Oftentimes even when we use professional cameras for video shooting, we get upsetting results: gloomy or overexposed compositions, glares, black background. And if it’s an important event you were trying to capture, there comes huge disappointment. There can be many reasons why your footage came out in poor quality but what really matters is whether it can be fixed. And luckily, in many cases, it is possible, even if you aren’t a professional.

In this article, we will show you how to process photos and videos using simple color correction techniques. Specifically, we’ll be working with RGB curves to change brightness and contrast levels in VSDC Free Video Editor.

Download VSDC to your PC (the program runs on Windows only)

How to open the RGB curves dialog window

After you have installed and launched the program, import the file that needs to be edited. By clicking on it, go to the bottom part of the timeline and select "Color Correction." On the vertical panel in the opened window, click on the icon shaped like three different colored dots - "RGB curves." Upon clicking, the curves dialogue window will unfold.

Changing the brightness and contrast - the basic principles

Working with brightness and contrast of the image is one of the basics of color correction. To change these two parameters in VSDC, the so-called “method of shifting control points in the composite curve mode” is used. Control points are arbitrary points that belong to the curves of the color channels: red, green, and blue.

The composite curve mode is set by default, and when you open the RGB working area, it is indicated by a white circle (see the illustration on the right). In the graph, the horizontal axis reflects the original brightness values ​​of the pixels, and the vertical axis - the desired (output) values ​​that you get in the editing process. The maximum pixel brightness value is 255. Initially, when an image is loaded into the program, all the original pixel brightness values ​​are equal to the output. That’s why the composite curve is a straight diagonal line passing through the points with coordinates (0; 0) and (255; 255). Points in the lower left corner correspond to black color (shadows), points in the upper right corner correspond to white color (light areas of the image).

A double-click on a specific area of the composite curve provides the necessary control point. Moving the control points (up and down, right or left) of the curve will change the overall color of the image by adjusting the brightness and contrast.

There are several ways to change the position of control points:

• dragging manually with the mouse.
• using the arrow keys on the keyboard (up, down, right, left).

By changing the coordinates of the points in the lower left area of the graph, you adjust the dark tones in the image. Meanwhile, the upper right area can be used to adjust the light tones, and when you work with the middle region of the curve, it affects medium tones of the video.

Adjusting the brightness of an image in practice

Let’s now jump from theory to practice. By moving the control point up, as shown in the illustration below, you increase the output value of the pixels relative to the input value. In other words, higher (brighter) values are now assigned to the pixels in a given area, which means that the brightness of the video is increased. In the example below, we took a point in the region of dark tones with coordinates (0; 0). An increase in the output value of this point (upward shift) led to the brightening of the dark areas of the image: the black pixels (with the initial value of 0; 0) acquired a more gray tint.

Now, for a clearer example, let's do the opposite and darken the bright areas of the image. By shifting the control point down, you reduce the output pixel values in a given area, which means you lower the brightness. In the example below, a point of the light-colored area with the coordinates of the maximum value (255; 255) was taken as a guide. Reducing the output value of this point led to the darkening of the bright areas of the image.

Contrast level adjustment

The contrast level of the image directly depends on the composite curve inclination angle. Remember that the original curve has a tilt angle of 45°? Increasing the tilt angle increases the contrast level and on the contrary: decreasing the angle reduces the contrast level.

If in the editing process the curve takes on a non-linear look (for example, an S-shaped composite curve), then the contrast level is characterized by the angle of inclination of the tangent built to a specific control point, as shown in the illustration below.

• If the tilt angle is less than 45° - the contrast level of the corresponding image area is lowered (1);
• If the tilt angle is more than 45° - the contrast level of the corresponding image area is increased (2).

So, what do you do if constructing imaginary tangents is not one of your talents? To find out the degree of change in contrast, you can use the simplest mathematical operations:

• Determine the largest and smallest values along the horizontal axis (input values) and the vertical axis (output values).
• Calculate the difference between the highest and the lowest values for each of the axes (input and output option):
  (Input_max – Input_min) = Difference_input.
  (Output_max – Output_min) = Difference_output.
• Compare the input and the output difference values: the one with a larger difference in values is considered more contrastive.

As an example, consider an image that has the following data:
Input_min=0;
Input_max=150.

As a result of adjustments, the image acquires the following values:
Output_min=30;
Output_max=250.

Determine the difference between the minimum and maximum values:
Difference_input=150
Difference_output.=220

Comparing the resulting values, we can conclude that the output version of the image has more contrast than the input version (220> 150).

