Similar to "levels adjustment" brightness improvement with ffmpeg

Question

I'm composing a video from set of 16bit tiff pictures. The pictures are very dark, and needs to be brightened. Currently I'm applying -vf "mp=eq2=1.0:1.0:0.3:1.0:1.0:1.0:1.0:1.0" filter to make pictures brighter, as said here, but they becomes too "faded".

I used to rescale their histogram with "levels adjustment" operation in image editor to make them brighter, but now I need to make a video, not a single image file. Also, preffered way of applying such operations to image - is to applying it to each color band separatly, because they have different brightness attributes initialy.

Can I do something similar with ffmpeg?

Answer 1

You could possibly use the curves filter. It has a lighter preset:

ffmpeg -i input -vf curves=preset=lighter -c:a copy output

The red, green, and blue components can be adjusted separately. The following is the same as what the lighter preset uses:

curves=r='0.4/0.5':g='0.4/0.5':b='0.4/0.5'

Additionally you can make your own curves preset in Photoshop, export it as an .acv file, and then the curves filter can utilize it:

curves=psfile=/path/to/ps_curves_file.acv