Rookie looking for a little help
 

Hi Folks,

First time poster here, looking for help picking a video editing software for a specific purpose. I should probably let you know that I know little about computers or video editing in general, but I think I can tell you what I have. I’m running a Dell XPS 8300, 64 bit Windows7. It has an i7 2600 CPU running at 3.4GHZ, and 8GB RAM, upgradeable to 16GB. It has the NVIDIA GeForce GT530. The hard drive is only 500 GB, with 343 GB free, but I also have an external hard drive with 1.5TB free.

Here’s my problem: I have several 8mm movie films that were shot during the 1960s, and I copied the projection with a video camera, with the resulting files now on my computer. Much of the footage is either under or over exposed, although there is quite a bit with proper exposure. Most are not what I'd call sharp either. These files mean a lot to our family, and I’d like to be able to correct the exposure as much as possible and sharpen, but I know you can’t make something from nothing. I use Photoshop CS5, and I know I can edit the frames individually, but that would take a lifetime to get the job done using curves, exposure, or levels settings. Is there a software program that would allow me to pick “X” number of frames, and apply a correction to all of them at one time? I doubt I could correct the exposure on specific parts of the individual frames, but I’m not sure about that. I’m hoping I can find something around the $50.00 price range, and not require too many hours for the learning curve. One program I found on Cnet is VideoSpirit Pro, but I don’t really know if it’s worth considering. Any suggestions on this software or other software? Thanks for any help you might provide. The rendered file will be used to watch on a computer or TV.

Re: Rookie looking for a little help
 

'm wondering if you might be better off transferring the 8mm to digital again? The second of these two videos claim to offer a superior method, but I don't know what the cost would be. One thing is for sure though, you are much better off doing the job right in the first place, rather than trying to fix up problems in post.

How to Transfer Film to Video Part 2 - Video Dailymotion

Re: Rookie looking for a little help
 

Thank you very much for the reply. I should have explained that the under and overexposure are evident in the original 8mm film. The copy seemed to go pretty well. It's not likely that a re-shoot would improve the quality, but I might explore that possibility of getting just a little more out of it. Thanks again.

Re: Rookie looking for a little help
 

+1 on what Trevor said. There are services who specialize in this kind of thing and the aggrivation and loss of quality may be worth the price.

That said, you might look at Adobe Premiere Elements, a user-friendly and inexpensive editing program that provides brightness, contrast, etc. controls. You can apply the effects to the various clips as needed -- it's not a frame by frame thing, fortunately. HTH.

Re: Rookie looking for a little help
 

Thank you Battle. I checked into the possibility of having it done professionally, a while ago. Unfortunately, it was much more costly than what I could justify. But I will check out the software. thanks for the tip.