This way, using several control points, you can simultaneously adjust the brightness and the contrast levels in the areas of dark, light and medium tones independently. An extra control point can be deleted by clicking on it and pressing Delete.

Next, we will look at several ways to simultaneously change the levels of brightness and contrast you can apply in practice.

1. Linear brightness and contrast increase.

To simultaneously increase both brightness and contrast, you need to move the control point with coordinates (255; 255) to the left, say, to the value (200; 255).

Therefore, you will get:

• the slope of the curve is greater than 45°, which means a higher level of contrast;
• the input value for the white point will be reduced to 200, and the output will take the value - 255. This will automatically increase the brightness level, since the output value of bright tones will be higher than the input.

2. Linear brightness increase with a decrease in contrast

To increase the brightness of the entire image while reducing the contrast, you need to drag the point with the coordinates (0; 0) up, for example, to the value (0; 50).

This way you get the following results:

• the slope of the curve will be less than 45 degrees, which means that the contrast level will decrease;
• the input value for the black point will remain unchanged - 0, while the output value will be increased to the level 50, which will increase the brightness level and mute / brighten the dark areas of the image.

3. Non-linear brightness increase

As a control point, we’ll take the one with the coordinates (127; 127) - it corresponds with the middle tones of the image. Then we’ll move it up to the value (127; 170).

We will get the following results (see the illustration below):

• the overall tonal range remains unchanged;
• the output value for the selected control point will be increased to 170, which indicates an increase of the brightness level in the mid-tone region;
• the contrast level in the shadow area will be increased since the angle of inclination of the tangents constructed to the guiding points in this area will be more than 45° (2). The image details that were shadowed will become clearer;
• the level of contrast in the area of ​​light tones will be lowered since the angle of inclination of the tangents built to the control points in this area will be less than 45° (1). Details in the light areas of the image will become less clear.

4. Linear brightness and contrast levels decrease

To simultaneously reduce the brightness and contrast of the entire image, you must drag the control point with the coordinates (255; 255) down. For example, drag it to the value (255; 200).

This way we get the following:

• the slope of the curve will be less than 45°, which means a lower level of contrast;
• the output value for the white tones control point will be reduced to 200, with an input value of 255. This means the brightness level will be lowered (since the output value is greater than the input value) and the bright areas of the video will be muted (without affecting the dark areas significantly).

5. Linear brightness decrease with increased contrast

To reduce the brightness of the entire image while simultaneously increasing the contrast, move the control point with coordinates (0; 0) - black color - to the right, for example, to a value (50; 0).

This way we get the following results:

• the slope of the curve will be more than 45°, which indicates that the level of contrast increases;
• the input value for the black point will be increased to 50, while the output value will be 0 indicating a decrease of the brightness level (output value is less than the input value). As a result, the dark areas of the image will become even darker and lose their distinguishable details.

6. Non-linear brightness decrease

As in the case with the non-linear brightness increase, we leave the black (0; 0) and white (255; 255) color points unchanged. As a control point, we take the one belonging to the mid-tone region, with coordinates (127; 127). By moving this control point down, for example, to the level (127; 70), we get the following results:

• the overall tonal range remains unchanged;
• the output value for the selected control point will be reduced to a value of 70, which indicates a decrease in the brightness level;
• the contrast level in the region of highlights will be increased since the angle of inclination of the tangents constructed to the control points in this region will be more than 45° (2). Image details in bright areas will become clearer;
• the contrast level in the shadow area will be lowered since the angle of inclination of the tangents constructed to the control points in this area will be less than 45° (1). This means that the details in the dark areas of the image will become less clear, yet they will not turn into black spots either.

7. Linear contrast increase

Since the level of contrast directly depends on the difference between the values of the lightest and darkest points of the image, the simplest way to increase the contrast of the image is to reduce the gap between the input values of the black and white points. In other words, we need to increase the input value for the black point (shift it to the right) and decrease it for the white point (shift it to the left). For a more detailed correction, see paragraphs 1 and 5.

8. Linear contrast decrease

Similarly to the previous example, the easiest way to reduce the overall level of image contrast is to bring the output values for the black and white points closer together, i.e. decrease the output value for the white point (shift it down) and increase it for the black point (shift it up).

After that, refer to the instructions in paragraphs 2 and 4.

9. How to work with an S-curve

If you need to increase the contrast of the mid-tones only, you should use an S-shaped curve. First, double click to create three control points on the curve. For example, place one in the mid-tone area (128; 128), one in the shadow area, and one in the area of light tones.

