Have some dark crowd shots i'd like to brighten up and make useful as cutaways.
Playing with Mike Cash's Auto Levels.
Is this the best tool to boost levels without crating too much noise?
What are your suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
The noise is going to depend upon your camera. Your AG-DVX100's low light performance is a bit disappointing I have heard so you may have to avoid lightening the video too much if you want to minimize grain.
I would use the Vegas Levels tool first and increase the gamma slightly. If it looks too washed out, delete the levels tool and try the Color Corrector and play with the gamma and saturation tools until you get it the way you want.
If these are crowds in a club setting that you are trying to brighten up you may find that leaving them a bit on the dark side looks preferable.
Use either color curves or levels. Levels is eaiser to use, but not as flexible.
Use the videoscopes. If you use levels and increase gamma, pay attention to the bottom of the color curves display and make sure you keep the bottom of the curve "nailed" to the bottom by adjusting the bottom level control. Otherwise the video will look hazy and washed out.The goal is to increase the level of the midtones without disturbing the part of the video that actually really is black, and without punching out the highlights.