[Zanth]

A colleague of mine is putting together a really cool Christmas presentation for
what is known as "Jeopardy Rounds." For all you docs out there, you know well what rounds are all about. For Christmas, each year the staff at the hospital I work at puts on Jeopardy Rounds where teams compete. There is always a mix if advanced cardiology and general medicine vs. pop culture and inside jokes among the staff. Incredible laughs each and every year.

Anyhow, this year they want to go all out and are incorporating video into some of the jeopardy questions. One video that was shot was of a famous hockey player asking a question. He happens to be the brother of one of the cardiologists. Anyhow, the video was horribly shot, with practically no lighting.

I was asked if I could brighten up the footage. The file is an mpg, only 6 megs, nothing elaborate, just a quick shot of him asking the Q. Anyhow, I would like to brighten it up so it can be used. I have Windows, Macs and Linux at my disposal and would like to use some free software that will quickly do the job. It doesn't have to be fancy just something to adequately change the brightness and contrast.

Might someone suggest some software I could use to do this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jaska]

I would use the Mac and iMovie HD for this. Just create a new iMovie HD project, import the clip, drag it down into the clip viewer, click the Edit button, and then the Video FX tab. From there, choose Brightness & Contrast. Using the two sliders, you can adjust brightness from dark to bright, and contrast from low to high. When you're happy with the result, click the Apply button and then save or export the video.

 

[Zanth]

You rule! Thanks so much!

 

[Zanth]

Hmmm...iMovie won't recognize the mpeg I am using

 

[Jaska]

That is unfortunate. I tested this on my own system with an .mov file, and it worked fine.

You might consider using the VLC transcoding wizard on OS X, Windows or Linux to convert the file to a usable format for iMovie first.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaska /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is unfortunate. I tested this on my own system with an .mov file, and it worked fine. You might consider using the VLC transcoding wizard on OS X, Windows or Linux to convert the file to a usable format for iMovie first.

Good idea!

 

[Motty]

You could use the windows movie maker in windows xp (it's in the start menu) import the movie, drag to the toolbar at the bottom, rt click on the movie and choose video effects, increase brightness.

Note it will only export the file as a wmp file.