How to emphasize a faint white line among a yellow background?

Question

I'm a total beginner at video editing and I filmed a video of a particle detector that I made. The particle made a very faint white line in the yellow background. I would like to post the screenshot, but it would be very hard to see in this state.

How would I emphasize the faint white line in a yellow background?

I'm borrowing my friend's Steam account to use his Sony Vegas Pro.

Answer 1

A screenshot is a still image, so you would need to use image-editing software like Photoshop to enhance the image. I recommend messing around in the "Edit > Adjust" menu. You may be able to show off your effect by increasing the Contrast of the image, or by changing the Hue of the image. You could probably also replace the yellow color with a different color (though Hue would produce a similar effect).

Answer 2

White and yellow are very close so you're not going to be able to do much in post.

Re-shoot and attempt to separate the faint white line from the bright yellow background. To do so, the general idea is to plunge the room in darkness to isolate the faint white line.

• Change the yellow background to a black or dark grey background. Either repaint or replace the background, or, if you can't, flag it in such a way as to darken it, i.e. plunge it in a shadow.
• If the faint white line is traveling through empty space, like a laser beam at a music show, try and sprinkle some fine corn starch flour over it to see how the light beam interacts with the particles of corn starch. Experiment with other material to find what looks good to you.