Importing video darker

[Mike Kujbida]

If you imported it with firewire, then what you see is what you get as a capture does absolutely nothing to the original video.
My guess is that the original was underexposed.
A quick look at the source video on the waveform monitor will confirm this.

[Graham Bernard]

If you wish, send me a Grabbed Still from the timeline?

If it is low level stuff then maybe your Viewer is set high, to compensate. And that is why you ARE seeing it lighter?

Grazie

[Jonathan Hu]

This is a clip i downloaded online, so it is not imported from a firewire. But thanks I’ll lookin into the last part of your sentence I have no idea what it means though… Google time.

[Jonathan Hu]

when you say viewer do you mean my media player? the picture with the lighter frame? how do i use a grabbed still, is it the same as taking a shot from it?
Sorry I’m still new to this stuff.
THanks

[Mike Kujbida]

“‘ll lookin into the last part of your sentence I have no idea what it means though”

I mean the video scopes that are built into Vegas.
View – Video Scopes and select Waveform as the display mode.
Video ranges from 0 (black) to 100 (white).
Your original shot barely registers while the composite has her face around 30% when it should be closer to 70%.

[Jonathan Hu]

Okay, Yeah I tried looking at this new feature in sony. but I never understood it HAHA

So what does it show… around 20%?

and now that I know this what should I do, or what can I learn from this.
Does it mean that the original source played with my media player automatically makes it brighter? or is it that my Sony Vegas makes it darker.

*edit, after watching the video with the wave form I understand how it works not, it is as if there is the same video playing in the wave form but it just filters out the lights. I thought it was just a mumble jumble of lights, but I can see when a character moves or lifts up a folder, you can just make out the outline in the wave form media player.

[Mike Kujbida]

“I tried looking at this new feature”

It’s been there since at least version 3.

“So what does it show… around 20%?”

Correct. That’s the bright spot on her upper cheek that you see.

“Does it mean that the original source played with my media player automatically makes it brighter? or is it that my Sony Vegas makes it darker.”

It all depends on how your computer monitor is set up but typically a media player will show it brighter than it actually is.

“but it just filters out the lights.”

No it doesn’t. It shows you the luminance (black to white) range of the video clip and in this case it’s VERY dark and underexposed.

The Vectorscope will show you the colour information (hue) and degree of intensity (saturation) of those colours.

Put the SMPTE Bars test pattern on the timeline and look at both the waveform and vector displays to see what I mean.
Then try other test patterns, etc. until you get comfortable with what they’re telling you.
Trust me when I say that this won’t happen overnight 🙂

[Jonathan Hu]

Ic yeah, First time using vegas, so yeah this stuff is new, I did some more wiki and googled for this kinda stuff and your right definitely not something I can learn overnight.

So now that I understand this kinda of stuff, or am Learning, Is there a solution to my problem? by making my video in sony vegas brighter?
Thanks

[Mike Kujbida]

“Is there a solution to my problem? by making my video in sony vegas brighter?”

You can do that but understand that, because the original video is so dark, you’ll end up with a lot of video noise that will make your video look really really bad.

[Jonathan Hu]

I see, But can I make it bright enough like the media player where it is that bright but the quality is still there like the output video?

Well, one thing I noticed is that Adobe Premier 4.0 shows it nicely with decent brightness.
Sorry one more question, the reason I switched to Sony Vegas, was because I was easier to input video to vegas that was more acceptable. You wouldn’t know why Vegas can accept Xvid or Divx avi, while premiere can’t would you?