DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Best Software to Edit Drone Footage? Also what one allows ya to blur stuff out?

JamesJB

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2017
Messages
94
Reactions
44
Age
50
Location
Easton,Pa
Hi guys whats good possibly free or no sub required Editing Software to edit Drone footage and I was also wondering which one is good to blur out people if need be.

Thank you in advance for the help and suggestions.

Btw I have the Mavic Air 2S if that's important to know and I am on a Windows 11 Pro PC.
 
Last edited:
Are you Windows or Mac?
 
Hi guys whats good possibly free or no sub required Editing Software to edit Drone footage and I was also wondering which one is good to blur out people if need be.

Thank you in advance for the help and suggestions.

Btw I have the Mavic Air 2S if that's important to know and I am on PC.
I use on my Mac-mini final cut pro. You pay only once( 299 USD).
 
  • Like
Reactions: sbunting
As I understand it, the Air 2S will shoot ten bit video if you deem it necessary. The Free version of Resolve won't edit ten bit video. For that, you have to pay for the "Studio" version. Once. Upgrades have been free for years.

If you want to blur out things in motion video, that may require tracking (moving the blurred area during the shot). I'm not sure if Resolve free does that or not. It certainly will with the paid version.
 
As I understand it, the Air 2S will shoot ten bit video if you deem it necessary. The Free version of Resolve won't edit ten bit video. For that, you have to pay for the "Studio" version. Once. Upgrades have been free for years.

If you want to blur out things in motion video, that may require tracking (moving the blurred area during the shot). I'm not sure if Resolve free does that or not. It certainly will with the paid version.
I believe the free version will do tracking...
 
I use on my Mac-mini final cut pro. You pay only once( 299 USD).
Ditto on Final Cut Pro... I have been using lots of high-end software in my 20 plus years of working in digital forensics, to include video forensics. In my experience, you get what you pay for, for the most part. $299 is a nuisance fee compared to what I normally pay for software and it's a one time fee only and it's an Apple product.

It's good to start out with freeware, but at some point you'll exceed its free features in what you want it to do. Then you have to pay to play. I also recommend committing to some inexpensive training. FMC has one-day classes, live and online. In that one day you get what you need, the basics. The class is $299. Worth every cent. Time is a precious commodity to waste, so a little bit of really good training jumps starts you and ends a lot of frustration trying to learn by trial and error.

Whatever you start with, you'll probably stick with and you don't want to restart the learning curve. So make a good choice. There will be lots of advice here for sure. In the end, you have to choose based on your platform, your needs, where you want to be in 5 years, and your budget.

Good luck in sorting out and making the right decision for you.
 
DaVinci Resolve has a free version that does almost everything the paid version does for most people's purposes.
I have heard of that but wasn't sure if it could do blurring of people or not.
 
As I understand it, the Air 2S will shoot ten bit video if you deem it necessary. The Free version of Resolve won't edit ten bit video. For that, you have to pay for the "Studio" version. Once. Upgrades have been free for years.

If you want to blur out things in motion video, that may require tracking (moving the blurred area during the shot). I'm not sure if Resolve free does that or not. It certainly will with the paid version.
If I was able to do the Studio version wouldn't I need those expensive tools like Keyboards and Panels or will it work without those?
 
If I was able to do the Studio version wouldn't I need those expensive tools like Keyboards and Panels or will it work without those?
It works fine without any extra hardware. Just use your standard keyboard and mouse.

The optional keyboards and controllers just make it quicker to use in a professional environment - though if you have the money no reason you can’t use them at home.
 
  • Like
Reactions: robforbes123
I highly recommend learning with the free DaVinci Resolve 18 and then down the road make the investment for those extra features that you'll NEVER miss until you're working for Disney or Paramount Studios or something. Honestly, the free version is arguably the best "free" version of any software anywhere! No cap. lol

Thats the plan I'm on. There are a ton of excellent YouTube videos for beginners that really spell things out. Here's an example...

 
I highly recommend learning with the free DaVinci Resolve 18 and then down the road make the investment for those extra features that you'll NEVER miss until you're working for Disney or Paramount Studios or something. Honestly, the free version is arguably the best "free" version of any software anywhere! No cap. lol

Thats the plan I'm on. There are a ton of excellent YouTube videos for beginners that really spell things out. Here's an example...

Ok Awesome thank you.
 
If I was able to do the Studio version wouldn't I need those expensive tools like Keyboards and Panels or will it work without those?
Resolve Free works fine with just a mouse. The system requirements and suggested hardware are listed on the website at

 
Both,Sorry forgot to clarify.
Since we've all be talking video editing, you did say, both, and nothing has been said of stills, as yet.

There's free stuff out there and there's paid stuff. Free is good when it works. Mostly I do free for minor tasks, when it it single purpose software. But the life cycle of software is to give it away, ask for donations, and eventually charge for it. Some stay in the free forever mode, but seriously, that's just one person trying to be helpful and you can only be helpful so long. You need cash to live and you also have to die. So all said, let's move on...

