Looking for recommendations on video EDITING software.
Preferably cheap/free software.
Coz I have a few different video cameras, and none of them are great at dealing with the exposure in bright snow.
Is that the kind of thing that can be corrected afterwards by video editing software?
Thanks
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
As far as I know, there a no decent free video editors. All the ones I know of are very basic and won't be able to do much about sorting out exposures. I'd be interested to know of any that do though if they do exist. Might just be worth getting a copy of sony vegas or something.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Quote:
Is that the kind of thing that can be corrected afterwards by video editing software?
to a degree, though I'm no expert. I have Pinnacle Studio 14 - definitely not free - and am just very tentatively getting to grips with it.
Windows Movie Maker is simple, and free, though pretty basic, even by my very limited standards.
Coz I have a few different video cameras, and none of them are great at dealing with the exposure in bright snow.
Is that the kind of thing that can be corrected afterwards by video editing software?
In my experience with great difficulty if over-exposed - quite often leads to a "burnt-out" image with next to no texture/detail on the snow which looks crap even if you then darken it down in the edit...
Filters are the way forward...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I've been chopping mine up with Windows Movie maker, but having looked again came across this:
As has been said above - if the image is over exposed then chances are there's very little you can do with it.
A digital camera sensor has discrete values of light that can be captured in against each pixel. How many values are determined by the bit value - for example an 8-bit image has 255 values per pixel.
If the image is under exposed (as in zero light) or over exposed (maximum light) then you'll just get a black or white pixel accordingly with nothing that can be done to retrieve any data. If you have large areas like this then unfortunately there is no editing software that can help - you'll need to either adjust your exposure (if your camera can do this) or apply lens filters that will reduce the exposure. The reason I mention under exposure is that if you select too high a filter value you'll lose the dark areas in the same way your bright ones are currently lost - it's a fine balance.
My experience stems from digital still photography however I am making the assumption that with a similar digital sensor underneath the same logic applies... YMMV!
I'm trying this at the moment and it does appear to give options to amend the Colour\Contrast\Hue etc. Seems pretty good so far, my issues being getting smooth transitions between clips. It also give a good selection of outputs, although the one's I've tried so far don't seems to work with Windows Media player.
The other problem is the 'free' version watermarks the output, but it's probably worth the $40 as a cheap alt to WMM.
Not had chance to play with it much yet but it looks pretty good. The registration codes are a bit of a pain though. Seems much better than the one I noted above.
skimottaret, Final Cut is really good, you can get an express version too (cheaper?). Or probably download a dodgy copy!
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi
I use a Sony Handycam and edit the footage through Sony Vegas software. For disc burning I use Sony DVD Architect.
Always found the end results to be excellent and really enjoy making movies of the ski trips I have been on. Great to see footage of how my son is progressing from year to year.
Regards
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
eh...Most of the free ones are only the free trial version. There is always some limitation in it.
I used to editing videos with WMM, and now I do with ShowBiz, it's really as easy as WMM and you can edit videos just by dragging video clips or photos into storyboard. Special effects such as transitions, subtitles and so forth are allowed to add to live up your videos.
As you refferred your exposure problem issue, it is also adjustable. But i am not sure if it is what you want.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
So, old thread resurrection, but would be interested in what folks have found works well for GoPro footage?
with gopro footage, it's often best to run it through cineform to put into a different format. The native gopro h.264 mpeg format can be I have found a little temperamental sometimes. Stick through cineform and output into .mov or .avi and then play with it. Or await the new gopro cineform studio software which is due our (and free) any time now if you believe the rumour mill.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
If your on a PC then Premier and/or After Effects is what you want. AE is better for short things but has much better filters / effects. Premier is better for longer footage. Ideally you want both but if your just getting 1 then Premier.
If you get premier you can always export your movies as a sequence of jpegs then figure out a nice exposure filter in photoshop and batch convert all the frames then stick in back in Prem for final edits.
As someone else mentioned, there are sources online to get these for free and its not like your making anything commercial with it so dont feel bad about 'borrowing'
boardiac, I did this in iMovie. Works ok, but it's not amazing for reducing the overexposed shots, mind you I don't suppose anything could really bring some of this video all the way back. This is an old gopro Hero 1 btw.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Adobe CC definitely not cheap but does pretty much everything. Can subscribe monthly and get one of the smaller packages that has Premiere. Not the easiest software but well worth getting to grips with. Suggest YouTube for loads of tutorials. Motion tracking is not all that difficult and creates stunning effects for your films.
After all it is free
After all it is free
I have been using Vegas since v11, currently on v16.
I had previously used Pinnacle, Premiere Elements, and some others, none free, and all were buggy crap.
The old Vegas Movie Studio v12 or so is very cheap in the usual places and does more or less everything just fine, especially if you don't shoot in 4K. And rendering in 4K just produces movies which you can't host anywhere (at a bandwidth which is any good for 4K) so you end up being a sad git watching them on your own
I went to Vegas PRO V13 for more involved stuff like importing auto generated subtitles, to do e.g. this
TB20 flight Kastelorizo LGKJ to Ioanina LGIO to Brac LDSB from Peter2000
Well, if you shoot with a go-pro type of action cam (most of which have horrible distortion) and you want anybody to want to watch it more than once, you will want to do lens correction, but even the old Vegas versions can do that (check before buying; one of the plug-ins is called Deform). The other way is to shoot with something like a Sony X3000 which distorts very little, plus it has good stabilisation which for ski videos is really important.
All video editing software has nontrivial learning curves but they are all similar in the basic principles. Due to this learning curve it is worth spending a bit of money, say 100 quid.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
I probably "produce" two to three vids a week, depending on what conditions are like / where I've been etc
I compile GoPro as well as DJI Spark along with SmartPhone footage.
When I get back off the mountain I sit down and go through all the footage and delete 90% - I try to aim for 90secs depending on the quality and action, and below is a good example of that
I use Adobe Premeiere Elements 2018 - and you can pick up older editions for £50 or less, which I've used over the past twelve or so years since I've been doing vids !
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Thread necro by user with 1 post... for advertising purposes I suppose... but fortunately they're selling garbage, and there are much better video editing tools available, and weirdly the best is 100% free.
I still use Premiere Pro now ant then, buy Davinci Resolve is completely free and has more modern features. Free, so there's no need to pay people to post spam on web forums, and indeed no revenue stream for that sort of scumbag activity.
On the OP, you can of course "correct" video in post, but if you're not using all the dynamic range of the sensor, you can't add information back in later, so really you want to use exposure compensation in camera, to maximize the data you capture.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer First and Lightworks are all free and loaded with features
And of course, there are always movie maker and iMovie that come free with their respective Operating Systems.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Davinci Resolve is amazing and genuine hollywood grade even for special effects. Lightworks I couldnt get to work without crashing for more than 30 minutes, sadly.
You do need a pretty powerful machine though, for any of these.
In my opinion, Da Vinci Resolve is as good as it gets and should cost big money, but doesnt. Learning curve is fine too, for basics.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
I agree with DaVinci Resolve. It's been my go-to for quite some time. I recently started posting videos on reels, where I hit a snag. DaVinci Resolve leaves a watermark on the final product, and it's just not Instagramable. I'd have to buy the studio version for around $300 to get rid of it, which is way out of my budget.
So I went digging and read about free video editing software no watermark and ended up getting Movavi. They have a free trial for 7 days, and the paid version is only $26, which is way more accessible for me. It's been a perfect video editing tool with an easy-to-use interface and lots of effects that are super easy to apply.