Leave the position of the first control point unchanged, shift the second one down (according to the principle described in paragraph 6), and drag the third point up (according to the principle described in paragraph 3). This way, the dark and the light areas of the image will become flatter. The angles of inclination of the tangents built to the control points in these areas will be less than 45°. That means the image details located in the darkest and lightest areas will become less clear, meanwhile, the mid-tones of the image become more contrasting.

Of course, the process of using an S-shaped curve will be slightly different for each image. However, the basic principle remains the same: by increasing the number and changing the position of the control points, it is possible to achieve both amplification and weakening of the visualization of details in the dark, light and medium tones independently.

10. Using the inverse S-shaped curve

The operation principle of this curve is opposite to the operation principle of the above described S-shaped curve.

To reduce the contrast of mid-tones with a simultaneous increase in clarity in the area of shadows and highlights, do the following:

• double-click to create at least three control points. As in the previous example, you can take the midpoint (128; 128), the point in the shadow area and the point in the light area.
• leave the position of the first point unchanged, move the second point up, and the third one - down.

This way, the light and dark areas of the image become more contrasting because the angles of inclination of the tangents built to the control points in these areas will be more than 45°. The image details in these areas will become clearer, while the mid-tones become flatter.

How to use color channels to edit a video or an image

Working with color channels is one way to perform color correction in the RGB mode.

Each color in the RGB color space is achieved by mixing three basic colors: red (Red), green (Green) and blue (Blue). According to the theory we all know, if you mix red and green you get yellow; the mix of red and blue results in purple; the mixture of blue and green results in blue, and so on.

The brightness of each color is set at a value between 0 and 255. The point with zero values for all three curves (0; 0; 0) corresponds to the black color, and the point with the maximum values (255; 255; 255) – corresponds to white.

To switch to the color correction mode of an individual RGB curve, you need to select the desired color channel in the RGB color space.

Double-click on a particular section of the composite curve will create a control point. When you move the control points (up & down, right & left) of the curve, you change the overall color of the image by adjusting the brightness of a particular color in the selected area.

The principles of working with RGB channel curves are similar to the principles of changing the brightness and contrast levels of a video:

• By moving the control point of a particular channel up, you assign richer values of the selected color to the pixels in a given region.
• By shifting the control point down, you assign lower brightness values to the pixels of the selected color channel.

Please note that this process enhances other color channels in the editing area. In the example below, you can see that the decrease in the brightness of image mid-tones in the red channel has led to an increase in the values of blue-green colors and overall darkening of the image.

So, you’re looking for a way to get rid of a watermark in a video for free. Well, you probably already know there’s no perfect way to do that because technically watermarks, just like text objects, are static elements embedded into each video frame. Ideally, you would need the original project files or an expensive watermark remover.

However, there is a couple of roundabout approaches that may be sufficient for you. First, you can quickly blur or pixelate a watermark using the DeLogo filter, so that it will practically get invisible. We’ve demonstrated this method in the video above.

Second, to remove a watermark from a video – if it’s placed in the corner or close to the edge – you can simply crop the borders. This will inevitably change the size of your footage though, you should be aware of that.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you both techniques performed in VSDC. It’s a free video editing software for Windows, and if you haven’t done it yet, download it to your PC first.

Download VSDC

How to remove a watermark from a video for free using VSDC DeLogo filter

This method literally takes less than a minute and it’s an easy way to get rid of video watermarks, logos, GPS coordinates, car numbers, time or date digits embedded to a video.

Here is the entire process broken into steps:

1. Import your video file to VSDC Free Video Editor.
2. Open the Video Effects tab and proceed to Filters from the dropdown menu. Choose DeLogo.
3. Notice, a pixelated rectangle-shaped area appearing in the center of the scene. Meanwhile, on the timeline, there will be a new tab opened with the DeLogo filter placed on it. Check the illustration below to get a clearer idea of where to look.
4. Once you click on the filter object, you’ll be able to resize it and move it around the scene.

Now, you might want to adjust the filter by making it more intense or less visible. Again, depending on your original video, you may prefer to switch from pixels to blur or mosaic. Here is how to do it:

1. Open the Properties window on the right side of VSDC interface. If you can’t see it, click on the DeLogo object with the right mouse button and choose Properties.
2. Find DeLogo filter settings and choose any preset. There are 5 of them: Pixelate, Box blur, Les blur, Mosaic, and Gaussian blur.
3. In the field below, adjust the level of intensiveness to achieve the desired look.

