DaVinci Resolve or lightroom

[Michael Ainsworth]

Mac use iMovie. and then look at FCPX.
On PC there are multiple options including lightworks.

Looking at Lightworks the free version limits you in exporting videos. There also seems to be a lot of in app purchases. For the Pro version you have to pay a substantial monthly fee.
I have the paid version of Da Vinci Resolve, no monthly fees and free updates. Also use Pinnacle 23. If you go for Adobe Premier Pro you also end up with monthly fees and get sucked into their black hoe of subscription. All editing programs are a learning curve. If you are serious about doing videos get a decent programme and spend time learning it.

 

[Dale D]

Just to chime in and ask: so if you are going to do both video and photo editing, should you get Lightroom and Premier Pro?

Can Adobe Photoshop also do what Premier Pro can do?

Photoshop is for RAW or DNG (digital negative Adobe) or JPG images, not for videos Photoshop does have some video capabilities. but I don't think it is in order for serious editing. Premiere Pro is the Adobe video editing program and is considered the state of the art.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Photoshop is for RAW or DNG (digital negative Adobe) or JPG images, not for videos Photoshop does have some video capabilities. but I don't think it is in order for serious editing. Premiere Pro is the Adobe video editing program and is considered the state of the art.

Premiere Pro - Start of the art?? Far from it Dale. It is a capable editor but it has a long way to go to match true professional NLE’s

 

[Dale D]

Premiere Pro - Start of the art?? Far from it Dale. It is a capable editor but it has a long way to go to match true professional NLE’s

Yes- I know about the AVID machine- the huge console that is used for professional movie editing. My 55 year old daughter has a degree in Video Editing from A.F.I. (American Film Institute) in Hollywood, and is a profession movie editor in Hollywood. I am not talking about the machine she uses (rents for $1000 USD) a day! She has edited many full length Hollywood films. I am talking about "state of the art" for us lowly drones which I consider Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, and Da Vinci Resolve.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Yes- I know about the AVID machine- the huge console that is used for professional movie editing. My 55 year old daughter has a degree in Video Editing from A.F.I. (American Film Institute) in Hollywood, and is a profession movie editor in Hollywood. I am not talking about the machine she uses (rents for $1000 USD) a day! She has edited many full length Hollywood films. I am talking about "state of the art" for us lowly drones which I consider Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, and Da Vinci Resolve.

Hey Dale, far from lowly! You’re one of the best video producers I’ve seen on this forum. I agree, at this level PP is good if you’re happy to go the subscription route. But for free Davinci Resolve is currently peerless.

I’ve been running MediaComposer for many, many years on a laptop and multiple screens, video hardware interface, audio panel etc. but Avid too went the subscription (sorry, ‘maintenance’) path and after leaving Avid I decided to try Davinci - never looked back despite working with several other professional NLE’s in the industry.

As always, everyone will find the one they’re most comfortable with.

By the way, where’s your next big adventure taking you?

 

[Dale D]

Hey Dale, far from lowly! You’re one of the best video producers I’ve seen on this forum. I agree, at this level PP is good if you’re happy to go the subscription route. But for free Davinci Resolve is currently peerless.

I’ve been running MediaComposer for many, many years on a laptop and multiple screens, video hardware interface, audio panel etc. but Avid too went the subscription (sorry, ‘maintenance’) path and after leaving Avid I decided to try Davinci - never looked back despite working with several other professional NLE’s in the industry.

As always, everyone will find the one they’re most comfortable with.

By the way, where’s your next big adventure taking you?

Well, Skye High- I had this really grand adventure I was planning for a year It involved maybe $30,000 trip for my wife (76) and I. We were going (American Airlines business mileage seats on Qatar Airways) from Miami to Doha,Qatar. Then 3 full days each in Doha, (3) Muscat,Oman,( 2) nights in a luxury desert camp with camel rides on the dunes and night astrophotgraphy in the Omanian Desert, then fly to Dubai for 3 full days at luxe hotel overlooking the Dubai Fountains and the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in there world) and trip to the 145th floor for timelapse sunset, and stay in the Address Downtown with window overlooking the fountains (10 x better than Bellagio in Vegas). Final stop was Abu Dhabi, with 3 days there and 2 nights in another luxury desert camp. Two of these countries are still closed. Dubai require 72 hour Covid negative test for entry.

The trip was planned for this December ,2020 (their coolest month), and I started to plan last January (pre-Covid). All of the plans went down the drain with Covid. Never lost a cent. Got my American miles re-deposited with no fee.

I feel blessed at the age of 82 to still have my health and ability to travel the world. I am a retired ophthalmologist and can afford Premiere, so what the heck. The costs will not bend the needle for me!

Tell me something about Media Composer.

For past adventures visit www.daledavisphotography.smugmug.com
Be sure to first hit the "Browse"Button,

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Just to chime in and ask: so if you are going to do both video and photo editing, should you get Lightroom and Premier Pro?

Can Adobe Photoshop also do what Premier Pro can do?

