How to brighten a video on Windows

The Photos app in Windows 11 opens and plays videos, and it can trim one: choose Trim (Ctrl+E), set the start and end markers, then Save as Copy. Microsoft’s help for the current app describes no light or colour adjustment for video. Its Adjustment sliders are documented for photos.

The old Video Editor that used to live inside Photos was removed from the Windows 11 version in 2022 and from Windows 10 in 2023, and Clipchamp took its place. Microsoft still offers Photos Legacy in the Microsoft Store, which includes a video editor, but Microsoft’s help for advanced video editing now points to Clipchamp.

So in practice the Windows answer is Clipchamp. If all you need is a brighter picture while you watch, a player can do that without making a new file; see how to brighten a video in VLC.

• Exposure scales the light across the whole frame, much like letting more light into the camera. Dark areas and bright areas both rise, so a bright window or lamp reaches pure white first.
• Contrast pushes the darker tones down and the lighter tones up. A small increase after raising Exposure brings back depth, but too much crushes the shadows you just recovered.
• Saturation sets colour intensity. Brightened footage often looks pale, and a small boost restores it.
• Temperature warms or cools the picture. Indoor clips under warm bulbs can turn orange once they’re brighter; nudge it towards cool.

It helps to know the difference between three common controls. Exposure multiplies every value, so it keeps blacks black but can clip highlights. A plain brightness offset adds the same amount everywhere, which turns black into grey and makes the clip look hazy. A gamma or midtones control bends the tone curve so the middle lifts while black and white stay where they are. Microsoft’s help lists no separate shadows or midtones slider in Clipchamp, so a clip with a bright window behind a dark subject is hard to fix there; see brightening a backlit video.

If you would rather not use sliders, the Filters tab in the property panel has preset looks. They change colour and tone together, so check skin tones afterwards.

A camera in low light records a weak signal with random noise mixed in. Phones then compress the file, which smears that noise into blotches in the dark areas. Raising Exposure lifts the noise and the blotches by the same amount as the picture, so grain that was hidden in near-black becomes obvious.

• Stop as soon as the subject is clear. The last few steps of Exposure add more grain than detail.
• Add a little Contrast so the darkest corners stay dark instead of turning to grey speckle.
• Keep the export at the clip’s original resolution or lower; upscaling makes the grain larger.
• For footage shot at night, night video tips cover how far a dark clip can realistically go.

Every edit in Clipchamp means a full re-encode, so the exported MP4 is a new compressed file, not your original with a tweak. Microsoft’s help says Clipchamp exports MP4 at 30 frames per second, which matters if your phone recorded at 60: motion will look a little less smooth in the copy.

• Pick the resolution that matches your source. 1080p is free; options with a diamond icon need a paid plan.
• Longer clips and higher resolutions take longer to export. Leave the tab or app open until it finishes.
• Keep the original file until you have checked the brightened copy on the screen you will watch it on.

For more on keeping detail through the re-encode, read brightening a video without losing quality.

brighten.video runs in a modern browser on Windows and processes the clip on your own PC; the file is never uploaded. There is no account, no watermark and no project to set up.

• Click Select video and choose your clip.
• Press Auto brighten, which measures a few frames and sets exposure so the middle tones land at a natural level. Or pick a quick fix: Night video, Dim room, Backlit or Slightly dark, and set Strength.
• Drag the Before and after divider to compare. Under More options you get Exposure, Midtones (gamma), Shadows, Highlights and Noise reduction, plus a Histogram or Waveform readout.
• Click Export video. In Export settings choose Format, Size and Quality, and leave Keep sound on to keep the audio. When “Your video is ready” appears, click Download video.

Like Clipchamp, it re-encodes the video, and it can’t bring back detail that was recorded as pure black. What it adds is separate shadow and midtone control and noise reduction aimed at dark areas.