PowerPoint 2010 ups the ante for any adjustments you make to your inserted video clips. In the previous tutorial, we have already explored how you
can correct the brightness and contract for an inserted video by
using the Corrections option. Other than changing the
brightness and contrast values of the video, you can also completely recolor your inserted video. Additionally, you can make your full color video
appear as a grayscale video, or even like a duotone video such as blue and grayscale. Do remember that the video Recolor options work almost similarly
to the picture recolor options. In this tutorial we
will explore the Recolor options for video:
- Open your presentation, and navigate to the required slide where you have already
inserted a video clip. Just select or double-click the video clip to
bring up the two Video Tools tabs in the Ribbon. These two tabs
are Format and Playback. Click the Format tab to activate it, as shown in Figure 1
(highlighted in red).
Figure 1: Video Tools Format tab of the Ribbon
- When you insert a video your slide, it may display a black rectangle on the slide (see Figure 1, above). If your video clip
does not show a black rectangle, then directly proceed to Step 3.
If you see the black rectangle in place of the video clip, then you will not see any
live preview of the recolring. This is because you see a black rectangle
instead of a frame associated with the video clip. To make sure you see a video frame during live preview, add a
Poster Frame to your video clip -- that way you will see a
video frame in the place of black rectangle, as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: Video clip with a poster frame added
- Now, within the Video Tools Format tab, locate the Adjust group and click the Color button
(highlighted in red within Figure 3) to access the Color drop-down gallery that you can see in
Figure 3.
Figure 3: Color drop-down gallery
In Figure 3 above, you can see that the Color drop-down gallery sports just one section: Recolor,
which include preview thumbnails. To select any of the variants, just click on the preview thumbnail of your choice. In addition to these sections,
you can also see three more options used to recolor the selected video. Let us explore all of Color drop-down gallery contents one by
one, as marked in Figure 3 above:
- Recolor: Accents, tints, grayscale, and black and white variants are shown as previews in this group. Previews in the 2nd and 3rd
row of this section are influenced by the Theme of the active presentation. So, if the
Theme is changed, colors of these previews will change. Just hover your mouse cursor on any of the variants in this section to see
its name as a tool tip. In addition, you will also see how the change affects the actual video clip's frame.
- More Variations: This option when selected opens a sub-gallery, as shown in Figure 4, below.
Figure 4: More Variations sub-gallery
Within the More Variations sub-gallery you'll get four sections, which are explained below:
Theme Colors: Here you can select any of the colors which are from the active Theme of the presentation. You can also select
any of the 5 tints or shades for any Theme color. Learn more about Themes here..
Standard Colors: Here you can choose from any of the ten standard colors -- these ten standard colors are just choices of colors that
PowerPoint believes to be widely used. You don't have to limit yourself to either the Theme colors or Standard colors, as we'll show you in the next
options, although it's a good design idea to use Theme colors as far as possible.
Recent Colors: Here you can find the colors most recently used. If you have just launched PowerPoint and created a new presentation,
the Recent Colors option may be entirely absent since you haven't selected any color recently!
More Colors: This option is to summon the Colors dialog box as shown in Figure 5. This dialog box
has two tabs: Standard and Custom -- first select the Standard tab (again, refer to
Figure 5).
Figure 5: Standard tab within the Colors dialog box
This tab offers 127 colors in a honeycomb style palette, 14 gray shades, black and white. You can even change the transparency value of the selected
color in the Transparency slider below. If you want more color choices, then select the Custom tab of the same dialog box, as shown
in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Custom tab within the Colors dialog box
In this tab, you can chose any color from the spectrum and later adjust the selected color's luminosity with the slider on the right. You can even
enter specific values of RGB and HSL to create a specific color -- all these combinations provide 16 million color choices!
Again, you can even change the transparency value of the selected color in the Transparency slider below. Choose any color and click
OK to apply it.
- Video Color Options: This is the last option within the Color drop-down gallery which takes you to the
Video panel within Format Video dialog box that you can see in Figure 7. Note that in
Figure 7, the options that are not related to Color have been grayed out. These other options are explained in our
Video Correction Adjustments in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial.
Figure 7: Video Recolor options within the Format Video dialog box
Here, you can select any of the Recolor Presets types (same as in Recolor section within the Color
drop-down gallery). If you want to abandon all changes made to the video clip within the Recolor area, click the
Reset button highlighted in red within Figure 7, above. Note that when you click this button, the video will be
reset to its original form.
Once done, click Close button to apply the changes to the selected video and get back to your slide.
- Recolor the video by selecting any thumbnail preview variant, or using the Recolor options within Format Video
dialog box. In Figure 8 you can see the selected video after recoloring. Compare the videos in Figures 1 and
8 to see the difference.
Figure 8: Selected video recolored
- Play your video clip to see the difference. Make sure you save your presentation.
See Also:
Video Recolor Options in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Video Recolor Options in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Video Recolor Options in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