You are on Windows and so let's talk stuff that works in Windows. I'm Mac, but everything I use works also in Windows. Adobe is in the software rental business. I don't like that model, but I started with Abobe years ago before they became a landlord and so that is where I've stayed. I used to use Lightroom, which can edit, accommodate plugins, and organize your files all under one roof. LR's editing features are robust, but nothing beats the older, bigger cousin, Photoshop. GIMP is a freeware version of PS. I go back to you get what you pay for on that. I got tired of dropping everything in LR and watching the library and catalogue getting too large, occupying too much disk space. So I moved away from that.

So now I use Abobe Bridge / Camera Raw as my first step. I do my rough culling in Bridge, rough adjustments in Camera Raw. I convert from raw to a TIF and the pass to Topaz plugins. Nothing beats Topaz DeNoiseAI for noise removal. Shooting at night gets you noise. DeNoiseAI makes it disappear. Next it goes to Topaz SharpenAI. Nothing beats this tool for sharpening. Shooting raw, you'll need to sharpen. Shooting from a drone in the wind, you'll need to sharpen. Topaz rocks at getting rid of motion. After all that is done, my images are sent to Photoshop wherein they get whatever they need, but every image goes to Topaz Studio as a PS Plugin. Dehazing, contrast adjustment for every image. Most of the Topaz tools allow you to mask within. That said, you can apply sharpening to an object for instance, instead of allowing it to sharpen areas you want blurred. Masking prevents sharpening artifacts in the areas you want blurred. Same with contrast, color, etc. Until you've seen the Topaz tools, you won't believe them. They seriously rock. Trial versions let you see what they can do. As for organization, I use folder structure that is prefixed in the ISO notation, YYYYMMDD and followed by a descriptor. All original raw files are subjected to exiftool command line organizer, which puts the raw files in archives, organized by year and day created, based on exif data field 'created'. Everything is backed up, as every hard drive made will eventually fail.

So that's my still side workflow and tool set. Exiftool is the only free one, and it's bilingual, running on everything including your toaster.

I know you'll get other opinions and that's good. I'm doing this to start a conversation, not end it ;-> I like to see what others think and are doing. If I see something I like, I may give it try... Always learning...

Best...

Steve
 
Since we've all be talking video editing, you did say, both, and nothing has been said of stills, as yet.

There's free stuff out there and there's paid stuff. Free is good when it works. Mostly I do free for minor tasks, when it it single purpose software. But the life cycle of software is to give it away, ask for donations, and eventually charge for it. Some stay in the free forever mode, but seriously, that's just one person trying to be helpful and you can only be helpful so long. You need cash to live and you also have to die. So all said, let's move on...

You are on Windows and so let's talk stuff that works in Windows. I'm Mac, but everything I use works also in Windows. Adobe is in the software rental business. I don't like that model, but I started with Abobe years ago before they became a landlord and so that is where I've stayed. I used to use Lightroom, which can edit, accommodate plugins, and organize your files all under one roof. LR's editing features are robust, but nothing beats the older, bigger cousin, Photoshop. GIMP is a freeware version of PS. I go back to you get what you pay for on that. I got tired of dropping everything in LR and watching the library and catalogue getting too large, occupying too much disk space. So I moved away from that.

So now I use Abobe Bridge / Camera Raw as my first step. I do my rough culling in Bridge, rough adjustments in Camera Raw. I convert from raw to a TIF and the pass to Topaz plugins. Nothing beats Topaz DeNoiseAI for noise removal. Shooting at night gets you noise. DeNoiseAI makes it disappear. Next it goes to Topaz SharpenAI. Nothing beats this tool for sharpening. Shooting raw, you'll need to sharpen. Shooting from a drone in the wind, you'll need to sharpen. Topaz rocks at getting rid of motion. After all that is done, my images are sent to Photoshop wherein they get whatever they need, but every image goes to Topaz Studio as a PS Plugin. Dehazing, contrast adjustment for every image. Most of the Topaz tools allow you to mask within. That said, you can apply sharpening to an object for instance, instead of allowing it to sharpen areas you want blurred. Masking prevents sharpening artifacts in the areas you want blurred. Same with contrast, color, etc. Until you've seen the Topaz tools, you won't believe them. They seriously rock. Trial versions let you see what they can do. As for organization, I use folder structure that is prefixed in the ISO notation, YYYYMMDD and followed by a descriptor. All original raw files are subjected to exiftool command line organizer, which puts the raw files in archives, organized by year and day created, based on exif data field 'created'. Everything is backed up, as every hard drive made will eventually fail.

So that's my still side workflow and tool set. Exiftool is the only free one, and it's bilingual, running on everything including your toaster.

I know you'll get other opinions and that's good. I'm doing this to start a conversation, not end it ;-> I like to see what others think and are doing. If I see something I like, I may give it try... Always learning...

Best...

Steve
Thank you for this.
 
For photographs I like Affinity Photo, which is available for both Mac and PC.


I switched from Photoshop years ago and haven't looked back.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
130,597
Messages
1,554,235
Members
159,603
Latest member
refrigasketscanada