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I want to edit videos for myself and other people

high heaven

high heaven

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Dec 7, 2017
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Im doing photography but a lot of clients and photographers demand video skills too. At this point, I can not just do photography so Im thinking to learn video editing programs for myself and other people such as game streamers, YouTubers, more. Gaining skills is my main objective so far.

I see most people use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects but I can not afford to spend $600 per year since Im paying for Photoshop and Lightroom. Yes, Im a poor student. Well, I can still access school computers which have all software. Im thinking to get and learn either Final cut pro OR Davinci resolve instead of Premiere Pro. But I would like to hear some advice. Im not going to dig into video editing seriously.
 
When you say video editing, what do you mean? If you just want to crash clips together, that is easy, but video editing is so much more than just putting a sequence together, there is grading, making the clips look good, as the technology evolves into 6K and 8K, and beyond, terms such as HDR, LUT, LOG, Rec all start to become important.

The actual use of for example Final Cut Pro X, or Resolve is not that complex, there are tutorials online that can teach you this, but you have to learn how to use the terms HDR, LUT, LOG and the relationships to video and stills photography.

Gone are the days of simple filming, people demand greater skills in grading than actual editing, after all apps are able to edit on the device, but the grading, making the image look a certain way, is still a human skill, and becoming in demand. Tools such as Color Finale, or the deep grading skills of Resolve are where you should be looking.

Not sure about youtubers, they tend to do the work themselves, they do the editing in house, as it can be done using a laptop and a mouse/trackpad.

Learn about how to solve problems, such as what is the best hard drive/ video editing/color grading set up, how to use HDR, and no I am not going to explain terms such as HDR/LUT/LOG/Rec,x...

Learn how to construct a network, how to link devices, on top of how to edit.....The business has changed over the last 25 years, and will become even more complex in the years to come..Sadly devices you buy today, will in 2 or 3 years no longer function to the same high level, and it takes constant work to generate the income to keep replacing obsolete computers with new versions..poor is a state of mind, not a fact of life!!

If you have a smart '"ish" phone with a camera, or a point and shoot camera, use that to film simple events, build up skills , an old ipad with imovie can be used, to learn relationships between clips, how to cut something, and how to cut it on something are not the same thing, one is technical, and one is intuition..Film schools are only so good, the rest you learn from the university of hard knocks..
 
high heaven said:
Im doing photography but a lot of clients and photographers demand video skills too. At this point, I can not just do photography so Im thinking to learn video editing programs for myself and other people such as game streamers, YouTubers, more. Gaining skills is my main objective so far.

I see most people use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects but I can not afford to spend $600 per year since Im paying for Photoshop and Lightroom. Yes, Im a poor student. Well, I can still access school computers which have all software. Im thinking to get and learn either Final cut pro OR Davinci resolve instead of Premiere Pro. But I would like to hear some advice. Im not going to dig into video editing seriously.
Click to expand...
Well as far as I know, Adobe has a subscription for students/teachers that has all CC apps for 20 euro's/dollars per month.
So that would be $240 per year instead of $600.

Anyway as already said, there's more to video editing then learning the program.
And will you be shooting the footage yourself? Filming is a whole different ballgame.
You need to get your story straight, literally. Before filming you need to know what story you're gonna tell with the film.

That said, any of the mentioned programs will do, FCPX, Premiere, Davinci Resolve.
Resolve has the advantage of being free of charge unless you need the Studio versions features.
 
I assume you have a Mac, since you are posting this on Macrumors and you have little experience with video editing. So my advice is to start learning the craft of editing on iMovie. It is free of charge, made by Apple, and is the little brother of Final Cut Pro X, Apple's Pro Editing App. There are many similarities between them. So leave all the technical stuff aside, there is no need to bother yet, learn how to be creative first, get some feedback and experience and then you can spend some money on a pro app. Hope this helps!

All the best!
Hector
 
"You need to get your story straight, literally. Before filming you need to know what story you're gonna tell with the film."

I don't agree, that might be the case for a drama film, if you are shooting for news inserts, documentary, that sort of thing, what you set out to capture and what you end up editing may not be the same, things change, and that is the greatness of creative, of editing, you might have to adapt the story to the video, you might have a script going into shooting, or you write post shooting, both happen, and both are right!

Learning the language is important, to understand L cuts, J cuts, juxtaposition, frame relationships, currency of the cut, shooting is easy, editing is hard, Steven Spielberg learned this the hard way..If he had his way it would have been Silver Turd..Not Jaws...Directors are good, editors are better!!!
 
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Msivyparrot said:
I don't agree, that might be the case for a drama film, if you are shooting for news inserts, documentary, that sort of thing, what you set out to capture and what you end up editing may not be the same, things change, and that is the greatness of creative, of editing, you might have to adapt the story to the video, you might have a script going into shooting, or you write post shooting, both happen, and both are right!
Click to expand...

True, but it's not like you're gonna be out there shooting random stuff.
You're out there with at least a rough idea what footage you're gonna need.
Maybe the details are fuzzy and who knows what usable situations you encounter.
Maybe you encounter something that's you can use for a whole different story.
But there's a story nonetheless.

Msivyparrot said:
Directors are good, editors are better!!!
Click to expand...
And whoever pays the bill is king ;)
 
As Hector mentioned above in reply 4, try iMovie first -- it's free.

Then... try Final Cut Pro X. It's reasonably priced, with a free demo.

There are older (yet still functional) versions of DaVinci that are freely downloadable.
 
high heaven said:
Im doing photography but a lot of clients and photographers demand video skills too. At this point, I can not just do photography so Im thinking to learn video editing programs for myself and other people such as game streamers, YouTubers, more. Gaining skills is my main objective so far.
Click to expand...

Use iMovie. Continue to use iMove until you can explain to yourself clearly why you can't use iMove.

Your question is like asking "I want to write a novel. Should I learn to use Apple'sPages or go with Microsoft Word?" The answer of course is that it does not matter then hard part is writing, not learning the tools.

Or maybe I should ask. I want to shoot for retail clothing catalogs. Should I learn how to use a Nikon or a Canon camera? Again it does not matter.

Or I want to be a movie editor, should I learn FCPX or Adobe. Again same answer. You need to learn the cut film. Most professional will use either of these apps interchangeably. iMovie will make cuts. It will do 99.9% of everything you need .

What you really need to do is make some short films in different genre.

One last thing: Even more important. As a photographer you already know lighting, color composition. These apply straight over to video but what is going to be 100% is AUDIO RECORDING. Most video has audio. This is absolutely true -- audio is way harder to get right then video. Not only that but untrained consumer will put up with poor video, shaking camera and non-perfect focus but the slightest audio defect will make you seem like a rank amateur.

Audio is also ore expensive. Given enough light even a $300 camcorder can make a excellent quality image. Just use a big soft box or two and the noise just goes away. But a $300 audio kit is not going to cut it. You will sound like all those 13 year old Youtubers. Microphones, recorders, cables headphones and booms will set you back quite a few $$$.

So take the advice to use iMove and sink the saving into audio gear.
 
I started from iMovie and it is quite a good program.
So you don't need anything expensive.
 
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