I'm around . . . G

So "who's" monitor is "correct" - in other words is there screen calibration/standarisation in Vegas?
A test signal called PLUGE is used to set up the brightness and contrast on monitors. Have alook here for explanation.
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/test-patterns/pluge.html

It appears that you have a very contrasty shooting enviornment---I mean I dont see that monitor calibration is the problem---It appears to me that you need to expose for skin and then hope that other elements of the frame fall within DVs latitude.. Did you you try checking out the scopes in Vegas before your conversion. That can give you a pretty good idea of exposure.

Not dark on my monitor. I can see everything just fine.

I agree with the client, way too dark. I doubt you'll fix it just by twidling things in Vegas either, you'll hit the limits of the latitude of 8 bit DV.

Most of the action involves black objects against a bright background but the black objects only fill a small part of the frame, do you see a problem with that. Even if you'd bumped up the exposure a stop or two when you shot it, most of the frame is going to be blown out. You need to get much tighter in on the action so you don't have a frame full of blown out sky and water. Also choose the day to shoot better and I suggest you need damn good optics to handle this kind of stuff.

This isn't easy stuff to shoot and you could use up a lot of dollars doing it. If you can get closer to the action when you shoot could be one way around some of the problems. Long lenses no matter how good might not solve all of the problems, it looks like you've got a lot of sand / sea spray in the air betwen the camera and the action, that certainly doesn't help either. The overall look and feel of the shots doesn't say "Nice place to be".

Sorry if I'm sounding harsh but you did ask and you did say 'client' so I'm assuming they're paying for this.

Bob.

Ditto Bob's comments. Sorry.

. . I've ditched my comments . . .

IMHO you really need to get a storyboard going. Darkness is the last of your problems. You really need a GOOD day!

Grazie

Yes, your video is VERY dark in places and overly contrasted in places.

The scopes tell the story. For example take frame 1996, just before you say we are located on beautiful Flag Beach.

Looking at the Histogram, there is no luminance peaks above 192 so for all practical purposes your video at the frame lacks any highlights at all. The Wavefrom shows the scale devoid of anything below 30 or above 70. So sure, its dark in places so details are hard to see.

The best correction is to nudge things more into highlights where needed. Use Color Curves first, set a control point near center, move slightly up and left in a gentle slope. Then unlock tangents, tweak if needed. Finish up slightly adjusting gain and gamma with the color corrector as you watch the scopes.

This is a classic example of what I mean when I say I ALWAYS break up the source into events and apply filters accordingly if needed. Taking the easier and quicker sledge hammer approach you'll either over or under do some portions.

My memory just got jogged. If it's possible try to shoot during the 'magic hour', just before or after the sun rise/set. Now there might be a problem, namely no wind, not being a surfer I don't know for sure.
We had one client shooting a guy swimming ashore and crawling through the sand dunes. Only way they could shoot this was during the times I mentioned and they threw as much light as their generator could power at the guy. I know trying to light someone 100s of meters off shore is going to be way outside the budget of anyone here so maybe a bit of lateral thinking, do wet suits have to be black?

I'm thinking Grazie is also right, yeah.
I'll leave comments about the creative side to the creative types and just say that whatever the story was / is I don't think the images were conveying it!

Bob.

Aged CRTs will crush blacks... that might be something to watch out for. You can check by going to
http://www.finalcolor.com/
Check that you can see every rectangle, especially the first one.

You can try this:
Make the right corrections according to what other people suggest.
Make a DVD so they can see your work on a television. Many, many consumer TVs are overly bright, contrasty, and saturated. Underexposed footage generally looks good on these TVs.

Or, get him to watch the video in an environment which you control.

2- Windows Media futzes with your video's colors. I find it reduces contrast and saturation, so it isn't too accurate.

3- Shooting this: It looks like you used a polarizer, because the skies aren't great big blobs of white. If not, I wouldn't change anything because they look pretty great as they are within exposure. Some shots might need punching up though... see 4.

4- Certain shots look a little washed out and lack punch (it may be because it was overcast when you shot those shots?). What I mean is that they lack contrast and saturation. You can use the color correction and do the s curve thing (drag the handles so the curve looks like a slanted s). I believe Billybob's color correction tutorials go over that?

5- Color curves does raise saturation where the slope is steep (and vice versa) so watch out for illegal colors (if this is for broadcast) and for inconsistent color saturation. If you need to compress highlights or shadows, color curves is the best filter for doing so. In some shots you may want to compress the highlights so you can bring overall brightness up.
Look at the compress highlights preset.

The alternative method is to use the color corrector filter. Gain multiplies everything by the number in the box beside it, offset adds/subtracts by the # in the box, and gamma curve changes thing in like a curve. Use gain and offset so the exposure pegs 16 and 235 on the histogram (lowest point kisses around 16, highest point around 235). Use gamma to lighten/darken the image (you can need to re-adjust gain afterwards).

6- The most accurate viewing environment is:
A room with lighting that's 5600K (or 6500K, forget which) color temperature. No flourescents, or high-CRI ones.
black walls, front wall grey
broadcast-grade NTSC monitor, calibrated and properly setup
Wait a few minutes so your eyes get adjusted.

If not that, a NTSC monitor is kind of a minimum. Calibrate it to color bars. Watch out for 7.5IRE setup if using prosumer/consumer gear.

I am assuming you live in a NTSC television system country.