20 Video Editing Tips for Amateurs

Whether you are working on YouTube vlogs, documentary, or just recording funny clips for TikTok, these basic video editing tips will help you achieve amazing results even if you’re a total beginner.

20 Professional Video Editing Tips and Techniques

Find out which gear, software, special effects, and audio is better to use without wasting more than $5000. Follow these simple tricks to make a viral video and attract more people to your content.

1. Choose the Proper Software

No matter whether you are using a paid or free video editing software, the most important thing is to pick the one that will help you explore all the boundaries of your creativity.

The industry-standard video editors among professionals are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and DaVinci Resolve.

No less full-featured options are Lightworks, Sony Vegas, and ShotCut.

2. Use a Fast Computer

Even if you have the best computer for video editing, it doesn’t mean you are going to produce jaw-dropping clips right away. Computers with high performance allow you to devote more time to the concept of your story rather than computer rendering.

Before purchasing a computer, make sure it has enough CPU for video editing. Also, video editing requires a multi-core processor. My video editing tip is to choose Apple iMac Pro if you’re going to buy a computer.

3. Use a Gaming Mouse

Buy the best MMO mouse with programmable buttons you can afford. Using these buttons, you can select on-screen video editing commands such as saving the file or undoing the action.

Thus, there is no need to use both your hands, which will significantly save your time. An excellent option is Logitech G600 MMO.

4. Use External Hard Drives to Store Footage

Since your footage takes up a lot of space, you can free up valuable storage on your computer with the help of external hard drivers. It is advisable to pick hard drives with the ability to connect via a USB port or Thunderbolt to provide higher data transfer speeds.

However, if you are going to work out of the office, you won’t be able to use your device. One of the most optimal picks is G-Technology G-Drive.

5. Learn Important Terms

Video post-production isn’t just a hobby or the way to make money; it is the entire industry. So, it’s not surprising there are numerous video editing terms each professional needs to know.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean you should take a deep dive into video editing terminology. It is enough to become familiar with the terms that are commonly used in the video editing sphere. This will make your job easier and help become more confident as a specialist. Some of the most widely-used notions are:

• Cutaways
• Jump Cuts
• Match Cut/Match Action Montage
• J and L Cuts
• Cutting on Action

6. Always Make Color Grading

Color plays a pivotal role in creating an atmosphere and mood in a scene. While highlighting particular objects, you may produce a fantastic image and make your creative work shine.

If it comes to enhancing colors in a video, there are two video editing techniques.

You can perform color correction to create visual consistency for your footage, or color grading to change the overall look of your clip and make it more creative. Both techniques are essential to balance or separate colors, make the scenes more realistic or achieve a coherent look in your scenes. However, the second method takes up more time, so some users decide to delegate the task to certified video editing services.

To make your workflow even more efficient, pick the best monitor for video editing with accurate color calibration.

7. Mind Your Export Settings

Once you've completed editing your video, you will probably want to export it in the highest quality possible. This is certainly the right way if you are going to play your movie in a cinema or using an Ultra HD screen. However, nowadays, video projects are usually distributed or sold online.

8. Focus on the Story

Storytelling is important regardless of what type of video you are working on. Don’t limit your creativity – eliminate extraneous footage, change the order of your clips, etc.

Every manipulation you perform, every effect you apply, will keep your unique story moving. So, during the video editing process, think about how each scene will improve your story. Use FixThePhoto video editing services to create a coherent and beautiful story in your movies.

9. Use Consistent Graphics

You don't need to be a professional graphic designer to produce decent clips. However, you should make sure such elements like fonts, font colors, and size work well together.

The major mistake beginners make when adding text to their clips is using fonts of different sizes and colors. Moreover, try not to use the distracting colors in your text so that viewers can focus only on the content.

10. Don’t Overuse Transitions

Transitions are used to smoothly combine the scenes to avoid a straight cut. With the help of transitions, you should add visual interest rather than distract the viewer from the story. If you overdo with transitions, you can make your video unwatchable.

Obtrusive transitions are rather distractive as well. They often pull the viewer out of the scene. Try to consider each transition in your clip and make sure they complement your content and match the overall idea of your movie.

