freeware for amending color and/or brightness of video

[rosmari]

some of my videos are too red, or too dark, or too blue.

I am a very occasional editor of my videos and would prefer freeware.

[manono]

Virtual Dub and its filters

AviSynth

[smrpix]

If you want the most kickass, free color corrector, and your computer can handle it, and you're wiling to learn, try Blackmagic Resolve Lite.

Otherwise go with VirtualDub.

[rosmari]

none of the VirtualDub filters seems to apply to color - only to brightness/contrast.

smrpix: I assume you mean DaVinci Resolve. I'm looking at it but haven't yet figured out how to use it.

[manono]

none of the VirtualDub filters seems to apply to color - only to brightness/contrast.

You haven't looked hard enough:


http://www.infognition.com/VirtualDubFilters/color_correction.html

[smrpix]

Yes, Davinci Resolve (Lite) is a Blackmagic product.

It really is the most powerful free color-correction product available. It really does take some effort to learn to use it. If you're having trouble finding the filters in Virtualdub, Resolve is probably not what you want.

My answer may have been a bit of an overreaction to too many posts using using "free" and "best" in the same sentence (which mercifully, you did not do.)

Good luck. Post samples if you want specific advice. BTW, the early chapters of the Resolve manual (free download) are an excellent overview of color correction.

[rosmari]

I installed the needed Virtualdub filter; the preview shows that it works. But I don't know how to save it. There's nothing in that particular window, and going to "File > Save as" doesn't do it either.

I'm sorry I'm so ignorant!

[jagabo]

VirtualDub internal color filters: HSV Adjust, Red/Green/Blue Adjustment, Grayscale.

[manono]

I installed the needed Virtualdub filter; the preview shows that it works. But I don't know how to save it. There's nothing in that particular window, and going to "File > Save as" doesn't do it either.

Go into Video->Compression, choose and configure a codec (install one first, if needed), and finally File->Save As.

[rosmari]

thank you - it worked!

[lordsmurf]

VirtualDub isn't great for color correction. It only works on some types of color errors.
Avisynth is fairly crappy to work with for this.
For this, Premiere is often best.
The only way to improve on Premiere is to use DaVinci.

[jagabo]

Yeah, and Premiere is now free!

[sanlyn]

What about ColorMill and gradation curves, used with histogram and a pixel reader? Not as fancy or multi-windowed as Colorista or ColorFinesse in Adobe's apps, but the vDub versions are (ahem) free, definitely a cut above the built-in filters, and they can be easily chained in the filter list.

[rosmari]

Out of curiosity, I downloaded ColorMill; I "saved" it to my Documents. It "Express Installed" but I can't find it - not even through "Search"; where is it?

[manono]

If it installed correctly you'll find it listed in Video->Filters->Add, along with the other available filters, some built-in, others added in by you.

[jagabo]

Put ColorMill.vdf in VirtualDub's Plugins folder if it's not there already.

[rosmari]

I've got ColorMill.exe, but not ColorMill.vdf.

ColorMill.exe is one of a few non-.vdf in a list of .vdf which includes a.o. rgbeq.vdf.

Anyway, I'm happy with what I now can do.

[jagabo]

I think you downloaded the wrong thing. The Colormill archive contains only Colormill.txt and colormill.vdf.

[manono]

Yeah, you didn't get it from that link I gave above. Here:

[rosmari]

OK - I'm all set.

Thank you everyone!

[sanlyn]

I've got ColorMill.exe, but not ColorMill.vdf.

ColorMill.exe is one of a few non-.vdf in a list of .vdf which includes a.o. rgbeq.vdf.

Anyway, I'm happy with what I now can do.

"rgbeq.vdf" is a different filter. You can use it in VirtualDub, but it's interface is different and it's rather more complicated to get the hang of using it. It's formal name is "RGB Equalizer" and it allows you to adjust color response at up to 17 different points. I think the gradation curve plugin would be much easier to use and is more like the curves filters in Photoshop Pro, AfterEffects, etc.