How to Brighten a Dark Video on PC and iPhone without Losing Quality in 6 Ways

Last Updated: 2021. 07. 27

Unless you are shooting a Frankenstein movie, a dark or under-exposed video isn’t gonna win you the favor of most viewers.

If you happen to fix a dark video, whether it is due to the filming in the low-light situations or the wrong settings of your camera or iPhone, in this post, we will offer you life-saving solutions to easily make dark videos brighter and clearer without losing quality in 6 ways.

Brighten a dark video using FlexClip

Here’s what you’ll learn:

How to Brighten a Video on PC
How to Brighten a Video on iPhone

How to Brighten a Video on PC

To quickly brighten a video on your computer, the easiest way is to upload your clips to an online video editor and use its video brightness or exposure adjustment tool to recover the underexposed video footage.

The benefits are that it’s extremely time-saving as no software or extension is to install and it’s compatible across all platforms.

We’ve tested out 3 user-friendly online video editors that work effectively for brightening a dark video. So, let’s find out how they work one by one.

Use FlexClip to Brighten a Video

FlexClip is a feature-packed video editor that allows you to adjust video brightness online for free with ease, including video contrast, exposure, temperature, highlights and shadows, vignette, etc.

How to brighten a video by FlexClip: Before & After Effect

How to brighten a video by FlexClip: Before & After Effect

Besides, you may also gain free access to a vast media library where millions of license-free HD videos, photos, and music are readily available, not to mention helpful tools like video trimmer, video filters, designer-made video templates, etc.

Pros:

  • Free to use without watermark
  • Evenly balanced tools to adjust video brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, etc.
  • Vast royalty-free and HD stock assets
  • Two video editing modes for different users: storyboard and timeline editing modes
  • Dozens of handy video tools for video editing
  • Cons:

  • Limited means for video sharing
  • Step 1
    Click the Button Below to Access FlexClip’s Video Editor
    Use FlexClip’s video brightness tool

    Use FlexClip’s video brightness tool

    Step 2
    Brighten a Dark Video

    Click the “Adjust” tool and slightly drag the slider of the “Exposure”, “Brightness” and “Shadows” to the right till you find the video looks brighter and cleaner enough.

    Brighten a dark video by FlexClip’s adjustment tool

    Brighten a dark video by FlexClip’s adjustment tool

    Step 3
    Preview and Export the Edited Video in MP4 Format to the Local PC

    You may also use FlexClip to directly share the video to your YouTube channel or Dropbox for storage.

    Bonus Tips
    To brighten a video without losing quality, don’t simply bump up the brightness or exposure because as you increase the brightness of a video, the video’s contrast and saturation and the details of the highlights of the video will go the opposite way. As a result, you will end up with a grey and wash-out video.
    The correct way to make a dark video brighter is by balancing the video brightness and its darkness. So, as you brighten the video, you also need to lower the contrast and highlights or even adjust the saturation to avoid overexposure and wash-out effect.

    Use Clideo to Brighten a Video

    Clideo is another all-in-one online video editor. Its video brightness tool is 100% safe and secure. With a clean and simple interface, additional features, and all compatibility, it is fully capable of brightening a video on a computer without any trouble. You can upload a video from Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android Clideo or add it from Google Drive or Dropbox. It allows you to upload 500MB for free.

    Use Clideo to make a dark video brighter

    Use Clideo to make a dark video brighter

    Pros:

  • Edit brightness, contrast, saturation, vignette, etc.
  • Easy to use and fast editing
  • Compatible with all video formats
  • Cons:

  • Can’t adjust highlight and shadow of a video
  • There is a watermark on an edited video for free users
  • Step 1
    Upload your video from a computer or Google Drive.
    Step 2
    Then you can adjust the brightness, saturation, contrast, and other settings with the help of sliders.
    Step 3
    Playback your video clip to make sure you like the result. Then click the Download button to download it to a computer or save it back to Google Drive or Dropbox.

    Use Kapwing to Brighten a Video

    When it comes to brightening a video on a computer, Kapwing is another alternative. With this online video brighter as well as video editor, you can easily change the brightness, contrast, saturation of your video without having to ever leave the browser. Just upload a video from your computer or copy the URL of your video here and start brightening a video on the computer.

    Brighten a dark video by Kapwing

    Brighten a dark video by Kapwing

    Pros:

  • Easily adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation of a video
  • Video blur feature
  • Mulitple ways for video sharing: a sharable link or embed code, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
  • No watermark for video adjustment
  • Awful lots of video tools
  • Cons:

  • Can’t adjust the highlight and shadow and hue, vignette of a video
  • How to Brighten A Video on iPhone

    If you just recorded a video using your iPhone, yet only to find the video was too dark. No worries, my friend! We'd like to recommend some apps to help you easily brighten a video on your iPhone. You can try one or two of them to brighten your video on your iPhone and make your videos more attractive. Check 5 best screen recorders for iPhone.

    InShot (IOS, Android)

    InShot is one of the most popular video editing tools on iPhone and Android, and it can help you brighten a video on iPhone instantly. It is well-received by both novices and professionals video makers for its versatile features. You can try to get it from App Store and brighten a video on iPhone.

    Use InShot to brighten a dark video

    Use InShot to brighten a dark video

    To brighten a video by Inshot, just upload clips to Inshot > head to “Filter” tab > Adjust > move “Lightness” slider to brighten the video. Done.

    Videoleap (IOS, Android)

    Videoleap is an awesome video editing tool on iPhone and Android, which can help you brighten a video within clicks. Also, it's equipped with tons of amazing features to edit your videos, and it's able to pixelate or censor specific areas of your video. Just give it a try and brighten a video on iPhone.

    Use Videoleap to brighten a video

    Use Videoleap to brighten a video

    To make a dark video brighter, you just need to upload clips to Videoleap and use the “Adjust” tool to increase the exposure by dragging the slider to the right.

    Chromic App (IOS)

    The Chromic app is one of the popular and a handful of video editors on the iPhone that allow you to adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights, and shadows, etc of a video. You can even use it to sharpen or blur your video. Overall, It’s a worry-free video tool to help you enhance the visual quality of your iPhone videos. Get it and have a try.

    Use Chromic App to brighten a video

    Use Chromic App to brighten a video

    Final Thoughts

    So, with our recommended video brightness video editors and apps, you can easily brighten a video and restore its beauty as you saw for the viewers. Ready to give them a go? Just start with FlexClip to brighten a video without losing quality now. Anyway, if you find this post helpful, don’t forget to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, etc. Much appreciated!

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