How to darken parts of video for tutorial

[a.spotova]

Hello everybody.
I am making a tutorial series for a company software and I work with Adobe Premiere. 
I would like to darken parts of video to make only the selected area pop out, what is the easiest way to do that? For example when Im going through different menus in the software and I need them to stand out more.

I found help for darkening footage that has high exposure and such. But Im working with screen captured video and need probably something different. 
Maybe something like a shape overlay?

Thank you in advance for help.

[@mj]

Hi a.spotova,

There's ahundred ways to do this.

1. Right click in a an empty area of your Project panel. Choose New > Adjustment Layer. (This step gives you hassle free, non-destructive control over your adjustments).
2. Choose the Color workspace from the top of your screen.
3. Choose Curves and twirl open RGB Curves from the Lumetri Color panel that appears to the right of your screen.
4. Pull the diagonal white curve line from the middle downward. Your content will darken.
5. All of your footage is now dark. Now head over to the Effects Control Panel to the left of the screen.
6. You will find  a Lumetri Color fx listed there. We need to mask the darkened effect to everything but your menu item
7. Choose the rectange tool found there and drag over the menu area you wish be normal and undarkened.
8. It will make evything else normal and the menu will be dark. You'll see an Inverted checkbox in that same dialog, about 5 options down. Check it, and your mask will be correct.

By doing it this way you will have control over the entire tonal range of the footage and you can change the duration of the adjustment layer to suit the content in the footage. Plus, it can't go rogue on you.

Good luck

mj

[a.spotova]

Thank you so much! 
Will try that right away.

[globallychantell · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much for sharing! You have no idea how long I've been trying to figure out how to add a "mask"/layer in Premiere Pro! I needed to blur/darken one small specific area of my video and you've helped me tremendously! I needed to be in the Effects Control Panel! 

[Ann Bens]

Duplicate clip (alt+drag) and superimpose on V2, add mask from Opacity over the to hightlighted area.

Clip on V1 lower opacity.