Extremely Dark Video

[akharden]

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me. I have a home video that I recorded using my camcorder. I then captured it into my computer and am now trying to edit it. The problem is that the video was shot in an extremely dark room, a candlelit room to be precise. The room appeared bright and the image was pretty clear in the LCD window, but the final video is very dark. I have tried adjusting the brighness and gamma and contrast, but all of those give me an extremely grainy image. Is there any way to lighten up this video so that you can discern what is going on? Right now all I can see is candlelight and occasional shape movement of people. I don't really care about color, so if it ends up looking like a black and white movie or night vision im ok with that. I just really want to be able to see the image and tell what's going on. Can anyone help???? Thank you very much in advance.

[akharden]

Oh I'm sorry I didn't include this. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 to edit it and the file was captured using Amcap.

[edDV]

Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 allows you to use the camcorder for preview. Hook the camcorder to a quality TV via composite or S-Video. The camcorder connects to the computer with IEEE-1394.

Next, calibrate the TV to the color bar provided by Adobe from the timeline. Blackwill be at 0 IRE. Now you have a representative preview of what the DVD will look like.

Any attempt to make the video look good on the computer monitor will result in a noisy and overly bright DVD.

If your color standard is North American NTSC readjust your monitor to 7.5 IRE black after you finish your session with Premiere.

Added:
Is this a DV camcorder? Why capture with AMCAP? Use IEEE-1394.

[akharden]

Thank you very much for your fast reply, but my camcorder is vhs-c and it has no 1394 hookup. Is there another way?

[edDV]

Try to burn a test DVD to see how close you are. Make a sequence of typical shots at extremes of lighting. Also include the color bar for TV adjustment. You can always use erasable DVD-RW media.

What is your capture device? What is the capture format?
You may be able to boost level during capture if necessary.

Keep in mind that the picture should look darker on the computer monitor.