Video help needed - need to fix a dark scene.

Did you try the video effects?

i notice auto lighting effects make it fluctuate throughout the video, but im sure theres a way to even it out...

Im learning myself...

hmm thread I gotta bookmark.. always good to find new tricks/techniques

Open it up in Vegas and click on view> Video Scopes. Set the Video Scope to Histogram. Make sure the "update scope while playing" is on. Play your video and watch the histogram bounce around. If your shit is too far to the left (and it will be if your shit is dark), then it may not be fixable. If it's less than 128 ( or to the left of 128) then you might be fucked. It's hard to pull it back to center if it's too far gone.

However, if you think it's fixable then do this. You'll need to make several adjustments. And as far as I can tell it's kinda like photoshop, where they are several ways to end up with the same result. Vut this is what I've done with some minor degrees of success.

On your shitty clip, open the "Event FX" menu and add a 'Levels' filter. While playing your shitty clip, and watching the histogram, adjust the levels. Start by pushing the "Input End" to the left, you should see the Histogram slid to the right and your video should get brighter without fucking up the Gamma.

There are several adjustments you could make there and watching the histogram will tell you which channels need the adjustment. So another filter you might want to try is the HSL adjust filter that will adjust your hue, and saturation and your luminance. I would also even add a color corrector filter and tweak the colors only slightly if needed, but really you want that filter for the 4 options UNDER the color corrector itself which are the 'Saturation, Gamma, Gain and Offset.'

Like I said there is more than one way to work your shit, but this is just one that has worked for me. And don't try to tweak it all with one filter, in my experience it takes a few filters working together to get it close.

It's an art form. Don't try to do to much with one filter a little tweak here, a little tweak there... It's a fine balancing act.

I wouldn't count on being able to get a normal-looking video, no matter what you do. You might be able to go artsy on it, though, and work with what you've got. Make it look like it was supposed to be that way. ;)

Better than nothing, I suppose, but personally, I tend to hate great scenes ruined by shitty quality/camera work.

a Simple fix is to drag the brightness/ contrast into the options. Then manually adjust and hopefully it should at least brighten it up. Be carefull not to make it look grainy. Of course Im sure there are more technical solutions. Good luck.

There are multiple tools to use in Premiere CS3. I can't recall if they are the same in CS2 but most should be.

You can try Video Effects- Adjust- Shadow/Highlight; and then there are other effects under Color Correction- Brightness & Contrast.

If it is really dark though, you may not end up with anything salvageable.

thanx. will give it some more time and if its totally shitty he can reshoot it ...