Last Updated on August 18, 2022 by Markeyus Franks
Creating content on YouTube is an exciting hobby that people have started to take more seriously in the last couple of years. With the video streaming behemoth reporting almost USD 29 billion in 2021, it is the best place where content creators can showcase their content and become famous YouTube personalities. If you too are looking to make this space your own and aspire to make it big on YouTube the first thing you would need is excellent content that viewers will like. Frankly, that is an inner calling that you have to work out on your own. Secondly, your content needs to be of top-notch quality to generate appeal to the viewers and make them want to see your content. Today we have some highly coveted, almost insider information for you. We also have some video editors for you that professional YouTubers use. A touch of these on your clips and they are sure to go viral. Let’s begin.
Contents
Is Video Editing Hard?
Video editing is a skill that is fairly easy to acquire and that too for free and from that very platform where you are looking to create a name for yourself. Most video editors work on the same basic principles and have similar functionalities. Theoretical knowledge of tool handling, desire to know, design ideas and artistic skills are enough to get the ball rolling.
Mastering video editing would take some time as video editing is a combination of technical and artistic skills but enhancing video using basic effects such as fade-in and fade-out, tempo, slow motion, transitions and 3D are quite easy to understand and apply. There is ample scope for creativity in video editing and hence a host of new styles and artistic effects are waiting for you if you agree to experiment and travel on roads that are less travelled.
How Long Does it Take to Edit a Video?
The time to edit a video depends on the length of the video, the level of enhancements and the competency of the editor. At first, you might need more time but a seasoned video editor would need 45-60 minutes to edit a 1-minute video. These include finding the right background music, syncing them with the video and adding artistic effects. Videos also need periodic runs in the middle of the editing process to ensure the effects are working well in tandem with each other.
What Do I need to Get Started Making Videos on YouTube?
Starting out as a content creator you would need a few basic types of equipment that you can build on later as your channel prospers. The first is a video capturing tool, the camera.
· Camera
The camera is perhaps the most important equipment that you would need in your quest to succeed as a YouTuber. You need to capture footage with proper detailing, angles and adequate light. Your entire channel rests upon the content and its quality that matters a lot since there are millions of creators already creating quality content and no matter how attractive your content looks on paper, it will fail to attract and retain viewers if they are not satisfied with the quality.
Research shows that 90 per cent of viewers prefer to watch YouTube at least in Full HD resolution. This is the reason that marquee YouTubers today use professional-grade cameras to capture videos to ensure high-resolution content is posted on their channels. Obtaining a professional-grade camera might not be possible starting out but thankfully almost every smartphone today captures Full HD videos. However, by no means are smartphones long-term alternatives to DSLRs but they really come in handy when starting out. There is always scope to bag in a Canon or Nikon DSLR later in a Black Friday deal.
· Microphone
Be it a podcast-focused channel or a simple fun presentation with some acting where original audio is used, you need a microphone. Boom microphones are an excellent choice but they come with a premium price tag. However, this doesn’t always mean you should record with the smartphone microphones. Clip-on microphones are widely available and they do a great job recording audio. These don’t cost much and have omnidirectional features that result in great audio quality.
· Lights
The ambience is an important element in videos and an indispensable element if you are capturing video indoors. Lights form the base of ambience and their inadequacy or overexposure can affect the capture quality. Wall lights can cause glares or uneven illumination that results in noise creeping in. An easy solution is focus lights that are custom-made for YouTubers. They come with or without tripods and are ring-shaped with modes to control the lumens. Some of these models allow the camera to be placed strategically in the middle to ensure the best capture angle with proper illumination.
· Good Editing Software
With all the equipment in place and video captured, it’s time to enhance those using video editors. There are plenty of video editing applications available for smartphones on android and iOS app stores and they do somewhat of a decent job. However, if you are looking for full functionality and better end results that viewers would drool upon, you ought to go for PC-based applications. Let us look at some of the best video editors you can use to work on your captured clips.
Top 8 Video Editing Software for YouTube
1. Adobe Premier Pro
Premier Pro is the video editing tool from Adobe while Photoshop is for still image editing. By far it is the best video editing tool with various functionalities. Available in a subscription mode, Adobe Premier Pro is highly rated for its ease of use and features. There are various drag and drop effects and motion graphics templates that turn ordinary videos into professional-grade clips. It has extensive colour grading tools that even beginners can work with.
