Here's my tweak (2nd attempt) on a still from one of myscamore's new technidisc clips to give you an example of the above statement:

ORIG

TWEAK 2

Now the thing is I can't get this result by moving the sliders in vlc image adjust (i.e. plus or minus contrast, brightness, etc). myscamores original seems to be the most balanced and correct result with the way those sliders interelate (a push even a little in any direction and you start losing information altogether). The result I got was done by using the curve tool against the graph of the levels- which *I think* is a less linear or fixed interelation of adjustment aspects. It brings levels up between points at different speeds so to speak. I also added a duplicate layer which seems to be adding to the image in a less linear way than just adjusting the original sliders. Now, whether my result grabs you or not, my speculative question is whether rather than summing or merging linear captures, is whether there is some way to 'weave' a new duplicate out of a moving graph of the initial capture using a fixed or modulating 'response' curve. Or merge multiple captures with different settings in different percentages to improve on a single capture. [thus improving on the best-on-average setting via a more automated correction process]???

Or if that sounds a bit too like rambling nonsense - does anyone have any ideas how to lift out the darkness embedded in this master a bit without blowing out the whites?? Is there actually much room for manouevre on this?