properties view, click the twirl-down triangle to the left of the Image Control

eff ect to open the parameter settings.

120 LESSON 6 Working with Effects

4 Drag the Brightness slider to the right until it reaches the value of 5 (or click the

numeric entry to make it active and type 5, then press Enter).

5 Drag the Contrast slider to the right until it reaches the value of 104 (or click the

numeric entry to make it active and type 104, then press Enter).

6 Drag the Saturation slider to the right until it reaches the value of 200 (or click

the numeric entry to make it active and type 200, then press Enter).

7 In Properties view, to the left of the twirl-down triangle, fi nd the Eyeball icon

(

) to the left of the Image Control eff ect.  e eyeball toggles the eff ect on or

off so you can compare the clip with and without the adjustments. Toggle the

eyeball on and off a few times.

8 Click the Eyeball icon again to toggle the eff ect on. Note that the Eyeball icon

isn’t simply for preview; if you don’t toggle the eff ect back on, Adobe Premiere

Elements will ignore the eff ect when rendering the fi nal movie.