The application has a straightforward, easy-to-use, intuitive interface layout suitable for both beginners and seasoned users. You can also work with the audio, editing and mixing them as required. Premier Pro supports multi-cam editing and auto reframing which is particularly useful for editing videos meant for different platforms like TikTok, YouTube or Facebook.
2. Final Cut Pro X
Released by Apple specifically for macOS, Final Cut Pro X offers a 90 days trial that would suit beginners before deciding to spend on a one-time purchase. Final Cut Pro X is an advanced video editor with features like a trackless timeline and library editing, ratings tagging, and face and scene auto analysis. There is support for 360-degree footage editing with wide color spaces.
Final Cut Pro X supports editing in 4K XAVC-S format and export to H.265 formats. With this application, users can create videos suitable for movies and television. There is a plethora of sophisticated enhancement options which might seem overwhelming for beginners but with a bit of digging, they can create some nicely edited clips for their YouTube channels.
3. CyberLink Power Director
Power Director is a powerful and feature-rich video editing software from CyberLink. It is a resource-intensive application with a lot of transitions, stickers and animations that users can include while editing their videos. Users are also allowed to install add-on plugins for more features and effects. The application also supports 4K 60 fps video editing and is great for videos captured on smartphones.
The complaint with Power Director is that it is not beginner friendly with a clumsy user interface that gets new users confused. At times lag is noticed while applying slow motion effects and the app needs to be restarted for it to work. CyberLink Power Director is however a fairly cheap alternative for Adobe Premier Pro and also included a few basic post-production effects that add a bling factor to videos.
4. Filmora
Filmora is a multi-format supporting video editing application for Windows OS. There is 4K video editing support with 800 plus effects and 50 plus formats to choose from. Its ease of use garners rave reviews from users and offers many tutorials for beginners. Besides a large number of effects, it also has a large pool of filters to enhance the edited video clips.
Multicam support and VR editing features are missing in this value-for-money editing application but it makes up for it with its simple and easy-to-understand interface and a nice collection of text tools. At a single go Filmora supports 100 video tracks with motion tracking but 3D editing is missing.
5. Lightworks
Lightworks is perhaps the best beginner-friendly video editor for budding YouTubers with its simple UI and ease of understanding and use. Lightworks supports a plethora of formats and resolutions ranging from PAL and NTSC to 2K and 4K videos. Its functionality is however limited to basic and few advanced effects like Dolby zoom, dissolve, and slow and fast motion. Features like superimposing and iris are missing.
Lightworks misses out on the refinement of more premium editors but is a great point to start for beginners. Its precision cut cropping and highlight feature are easy to use and beginners can turn their simple clips into highly engaging content with just a few clicks.
6. Apple iMovie
iMovie is a free-to-use editing application that is compatible with Mac as well as handheld iOS devices. It supports 4K video editing and has Hollywood-style templates with graphics and original audio for professional-grade editing. iMovie works well with clips shot on Cinematic Mode on iPhones and allows users to create life-like videos. Users get access to slow motion, picture-in-picture, side-by-side and green screen effects.
iMovie has got outstanding reviews from popular YouTubers. One-click-Enhance and color controls deserve a special mention along with nice to have features like Stabilization, automatic zoom and frame optimization.
7. Shotcut
This is another free video editor for Windows but with slightly limited functionality. Users can edit 4K clips shot at 60 fps but new layers need to be manually added. The application has a simple user interface that is beginner-friendly. The simple UI allows fast editing and rendering with the help of simple keyboard and mouse controls.
Shotcut allows transitions to be added from a right-click menu. There is a vast assortment of export presets with support for direct export to a camcorder, DVD and even legacy and lossless options.
8. DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is the best video editor you can get for free for your Windows PC. It is an all-in-one editor that supports editing, colour correction, motion graphics, audio production and visual effects all in the same package but differentiated by separate workspace sections for each task. It is the best colour grading application on the internet but lacks a bit in terms of post-production effects.
With the DaVinci Resolve, users can work on motion graphics using various 2D and 3D tools. Features like Magic Mask come in handy while colour-correcting human characters in video clips. Multicam editing, scene cut detection and multi-user collaboration are some of the advanced features that even beginners can use to enhance their content for YouTube.
Conclusion
Video editing is just like any other technical skill that you might have. You can get accustomed to the basic editing process of trimming, pacing and adding basic effects in about 7-10 days as you keep working on different projects. The editors here can do a great job improving your videos and making them stick out from the crowd. Our advice would be to check some tutorials and guides for any editor you choose before you start editing.
