The surveillance camera look
The surveillance look turns a clip or photo into a night‑IR security-camera frame: blown‑out infrared whites on anything close to the lens, grain‑heavy black in the shadows, and the slight fisheye crush a wide‑angle doorbell or porch camera produces at the edges. Lost Media Emulator models the optics and IR illumination of a real consumer security camera, so the result reads as caught on camera.
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What the surveillance look does to footage
A consumer night‑vision security camera switches to IR illumination after dark. A small sensor, a wide lens and a single IR floodlight each shape the image in a different way, and together they give the frame its found-footage look.
- IR floodlight blow‑out, anything close to the lens overexposes to near‑white
- Grain‑heavy black, shadow detail collapses into coarse sensor noise
- Wide‑angle fisheye crush, the image bows and compresses toward the frame edges
- A near-monochrome palette, IR sensors render color as a narrow green‑grey range
- A motion-triggered framing crop, slightly tighter and lower than a normal shot
How to get the surveillance look
You don't stack a green tint over the footage. In Lost Media Emulator the surveillance look is a built‑in preset: apply it, dial the IR bloom and grain, and export. Nothing about your source is baked in until you render.
- Mac app: drop a clip or photo in, choose the surveillance look, tune it, export ProRes or H.264, and batch a whole folder in one pass on macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon.
- Premiere Pro / After Effects: add the panel to a clip, pick Surveillance, and keyframe any parameter over time, non-destructively, on Premiere Pro / After Effects 2023 or later.
- Start from the night‑IR preset, then push floodlight bloom, grain and lens crush to match the camera you're after.
Why it reads as a real camera, not a filter
A flat green‑tinted overlay sits on your footage and repeats. Lost Media Emulator models the sensor, lens and IR illumination instead, so the degradation reacts to the picture and never repeats. The same engine drives the macOS app and the Adobe extension.
- Part of a 91‑look library with 108 controls, not a one‑shot preset
- Real‑time GPU preview on Apple Silicon
- Non-destructive, your original is untouched until export
Surveillance, answered.
- Can I use the surveillance effect in Premiere Pro?
- Yes. The Premiere Pro / After Effects extension runs as a panel on your timeline and applies the surveillance look non-destructively, with every parameter keyframeable.
- Is this just a green filter?
- No. Instead of laying a green tint over your footage, it models a real consumer security camera's sensor, lens and IR illumination, so the look reads as the device that produced it, not a colour grade.
- What's the difference between Surveillance and Night Vision?
- Both are after‑dark looks, but they model different devices. Night Vision recreates a NightShot-style camcorder image intensifier (a brighter, bloomier green). Surveillance recreates an IR-illuminated security or doorbell camera (a grainier, more monochrome image with floodlight blow‑out and a wide‑angle crush). Both are in the library.
- What footage does it work on?
- Any clip or still. The Mac app handles video and photos and can batch a folder; the extension grades clips on your Premiere Pro or After Effects timeline.
- How much does the surveillance look cost?
- It ships inside the full 91‑look library, a one‑time purchase from $39, no subscription, with free updates inside the major version.
- 14-day money-back guarantee
- One-time purchase — no subscription
- All 91 looks included
- macOS app + Premiere / After Effects