11. Use B-Roll

One of the most important video editing tips when it comes to natural switching between an interviewer and his/her respondent is to use the B-Roll technique. Often these moments are shooting later separately.

Then they are used as natural shifting from one person to another, where this can be done quietly without an abrupt jump in the footage.

12. Avoid Unnecessary Jump Cuts

If you suddenly interrupt somebody's words in a dialogue or song, it can disorient viewers. Sometimes it can be done if you want to joke with a special sense or make a particular emphasis on something. If there is no such purpose, then go to the next scene, or angle after the thought is completed.

You can shorten the length of the line by cutting video on the Timeline. Above all, make these cutouts between words. To make sure your travel video is edited in a proper way, order vlog video editing services.

13. Re-Frame Your Shots

When editing, it is extremely important to use a variety of views. This implies combining close-up, medium, wide, or ultra-wide views.

Modern cameras allow you to shoot in such a high resolution that you can then re-frame with push/pull your footage while editing it. Also, due to the high quality of shooting, you can fix the gaps.

For example, if the eye line was not in the frame while shooting, you can then put the subject in the center, and everything will fall into place.

14. Use Music to Enhance the Mood

It’s essential to choose the right music for your video clip. If you have a cute picture and heavy metal sound mixed together, this will look rather ridiculous. Similarly, adding fun and energetic music to a slow-motion video with a car explosion, will also produce a strange effect. To ensure compliance with the copyright, use legal audio, for example, from the Premium Beat music provider. Better music is available on paid resources.

15. Use SFX to Add Depth

All musical and sound effects are always added later, at the video editing stage. You could easily notice this if you have ever watched the backstage videos. It is never a real-time record.

Why do we use all these extra sound effects? Of course, for attracting the viewers, to completely immerse them in what is happening on the screen.

16. Mix the Audio

The timeline surely contains these elements – music, voice and sound effects. It is very important to mix the added musical and sound effects with the sound of the material you shot. Otherwise, there will be no naturalness, and you will shortly show yourself as an amateur, not a professional.

Background music always has to be only in the background, and nowhere else. Professionals hear all the nuances.

The worst that could be is a mismatch in dialogue levels, or overbearing soundtrack. Always dedicate enough time to the sound mix.

17. Memorize Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you know how easy it is to recognize whether you are a beginner video editor or already been in the industry for some time? Just pay attention to how often you use your keyboard for video editing during work. Professionals save every second while editing footage, knowing that these seconds add up to minutes and hours.

I recommend you to buy a special editing keyboard or at least a replaceable editing keyboard cover with ready-made icons of shortcuts.

18. Organize Your Files

Not only an ultrafast computer or special software affects your workflow pace. It is equally critical to organize it yourself.

You can start with simple steps. Arrange your projects and files in folders. Take some time to label and organize your footage. This will help you later save hours of work by quickly finding the right component for the job.

This method can serve as a nice sample:

• Footage
• Project Files
• Graphics
• Audio
• Images

Further, you can add the subsections, if it is necessary.

19. Allocate RAM

If you are curious about how much RAM you need for video editing for smooth and fast workflow, you need at least 8GB of RAM. Having 32GB of RAM on your computer, you are unlikely to use all this volume.

Most often, by default, only a few GBs of RAM are used from all this volume when you install and run the video editing software. You can change this value. Just go to your preferences, and allocate more RAM for your editing needs.

20. Create Copies of Your Files

It is a real disaster to have your video suddenly disappeared after you have spent several hours editing it! Is that familiar?

In order not to get in trouble, use the 321rul. This means making three copies, and at least in two different places. At the same time, one of the storage places should be off-site. An online service like Google Drive can be a great help for storing a copy.

Most likely, for this, you need a volume slightly larger than average, because video projects are usually large.

Video Editing Freebies

Does it take a lot of time to color correct and grade your footage? Use special LUTs to cope with the task in one click.

The package includes such LUTs as wedding, vlog, B&W, cinematic, and others. You can enhance certain tones and colors of your clips. Moreover, with these freebies, you can add professional-looking touches to your videos without having to create everything from scratch. Therefore, the video editing process becomes quicker and smoother.

Eva Williams

Hi there, I'm Eva Williams - a professional blogger, read more