Once you’re satisfied with the way your video looks, go to the Export project tab and save the video to your PC using one of the preconfigured export profiles.

And since we sometimes receive queries on whether VSDC itself places a watermark on exported videos, we wanted to let you know in advance that it doesn’t. VSDC is absolutely free, it has no trial periods or format limitations, let alone watermarks. Otherwise, it would be slightly unfair to create the “How to remove a watermark from a video tutorial”, right?

Moving on. Sometimes you can make do even without a filter. When a watermark is placed right at the edge of a video, and you can sacrifice a bit of recorded space, cropping is the way to go.

How to remove a watermark from your video by cropping its borders

We already have a detailed tutorial on how to crop video borders using different methods, so here is a brief guide for your case:

1. Import your video to VSDC.
2. Find the Cutting and Splitting Tools section in the top menu. The Crop borders icon is #3 from the left. Click on it to crop a custom region.
3. In the new window that will pop up, grab the dashed line of the edge you need to cut and drag it inwards until the watermark is left out the frame.
4. Click OK to close the cropping window.

You may notice that the size of the video has changed, and thin black borders have appeared on the sides of the video (either left and right, ot top and bottom - depending on where the watermark was placed).

So, if those black borders are an issue for you, you can remove them by tailoring the size of the project to the new size of the video. Here is how.

When you crop the side that contains a watermark, you’ll notice that the width (or the height) parameter will change too. Pay attention to the new number because you’ll need it in a second.

When you’re done cropping, go to the View tab (top menu), proceed to the Projects explorer, click on the Project 1 and notice the Properties window sliding in from the right. In the Properties window, change the required parameter. In our example, we’ve reduced the width.

The black border may not disappear right away, but bare with us. Close the Projects explorer window on the left, go back to the Editor tab (top menu) and click on your video. You’ll notice that the Properties window will display new set of parameters. Click the green “Set the same size as the parent has” button to make the video fit the scene size perfectly. See the illustration below.

Technically, this is it, and you can now export the project following the steps described above. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to message us on Facebook.

Afterword

Please be advised that sometimes a watermark on a video indicates that its owner wanted to prevent their file from being copied, modified, and distributed. Naturally, we don’t recommend to remove watermarks from the videos that are a subject of copyright, unless you’re the copyright holder or you know that it won’t violate the rights of the original video creator.

Now that you know you can use VSDC DeLogo as a watermark remover, here are 5 more tutorials that may pique your interest:

• How to create a picture-in-picture effect
• How to remove green background from a video
• How to blur faces on a video
• How to add text to a video
• How to reduce audio noise in your footage   

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Adding cinematic bars is incredibly easy if you know the right tricks. VSDC Free Video Editor allows you to do that within less than a minute! The technique is simple – you literally add two black bars to your video and place them at the top and the bottom of a scene. No masking, no resizing, no video editing experience needed. See it for yourself in the video below:

Yes, we know that technically to create the “widescreen black bars” effect you should ideally use a professional camera and shoot in a widescreen aspect ratio (which is 21:9). This is exactly how Hollywood movies come out letterboxed – they are originally aimed at wide cinema theater screens, so when we watch them on TV with a standard 16:9 ratio, there is some black space left at the top and the bottom of a screen.

Anyway, since you’re here, you probably didn’t have a chance to shoot a video the right way, so we’re about to show you how to add cinematic black bars quick and easy.

But first, download VSDC Video Editor to your PC (it’s Windows only).

How to create widescreen black bars in VSDC: a step-by-step guide

1. Launch the program and import your soon-to-be-Hollywood-style movie using the Import content button on the start screen.
2. Using the left-side menu, add a rectangle-shaped object to the scene as illustrated below.
3. Paint the rectangle black using the Brush color icon from the menu at the top or the Properties window Brush color menu.
4. To stretch the bar exactly to the width of the scene, in the Properties window click on the “Set the same size as the parent has” green button in the Properties window (again, illustrated below). The rectangle will take the space of the entire scene, so all you need is to manually adjust its height as desired.
5. Once your cinematic bar looks the way you want, click on it using the right mouse button and select Duplicate to create an identical one.
6. Place the widescreen bars at the top and the bottom of a scene as intended.

Note that some part of your video will get covered by the cinematic black bars overlay – this is an inevitable consequence of the method. The good news is you can adjust the height of the bars at any moment, that’s why we recommend previewing the movie before exporting it to make sure that no essential element of your footage is hidden behind the rectangles.

