Jake PopistAre you new to video editing and want to know what you need to do to start editing your videos? The first steps may seem like the hardest, especially as you’re probably not that familiar with the software that you’re using either.
To make it a bit easier, there are a few simple steps that you should take when you first get started:
- Color correct the video footage
Many videos have issues that affect their color balance due to the temperature of the light that they are shot in and at times even the settings of the camera itself. That makes color correction a good first step to take.
Although fiddling with the color settings in your editor may sound complicated, most have automated white or color balance features that you can use as a starting point. From there you can try to experiment with the manual settings as you see fit.
- Crop the video frame
Another easy (but not quite as automated) tool that you can use is the crop tool. It will let you reframe your video and remove sections adjacent to its old frame.
Using the crop tool is a good step because it will let you remove unwanted sections, and change its aspect ratio. More importantly it will let you improve the composition – and you can use techniques such as the rule of thirds as a guide.
- Trim and join video clips
The next step is one of the foundational steps of video editing: Trimming out unwanted parts of your video and joining clips together. Some editors may have a specific trim tool that you can use, while others will require that you split the video into segments and delete the parts you don’t want.
In either case you should pay close attention to the points where you trim your videos, and consider how they transition to the next clip. Learning a bit more about different types of video cuts and how they affect your video can help on that front.
- Apply (simple) filters
Last but not least you can explore the video filters available in your editor. The exact options can vary, but initially you should stick to simple filters and use them as a way to color grade your video to reflect its mood.
If you want you can then experiment with more stylized filters – depending on whether you feel it fits your video.
It may help to use Movavi Video Editor to apply the steps described above. It is a user-friendly video editor that will make it easy to enhance and color-correct your video, apply filters, cut and join videos, crop the frame, or even add overlay video and apply other effects.
All in all starting your journey into video editing with the steps listed above should make it a lot less daunting. Not only will the steps let you edit your videos more effectively as a beginner, but they’ll set you up to get the experience that you need to expand your skills further.
Craig Upton
Jake Popist
