Brighten a clip using FCPX?

[Beach Guy]

Is there a way to brighten a dark video clip in FCPX? The clip is usable for my class project, but it would look better if I could brighten it just a bit. Thanks!

 

[floh]

Sure there is. You will get lots of noise, but it may be more usable...

The option for color correction is a little hidden and I did not find it on the spot, too! The easiest way for me was:
- Select the clip on your timeline
- Open the inspector (Command-4)
- You will find that there is a section for "Color" with a subsection "Correction 1"
- click on the small arrow right of "Correction 1" and the Color Correction will appear
- on the top, choose the tab for "Exposure"
- There are 4 exposures to adjust: Global, Shadows, Midtones and Highlights
- You can either drag any of the four up and down and adjust to your liking
- I found that I had good results when lifting the Midtones but leaving the Shadows as is (or even bring them down a little) to not get too much noise in the dark parts that I don't need.

 

[Beach Guy]

I really appreciate the help...thank you very much. These forums have been an incredible resource for me.

 

[cgbier]

And don't forget to turn on the waveform monitors (not the histogram!) when you do any color/exposure correction.