To preview the video, use the red triangle icon right above the timeline. If your video looks choppy or lags, simply change preview resolution – it’s a dropdown menu to the left from the Preview icon. Lagging typically happens when a video file is too large (especially if it is 4K), and it’s the result of the processor being overwhelmed by the volume of information. The less memory your PC has, the more likely you’re to experience the issue. Do not worry, it doesn’t affect the output quality in any way.

When you’re ready, go to the Export project tab and save the video in the required format. Remember that you can change every parameter of the video including its format, codec, quality, framerate, width and height using the “Edit profile” button.

Aside from the cinematic black bars, there are many more tricks you can apply to your video to make it look like a real movie, including the “Video inside text” effect, the picture-in-picture effect, and split screen”.

Feel free to message us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay tuned with new tutorials.

“Tell me they got it in slow motion!” – screams the character of Deadpool after a long intense action scene. And that makes perfect sense because when shooting important events happening at high speed, you might want to slow down the video afterward to show every little detail of a scene. Besides, thanks to the media, we now know that tons of casual everyday things – like water drops or human reactions – will look fantastic if you capture them on a slow-motion video. Hence such high interest for the effect.

So if you’re looking for a free video editor with the slow motion effect on board, this tutorial is for you. We’ll show you how to apply it in the software named VSDC. It works on Windows and it’s absolutely free.

Download VSDC Free Video Editor before starting

How to slow down a video/apply video slow motion effect

To turn a regular video into a slow-mo, all you need is reduce the playback speed. Some video editors only allow you to change speed by a factor of 2, 4, 8, and 16. Unlike them, VSDC has very flexible playback settings and you can apply speed changes using any increments you want. Follow our step-by-step guide and see it for yourself:

1. Import the footage to VSDC video editor.
2. If you only want to have a part of the video in slow motion, you’ll need to split the file* and separate this fragment from the main piece. If you want to have the entire video in slow-mo, jump to step #4.
3. The fastest way to split a video file is using the “razor” located in the quick access “Cutting and splitting” menu at the top. Simply place the timeline cursor at the desired moment and click the Split icon. Repeat to get multiple video fragments if needed.
4. Select the fragment where you need the video to slow down.
5. Go to the Properties window on the right. If you don’t see it, click on the video fragment with the right mouse button and select Properties.
6. Scroll down the menu to the Speed (%) section as illustrated below.
7. Decrease video speed gradually and use the red Preview button to see the result of your actions.

The way you apply a slow-motion effect in a video editor is pretty straightforward. Reducing the speed by 50% means that your video will slow down by a factor of 2. If you set up a 25% speed – it will be 4 times slower than the original, and so on.

Why you should apply reframing to a slow-motion video, and how to do it

If you’re reducing the playback speed by more than 50%, you may notice that your video is getting choppy. It happens because the video frame rate has dropped drastically. When you slow a video down by 50%, the number of frames per second is 50% down as well. In other words, the footage gets “stretched” in time. This means there are now gaps between the frames, and they may create that unwanted stutter effect. To prevent that, we recommend applying reframing.

To apply reframing, expand the speed settings menu by clicking on the triangle-shaped button.

There are two reframing modes available in VSDC: Blending and Optical flow. They are powered by different algorithms and produce slightly different results. As a rule, Optical flow is always a better option that guarantees a perfectly smooth slow-motion effect. The only reason why you may not want to use it is the lack of RAM on your PC. Optical flow is based on AI algorithms and requires more computer resources, so if you have a low-end machine, just stick to Blending.

To learn more, you can read our detailed guide to using reframing modes.

Wrapping up

Now that you know how to slow down a video, here are two tips for you:

First, it’s a good idea to make slow-motion fragments a part of your story, but resist creating the entire video in slow-mo. No matter how much you like this effect, too much of it may not be effective to keep the attention of your viewers.

Second, keep in mind that when you slow a video down it affects the audio too. And sometimes it may sound funny and appropriate, but most times it’s absolute nonsense. That’s why you may want to consider muting the original audio track and creating an audio overlay. They say classical music works great with slow-mo videos!

*Having troubles splitting your video file? See our detailed instruction on how to split videos.

Like this tutorial? We have more video editing tricks to help you create an awesome movie project. Check them out:

• How to remove video background for free
• How to create a picture-in-picture video effect
• How to add eye-catching text to a video