RGB coordinates of "black" in Sony Vegas

When I import an image with a black background into Vegas (onto a black background in Vegas), the black color doesn't blend in with the background black in Vegas---it appears a "light shade" of black.

How can I make sure I match these black backgrounds exactly, so that my imported text (white on black) appears to blend in perfectly with the Vegas black?

Thanks,
Matt

[Matt Kushner] "When I import an image with a black background into Vegas (onto a black background in Vegas), the black color doesn't blend in with the background black in Vegas---it appears a "light shade" of black. "

That's because the Black in Vegas is Computer RGB (0,0,0) which is an illegal broadcast color and the black in your video is Studio RGB (16,16,16) which is the legal limit for broadcast black.

[Matt Kushner] "How can I make sure I match these black backgrounds exactly, so that my imported text (white on black) appears to blend in perfectly with the Vegas black? "

Ah... what you are dealing with is the difference between Studio RGB and Computer RGB and it's important to understand the difference because you probably want to make the video blacker but you really want to make Vegas lighter.

If your target delivery is broadcast TV or DVD or YouTube/Vimeo, then you want to raise the black level in Vegas to Studio RGB(16,16,6). The best way to do this is to add the Broadcast Colors to your Master Video Bus so that all of the blacks are legal.

If your target delivery is your own web site then you can use the Levels filter with the Studio RGB to Computer RGB preset on your video to bring the broadcast blacks down to the illegal limit. Note that services like YouTube and Vimeo will boldly assume that your blacks are Studio RGB and convert them to Computer RGB so if you feed YouTube a file that is already Computer RGB it will look too dark and the blacks will be crushed.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Matt Kushner] "John, can you please spell out in more detail how I would accomplish what you recommend below?"

Go to the FX Button on the Master Video Bus above the Video Preview:



Then select Sony Broadcast Colors and choose the Lenient - 7.5 Setup preset and it will clamp your video to be Broadcast Safe. This will keep the Vegas Generated Media blacks and whites from being illegal and not touch the blacks and whites in your video which are already legal.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Matt Kushner] "this is what I'm seeing. Am I missing something or is this correct? It's not working at this point."

You're very close. ;-)

You forgot to apply the Lenient - 7.5 Setup preset because I can see your preset is still set to Reset to None. You need to select the appropriate preset.



~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com