Choosing The Right Video Editing Software

There are too much video editing software that are free, cheap, or expensive. There was a time when video editing was reserved only for professionals; today, the possibility of becoming a video editor is open to everyone. In this article, I want to review some of the essential features that your video editing software should have.

 “When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, ‘Well, I could be at home studying for a class, or I could be at home editing a video.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt quotes  

Free or paid video editing software

The first thing you need to consider is if you want to get free software or to pay for one. Of course, everybody will prefer free software, but you must remember that free software is coming with a price. The free video editing software usually comes with a limited set of features and is used mainly for home videos. 

You have to understand your needs. If you are working on small production, this software might be great for you.  

So What to Check?

Before starting a video editing course, one must find his or her best video editing software. When looking for that software, one should go through these options to make better and faster editing.

• Re-size picture  – The possibility to change the size and proportions of the image is a must. Most programs allow you to do it quite easily. The problem is when making the picture bigger, in most of the amateur software, will hurt the quality of the video. You should check how your editing software deals with that challenge.

• Volume Control – Every video editing software will give you the option to increase or decrease the volume. The more complex ones will provide you with… well, more sophisticated options like distort the sound or the control of the audio of the video with the equalizer.

• Work with layers – The ability to combine two or more audio channels or several video channels in the film is a must! It is an essential feature that should be in every video editing software. When you work on your video, you might want to add titles, effects, alpha graphics, and more. On a big project, you can easily find your self with five video layers and at least six audio tracks, so you should want to be able as many layers as you need.

• Work with Key Frames – Working with keyframes is a fundamental concept in editing. It allows you to play with the effects and create properties that change along with the shot. You can put several keyframes on an effect, and every keyframe will have different properties, and that’s how the effect will change during the shot.

• Color corrections – Every video editing software will let you highlight a picture, play with the contrast, and adjust the color controls in the image. In the more complex ones, you will have the option to choose the areas you want to color in the picture. It would be best if you remembered that no matter how high quality the material is, you will most likely need at least a basic color correction, so it’s an essential element. There are software programs (such as Avid and After Effects) that measure the amount of color in an image, and they can tell you if the picture has too much of one color and not enough of the other.

• Find out what kind of formats does the software accepts – One of the frustrating things about working in the digital age is the multitude of files. The problem is that any editing system absorbs different kinds of files. The video editing system should communicate with as many files as possible – You should also check what kind of files it exports and their quality. If you need to work with HD files, make sure your video editing software is working well.

Ready for more? Here some more things to consider when buying a video editing software:

What kind of computer you have?

How much Ram and CPU do your editing software needs? You have to remember that you can always add RAM to your computer. So you should pay attention that your computer meets the conditions required.

How professional do you need to get

As I said, there are a lot of video editing programs. If your goal is to make something small or straightforward editing from time to time, you can use software like IMovie (Mac) or Windows Movie Maker (Windows). This software is suitable for editing trips and holiday videos. If you want to become most professional- Premiere, Final Cut, and Avid. If you’re serious about becoming a professional editor, you may want to take classes in the software you are learning. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube, but nothing replaces a tutor or courses. 

Pro Tip:

 Good editing is built on your habits. if you’ll learn by yourself, you can create lousy work habits right from the start.

The professional video editing software

The three most professional video editing software in the market right now are:

 Avid, Premiere, and Final cut. A final cut is a great software for beginners. Its only disadvantage is that it works only on Apple’s Mac computers. If you are planning to become a professional video editor, I also recommend starting with Avid.

 Why Avid?

For the same reason that when I wanted to learn guitar, they told me to start with a classical guitar: If you master the Avid, you can learn fast to control any other software,

but here is more:

Most broadcast work with that software, mostly because it can handle huge and complicated projects. It is a very stable software, and I think she manages the media files in the best way than the other two. It is also the best software to work if you are sharing the same project with other editors.

It will probably take you some time to learn it and get the hang of it, but once you do, it will be worthwhile. Another disadvantage is that it is expensive software. The thing I like most about Avid is that it forces you to work in an orderly manner and to know what you want to plan.

On the other, hand if you are planning to use lots of graphics, then Premier or Final Cut is more recommended. Premier’s clear advantage is the perfect orientation with other Adobe software like After effects and PhotoShop. Eventually, all the video editors have the software, So I do recommend playing with all of them and see what works best for you.