How to Brighten Video in Premiere Pro

Brighter videos always attract more attention. Indeed, a well-lit video can make your content shine and bring out the best in your story. But what if you forgot to turn on the lights or the camera just couldn't handle the situation? We’ve all been there: you’re shooting a video, but there aren't enough light sources. You end up with dark footage. It’s impossible to share this on your social media accounts or with your friends and family.

There are many reasons why people want to brighten a dark video. Maybe you recorded a video with your phone, but the lighting was too dim in the room. Or maybe you were outside, and the sun was behind you, casting shadows on your face while recording. In these cases, it can be helpful to know how to make a dark video brighter.

There is a way to apply simple corrections using Premiere Pro, no matter the reason. In this article, I'll show you how to brighten your video in Premiere Pro so you can keep all the details in the highlights. This can be very useful if you're working with a lot of footage that has been underexposed, and sometimes your shot might look too dark or even black.

Can I Brighten A Dark Video?

This is a common question that comes up among video editors, so I thought I'd answer it here. The quick answer is yes. There are many online tools that can help you brighten a dark video or adjust the brightness of your video. A lot of times, you'll get a video file that was shot in low light, and it will make your subject look dark and underexposed. Video brightness is an important feature that is easy to adjust. However, if your video is too dark to start off with, it may be difficult to brighten it in a way that doesn't look unnatural.

There are several ways you can brighten a dark video. For example, you can use color correction or add more light to the scene before you film. If you already have a dark video, then you'll need to adjust the contrast and brightness of your video during post-production. You can easily do this by using video editing software but keep in mind that too much brightness or too much contrast can result in poor video quality. So, you have to keep everything in balance.

How to Brighten Video in Adobe Premiere Pro?

Adobe Premiere Pro is your one-stop solution for editing videos, whether you're editing a film or a TV ad. It gives you the flexibility to edit videos of any format. Adobe Premium makes brightening videos easy. Follow the steps below.

Step 1:

Launch Adobe Premiere Pro, open a project, and then import the video file you want to brighten. Make sure that the video file has been imported into the media library before you start editing it.

Step 2:

Next, click on the brightness and contrast option in the Effects panel, located at the bottom left of the software to adjust the brightness and contrast of your video.

Step 3:

Bring the brightness and contrast option to the center area below the uploaded video. You can do this by simply dragging it and dropping it beneath the video.

Step 4:

You can now easily increase the brightness by changing the brightness number in the effects control panel located to the right of the uploaded video.

Step 5:

Adjust the brightness according to your needs and save the video with your preferred settings so you can watch it later or share it with your friends across different platforms.

How To Lighten Up A Dark Video In Adobe Premiere Pro?

The first method that we used was quite simple. All you needed to do was to increase the brightness of the video, and you were good to go. But this method is a bit different. Although it is a little more complicated than the first method, it can do wonders for you. Suppose you have a video shot in very dim light, and it has a lot of dark sections. There is a chance that Increasing the brightness won't do much. So, you can use this method to brighten your video and improve its visibility. Just follow the steps mentioned below:

Step 1:

If you haven't already opened your video in Adobe Premiere Pro, launch the program and import your footage. Then drag it onto the timeline so that it appears at the top.

Step 2:

Effects tab can be found in the left-most panel of adobe premiere pro. Click the Effects tab and search for Lightning effects in the search bar and click on it.

Step 3:

Use the drag-and-drop method to add the lighting effects to the clip. Once you have done that, you will feel like your video is having a distorted flash-like effect. But don't worry as we are not going for that.

Step 4:

Now go to the effects control tab present at the top of the screen, and from there, you have to click on the lighting effects.

Step 5:

Once you click on the lighting effects, you will see many options on your screen. Click on the "Light 1" button to open its dropdown menu. There you will see the spotlight selected by default.

Step 6:

Click on the dropdown icon adjacent to the spotlight to open up the menu. You need to select "Directional" instead of Spotlight, and you will notice that the dark sections have been brightened significantly.

Step 7:

The brightness intensity can even be increased by changing the value for the intensity option within the effect control panel.

Enhancing Your Video In Premiere Pro

Once you have done all the steps above, you can also use the video enhancing feature of adobe premiere pro to improve the quality of your videos. When you brighten a video, there is a chance that you might lose quality a little bit. So, to overcome that deficiency, this method might be helpful. Enhancing your videos with Premiere Pro is easy once you know the proper steps to do so. Just follow the steps described below:

Step 1:

In the effects panel, search for "unsharp Mask" and drag it to the video clip.

Step 2:

In the effect control panel under the Unsharp mask, set the amounts, radius, and threshold to enhance the video.

Keep in mind that you can increase the values of these parameters too high, but you will end up with a distorted video. Try increasing the values by small increments and see what happens. Avoid increasing the "amount" and radius value beyond 100% and ten, respectively.

Conclusion: