---
title: "How to add bleach bypass with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "The rainbow sheen drains out to silver-gray, bright areas burn brighter, dark ones sink toward black, and only a faint steely tint of the original color survives. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/bleach-bypass
---

# How to add bleach bypass with Claude

The rainbow sheen drains out to silver-gray, bright areas burn brighter, dark ones sink toward black, and only a faint steely tint of the original color survives.

Made by the command on this page, from our own test clip.

## Get this effect

1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download)

2. ### Install the skill (once)

   ```
   Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
   ```

3. ### Ask for the effect

   ```
   Add bleach bypass to input.mp4
   Opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1): 0.9
   Color left after the blend: 0.45
   ```

## Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Add bleach bypass to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

## Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

| Setting      | Default | What it does                                                                       |
| ------------ | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `STRENGTH`   | `0.9`   | Opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1). Higher means harsher contrast. |
| `SATURATION` | `0.45`  | Color left after the blend. 1 keeps it all, 0 is black and white.                  |
| `CONTRAST`   | `1.3`   | Extra contrast on top of the blend, pushing shadows down and highlights up.        |
| `BRIGHTNESS` | `-0.1`  | Overall brightness shift (-1 to 1), so bright footage doesn't wash out.            |

## Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.

```
Give input.mp4 a bleach bypass look for the whole clip. Using ffmpeg, convert the video to RGB (gbrp), split it, make one copy black and white (hue=s=0) and blend that copy over the color copy in overlay mode at 0.9 opacity (blend=all_mode=overlay:all_opacity=0.9). Then apply eq with saturation 0.45, contrast 1.3 and brightness -0.1. The result should be silvery and low in color, with brighter highlights and darker shadows than the original, but still the same shot with a hint of its color. Keep the size (540x960), 30fps, 6 seconds and the audio. Encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as `bleach-bypass.sh` and run:

```
sh bleach-bypass.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Bleach bypass: a black-and-white copy laid over the color in overlay mode, then the color pulled back, for a silvery, harsh, high-contrast look.
# Usage: sh bleach-bypass.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
# Needs ffmpeg.
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
STRENGTH=0.9    # opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1); higher means harsher contrast
SATURATION=0.45 # color left after the blend (1 keeps it all, 0 is black and white)
CONTRAST=1.3    # extra contrast on top of the blend, pushing shadows down and highlights up
BRIGHTNESS=-0.1 # overall brightness shift (-1 to 1), so bright footage doesn't wash out

# work in RGB so the overlay blend acts on each color channel against the gray copy's brightness
ffmpeg -y -v error -i "$IN" -filter_complex "[0:v]format=gbrp,split[color][bw];\
[bw]hue=s=0[bw];\
[color][bw]blend=all_mode=overlay:all_opacity=$STRENGTH,\
eq=saturation=$SATURATION:contrast=$CONTRAST:brightness=$BRIGHTNESS,fps=30,format=yuv420p" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy "$OUT"
```

## More color looks

- [Apply a LUT **Apply a LUT**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/apply-a-lut)
- [Black and white **Black and white**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/black-and-white)
- [Cinematic color grade **Cinematic color grade**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/cinematic-color-grade)
- [Color match **Color match**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/color-match)
- [Color pop **Color pop**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/color-pop)

## Find 3x _winning ads_

Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits.

[Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)