How to Brighten A Video with iMovie on Mac/Windows

Many video enthusiasts know that in the video editing process, adjusting the brightness of the video is an indispensable operation. That's because lots of videos have been shot in dark circumstances which directly results in the detail loss of the video. On the other hand, the brightness is usually not the same for various video footages. Then it is also necessary to adjust the brightness. Today, let 's learn how to make your video brighter and better with iMovie and its alternative if you're using a Windows computer.

iMovie will be used if you're a Mac. It's free and easy for Mac users. Movavi Video Editor is only necessary for Windows users because of the lack of PC version of iMovie, which provide you with all common video adjustment tools in addition to the brightness tool.

> Part 1: Brighten A Video with iMovie on Mac
> Part 2: Brighten A Video with iMovie Alternative in Windows

Part 1: How to Make A Dark Video Brighter on Mac with iMovie

In iMovie 10.1 or later, you have two ways to brighten a video: Color Balance and Color Correction. The former helps you make automatic color adjustments in 4 tabs: Auto, Match Color, White Balance and Skin Tone Balance. The latter, as shown below, gives you sliders to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, shadows, etc. manually. Just select the clip you wish to adjust and in the toolbar above the viewer select the tool you want. Not very sophisticated but it helps you make your dark video brighter with ease.

To adjust the brightness of a video, drag the gray slider (the third circle) in the multislider control.

brightness editor

How to Brighten A Video with iMovie Alternative in Windows

Without iMovie, you can also brighten a dark video in Windows and Mac. What you need is Movavi Video Editor which is the best iMovie for Windows alternative. Like iMovie, it not only lets you easily accomplish auto adjustments, but also manually adjust video parameters such as brightness, contrast, highlights, saturation, and so on. Since there is no Windows version of iMovie, next I'll show you how to brighten a video in Windows using Movavi Video Editor.

1. Download and Install Brightness Editor for Windows

Get the setup file onto your computer, launch it, and then complete the installation by following the on-screen instructions. When it finished, start your video editor from desktop or the Start menu.

2. Add Dark Video to The Timeline

In the welcome window, choose Create project in full feature mode. To import video for brightness change, click Add Media Files to choose your desired dark video in the browser.

brighten a video in windows

3. Adjust Video Brightness and Export as New File

To open the brightness tool, do one of the following:

  • Right click the added video in the timeline and choose Tools > Color Adjustments.
  • Highlight the dark video in the timeline and click the Color Adjustments button in the toolbar (displayed in the red rectangle).
  • Double click the desired video and go to Color Adjustments > Manual Adjustments.

Drag the brightness slider to change your video's brightness. You could see the live result in the viewer. The brightness could be set to value between -255 and 255. When it's finished, click the Export button to save the edited dark video to your computer.

export video after brightening a video

Brightening Video Conclusion

Brightness is a very important parameter to a video. Too dark or too bright will result in low quality video. What you need to do is to find a video editing software with brightness adjustment tool. This article introduced how to brighten a video using iMovie for Mac and iMovie for Windows alternative. Get it for free trial now.

download mac brightness editor download brightness editor pc

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