Video from a dark basement... any way to brighten??

[liltroysgrl]

i took this video of my daughter dancing in my friends basement and on my computer with the original file i can see pretty good but its still dark. when i posted it on my youtube it was unwatchable. is there any way to make it brighter from the original? i dont know much about working with videos so any help is very much appreciated!!!

[guns1inger]

The best method may depend on the source of the video. Post a mediainfo tree view of the file so we can see what it is.

Two of the simpler would be virtualdub or AVI Demux, which will let you play with the brightness and contrast. Note that video shot in low light is usually very noisy, and brightening it will make the noise more visible. It will be a balancing act between making it bright enough, but not too bright that the noise makes it unwatchable.

[fitch.j]

Whats the original footage info?

Have you got a link to what youtube did to it?

Maybe a sample upload?

[jagabo]

Just about every video editor has brightness/contrast filters. But dark video usually becomes grainy when you brighten it up. If it's a highly compressed format you will end up with a lot of posterization artifacts too.

[fitch.j]

There are lots of other possibilities besides bad brightness and contrast control included in most software. In order to determine whats best though we just need more info on the clip. Simply pushing your brightness and contrast is a sure way to make it look bad.

[liltroysgrl]

the video is a quicktime format and here is the link to the youtube one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dao9HiEMkPE the original video is 32 mb so it wont upload im not sure how to do a sample upload or the mediainfo tree thing i used the youtube downloader to change it to window media audio/video file and its small but again darker than the original

[liltroysgrl]

ok i downloaded and kinda figured out the tree thing but how do i get it to here... when i try to export it and then open it it comes up all kinds of weird looking... and it wont let me copy paste it

[poisondeathray]

in mediainfo (view=>text) , then you can copy and paste

for your native video sample, you can use a free hosting site e.g. mediafire.com, sendspace.com

[liltroysgrl]

ok here you go

General
Complete name : L:\picture drive\2008\2008-11-06\100_1744.mov
Format : QuickTime
Format/Info : Original Apple specifications
File size : 32.9 MiB
Duration : 2mn 1s
Overall bit rate : 2 275 Kbps
Movie name/More : EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK M753 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53
Origin : Digital Camera

Video
ID : 1
Format : M-JPEG
Codec ID : jpeg
Duration : 2mn 1s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 181 Kbps
Width : 320 pixels
Height : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.038 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.945
Stream size : 31.5 MiB (96%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Unsigned
Codec ID : raw
Duration : 2mn 1s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 88.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 11.025 KHz
Bit depth : 8 bits
Stream size : 1.27 MiB (4%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-01 20:16:53

[liltroysgrl]

i used mediafire to upload it so here it is! anything someone could do to help would be awesome
http://www.mediafire.com/?hat3thzwnrn

[jagabo]

Before and after some quick brightness and levels adjustments in VirtualDub:



Some deblocking, noise reduction, white balance, and saturation adjustments are called for too.

[fitch.j]

Your main issue here is how badly underexposed it was in the first place. There is really very little that can be done, and even then your instantly introduing artifacts. You can see here your problem in the histograms, The second is an example of just pumping the brightness a little, you see how it just spreads the bars. With more work you could make it look better thats for sure. But with a source that bad it'll never look good.

[liltroysgrl]

all of those are better than i ever expected!!! is there any way to make the whole thing like that and send it back to me?? thanks so
much for all the help!

[jagabo]

all of those are better than i ever expected!!! is there any way to make the whole thing like that and send it back to me?? thanks so
much for all the help!

Xvid MP3 AVI:
http://www.mediafire.com/?xxm41rtktm1

[liltroysgrl]

jagabo- i downloaded the file from the link but it wont play on quicktime and on windows media player it is only sound... not sure what went
wrong lol i redownloaded it and same thing!

[jagabo]

You probably need the Xvid codec. WMP should play the file after you install it.

[liltroysgrl]

omg thanks so much that is awesome... i so appreciate all the help... you guys are AMAZING!!!