Starting to edit videos for the first time isn’t easy, and it is completely natural if you feel lost when you launch a video editor for the first time. With so many features and options laid out in front of you, figuring out where to start can be the most difficult part.
Although each video is unique and may need to be edited in a different manner, there are several easy ways that you can start to edit videos effectively that are fairly universal:
- Understand the different types of cuts and how they work
One of the most important parts of editing videos is to ‘cut’ them together, by removing unwanted parts and merging clips of footage to create the final video. Because of that a good place to start is to learn more about the different types of cuts that are out there, and how each works.
Cutting videos is normally fairly straightforward, and in most editors you should be able to position a marker and split the video footage at any point that you need to. After that you can join videos, rearrange video clips, or remove unwanted parts as required.
- Improve the white balance and color settings
In most cases the raw footage that you’re working with won’t look perfect – and one of the easiest ways to enhance it is by improving the white balance and color settings. Although adjusting the color settings manually can be tricky and requires experience, most editors nowadays have automated features that will let you improve the white balance with a single click.
As you become more familiar with the color settings you can try adjusting the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, shadows, highlights and other parameters manually and observe the affect that they have.
- Crop to adjust the frame and composition
Another simple yet extremely useful way to edit videos is to crop them. By cropping your video and removing a section of it, you can directly adjust the frame and composition of the video.
It is best to use the crop feature in conjunction with composition techniques such as the rule of thirds to improve your video’s visual impact. However at the same time you should be wary of cropping too much of the video or it will affect its resolution and quality.
Each of the ways to edit videos described above can be performed with pretty much any video editing software for Mac or PC. That being said when you first start out you should try to find one that has a reputation for being user-friendly, as it will make it much easier to edit your videos. For example you could try Movavi Video Editor for Mac if you’re looking for an editor that is easy to use.
By focusing on the areas listed above, you should find it much easier to get started and edit your videos effectively. After you become familiar with these methods, you can move on to other editing techniques and try them out too.