Photoshop does more than what Lightroom does. Premiere Pro is a video editor. Lightroom is Photoshop (light). You can also do limited 3D modeling with Photoshop

 

[Dale D]

Photoshop does more than what Lightroom does. Premiere Pro is a video editor. Lightroom is Photoshop (light). You can also do limited 3D modeling with Photoshop

Photoshop is ONLY for images (with a minimal capacity for video).
Premiere Pro is only for video.
Photoshop and Lightroom use the same engine to process an image, but Photoshop is more powerful and can do more.

 

[Dave Maine]

Resolve probably has the most capable color correction. It is an ok editor. IMovie is free and will do anything you are likely to want to do with drone footage. Final Cut ProX is iMovie’s big brother and. Fine overall editor. It is massive overkill for editing drone footage. Lots of people like Premiere. It too is overkill for drone footage.

My recommendation is to,get something simple and easy to use. You are extremely unlikely to perform multi cam edition or any of the other tricks a professional editor gives you. With capability comes complexity and is time consuming to learn.

 

[vindibona1]

@Dale D Sorry about the cancelation of your trip. I looked up the drone laws in Dubai and it seems there is a hard 400' ceiling for drone flight. So much for flying over the Burj Khalifa .

 

[SkyeHigh]

Well, Skye High- I had this really grand adventure I was planning for a year It involved maybe $30,000 trip for my wife (76) and I. We were going (American Airlines business mileage seats on Qatar Airways) from Miami to Doha,Qatar. Then 3 full days each in Doha, (3) Muscat,Oman,( 2) nights in a luxury desert camp with camel rides on the dunes and night astrophotgraphy in the Omanian Desert, then fly to Dubai for 3 full days at luxe hotel overlooking the Dubai Fountains and the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in there world) and trip to the 145th floor for timelapse sunset, and stay in the Address Downtown with window overlooking the fountains (10 x better than Bellagio in Vegas). Final stop was Abu Dhabi, with 3 days there and 2 nights in another luxury desert camp. Two of these countries are still closed. Dubai require 72 hour Covid negative test for entry.

The trip was planned for this December ,2020 (their coolest month), and I started to plan last January (pre-Covid). All of the plans went down the drain with Covid. Never lost a cent. Got my American miles re-deposited with no fee.

I feel blessed at the age of 82 to still have my health and ability to travel the world. I am a retired ophthalmologist and can afford Premiere, so what the heck. The costs will not bend the needle for me!

Tell me something about Media Composer.

For past adventures visit www.daledavisphotography.smugmug.com
Be sure to first hit the "Browse"Button,

So sorry to hear you plans have been disrupted Dale. I can image how frustrating it must be especially after all that planning. Sounds like one heck of a trip though and I do hope you manage to get to the Middle East as soon as this pandemic eases.

We’re still stuck in the UK after cutting short our circular trip around Australia in Feb when my mother’s health deteriorated in hospital. We got to spend her last month with her before our airline abandoned all its International passengers but kept their money for 3-months. Next available booked flight was cancelled with one weeks’ notice in August and rebooked for end of November with absolutely no guarantee we’ll get home.

Each state in Australia have restricted the number of inbound passengers to prevent COVID-19 cases swamping the hospitals. A ridiculous 350-per day into Sydney. It has resulted in 29,000 people still unable to return home since March. The federal government have been highly criticised for doing pretty much nothing but wash their hands. But then what more would you expect from politicians!

At least we have been able to spend more time with family and friends in the UK between lockdowns.

Can’t wait to get back to our travels and continue our trip, which began in April 2019.

Discovery Down Under

An Australian Adventure

www.discoverydownunder.com

 

[vindibona1]

So sorry to hear you plans have been disrupted Dale. I can image how frustrating it must be especially after all that planning. Sounds like one heck of a trip though and I do hope you manage to get to the Middle East as soon as this pandemic eases.

We’re still stuck in the UK after cutting short our circular trip around Australia in Feb when my mother’s health deteriorated in hospital. We got to spend her last month with her before our airline abandoned all its International passengers but kept their money for 3-months. Next available booked flight was cancelled with one weeks’ notice in August and rebooked for end of November with absolutely no guarantee we’ll get home.

Each state in Australia have restricted the number of inbound passengers to prevent COVID-19 cases swamping the hospitals. A ridiculous 350-per day into Sydney. It has resulted in 29,000 people still unable to return home since March. The federal government have been highly criticised for doing pretty much nothing but wash their hands. But then what more would you expect from politicians!

At least we have been able to spend more time with family and friends in the UK between lockdowns.

Can’t wait to get back to our travels and continue our trip, which began in April 2019.

Discovery Down Under

An Australian Adventure

www.discoverydownunder.com

Sorry to hear about your mother. I can't imagine what you must be feeling. We have a nephew in Melbourne and his family has been on total lock-down for weeks. Our niece, stuck in Israel is experiencing the same thing. If it's any consolation, I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel, though the talking heads, particularly in the US don't want to play up the progress for fear of saying anything positive that might affect the election But I get my information from a very close relative, a doctor who is is a medical consultant and CEO of a large telehealth company and has the latest information.

