I am new to this and want to know what the best video editing software for drone footage with all the best features form you guys experience, thank for any advice.
Dang that’s a sweet list
@msinger. I’m gonna answer the question a different way but I like it.
As to which video editor is best is a really hard and really subjective question. The main questions you will want to ask yourself first are:
What kind of computer do you have? Mac or PC? Video editing (especially 4K) takes a ton of computer power and if you don’t have it you’ll want to look at programs that require less. Also, if you have a Mac for example iMovie comes preinstalled or is a free download which is an unbelievably awesome free program. However no iMovie for PC.
2) Do I want a professional application that I am going to have to spend a large amount of time to learn how to use but is able to make production quality edits and effects. Or do I want something simple and intuitive that doesn’t give me TOO many options.
3) Do I care if it costs something? What if it costs a lot?
In my humble opinion iMovie is far and above the best free/easy and intuitive option. iMovie is basically a “lite” version of its big brother Final Cut Pro. It uses the same processing engine and is capable of quality as good as the rest but it won’t give you much in terms of fine tuning or effects. There’s only one way to do each thing it will do and that can be a blessing or a curse.
In terms of Professional quality editors I have them all and there are certain things I like about each of them and things I can’t stand. I really think it comes down to preference.
Premier Pro: The most popular one by far is Adobe Premier Pro. It is part of Adobe Creative Cloud which is $50 per month but you get all kinds of crazy cool professional programs. You could spend your entire life studying the programs that come with this package and I gurantee you won’t learn everything. No way to outgrow. Importantly it also comes with Adobe After Effects. This is like Photoshop for Video and it is personally my favorite tool for video. You wouldn’t “edit” in After Effects but you can do color grading, special effects, and 3D rendering.
The next interesting one is Blackmagic Resolve. It is a powerful professional editor and effects platform all in one and is totally free. There’s a paid version but it almost doesn’t make sense because 99% is free and the last 1% costs $400? You don’t need that last 1%. The reason this one isn’t at the top of my list is because I personally think it takes Resolve 10x longer to do something than any other tool. Maybe I just need to learn it more myself but it is just slooow.
What I do personally is use Final Cut Pro as my editor and then do color and effects in After Effects. It would be more efficient to use Premier Pro and After Effects but I happen to think Premier Pro is overly complicated. I just want easy until I’m ready to refine then at that point I’m good with the “refiner” being complex.
Ultimately you might have to try a few of them to figure out what feels intuitive to you.
I attached a short clip I cut together using Final Cut Pro but did all the coloring and effects in After Effects