It may be important to note that the virus is going through a metamorphasis right now, breeding weaker strains of the virus (I can explain why later if you want to know why). Consequently, many who are infected have less severe symptoms than the earlier victims and recover quicker. Note that US President Trump was out of commission, maybe a week- and looked pretty good after only a few days. I'm sure the advanced knowledge of the virus has developed therapeutics and treatments that are radically different than at the beginning of the pandemic. So treatment, at least in the US is having positive results. We have seen wide expansion of testing, especially with the newly distributed 15 minute test, so indications of any spikes are in some respects due to increased testing. Mortality rates, especially at the beginning were overblown, largely because anyone who tested positive with COVID who died was listed as a COVID death, even though the main cause of death was a co-morbidity. The death rate in relation to infection is dropping. Also, the first vaccine distribution is right around the corner. This isn't coming from me, but repeated from someone who REALLY knows [this guy is board certified in 3 specialties and is super smart and works tirelessly].

And so @SkyeHigh just keep your head up and keep thinking positive thoughts. This will all be over sooner than we think.

 

[bushie]

So sorry to hear you plans have been disrupted Dale. I can image how frustrating it must be especially after all that planning. Sounds like one heck of a trip though and I do hope you manage to get to the Middle East as soon as this pandemic eases.

We’re still stuck in the UK after cutting short our circular trip around Australia in Feb when my mother’s health deteriorated in hospital. We got to spend her last month with her before our airline abandoned all its International passengers but kept their money for 3-months. Next available booked flight was cancelled with one weeks’ notice in August and rebooked for end of November with absolutely no guarantee we’ll get home.

Each state in Australia have restricted the number of inbound passengers to prevent COVID-19 cases swamping the hospitals. A ridiculous 350-per day into Sydney. It has resulted in 29,000 people still unable to return home since March. The federal government have been highly criticised for doing pretty much nothing but wash their hands. But then what more would you expect from politicians!

At least we have been able to spend more time with family and friends in the UK between lockdowns.

Can’t wait to get back to our travels and continue our trip, which began in April 2019.

Discovery Down Under

An Australian Adventure

www.discoverydownunder.com

WE are stuck in WA. Have not seen the grand children in Queensland for a year. Their trip here in early 2020 was cancelled and no chance to travel since. Also had a cruise in SE Asia cancelled. Premier here in WA is talking about mid next year before state border is opened. Fortunately WA is a big place and we can travel where we like here.

 

[RussDrone]

If you do a lot of photography, I'd stick with Adobe. In my case, I make frequent use of Lightroom/PhotoShop for still images and Premier Pro for video. If you only use a video editor for drone videos, I found iMovie to be very adequate.

 

[vindibona1]

I do a lot of Video editing (mainly ground based news and documentary work) . Rexolve is NOT a good choice to start with....

BTW I have been video editing for about a decade and have been getting to grips with Resolve for the last 6 months...

I've been thinking about your comments. And while I see your point I'm going to respectfully disagree.

I took note of your decade's long experience, which got me thinking about my own experiences in other software. I've come to the conclusion that some of us develop what I will coin as "process habituation". We get used to doing things a certain way and find doing things differently can be challenging if not downright painful. I have seen videos of guys who were using Premier Pro and then started using Davinci Resolve and have run into the wall of process habituation where they had to relearn how to do certain things. Their brains start to freak out because things that they could do without thinking now required cerebral reprocessing. I can cite my own personal experiences.

If you don't have a Mac iMovie and FCPx isn't an option. Without any experience with it, I would imagine the leap from iMovie to FCP isn't that far as they share many of the same protocols. I'm not aware of any PC editing software that eases you in, then allows you to "move up"... besides Resolve. I maintain that learning the BASICS of Resolve is no harder than any editing program.

You cited the rather lengthy user manual. And while that is certainly true, there are SO MANY tutorials out there, providing information in bite-sized pieces. If you think about it, EVERY video editing program for the most basic editing job will require 1) Import media. 2) Bring into timeline. 3) Trim video. 4 [optionally]) Audio manipulation (at least trimming, sometimes separated from video, sometimes not). 5) Transitions between clips. If you ignore all the other bells and whistles of Resolve, why is this program harder to learn than any other, especially if your drone already has your color grading done for you? Color grading would be the next step in the process, but I would suggest if you don't know how to do color correcting already there wil lbe few if any programs that are going to be any easier in that regard. I reference the following link, taken with a Mini, no filters, no grading and just trims with a simple transition: Pure Mini thread- Edited in Davinci Resolve

The beautiful thing about Resolve is that there are no limitations to what you can do with it, nor do you have to change any "process habituation" from other software to expand your capabilities. No, you're not going to learn the Fusion module without some intense learning because it is extraordinarily powerful, but complex. It isn't for the impatient. If special effects are very important to someone right away, then this probably isn't the software for them. But short of the Fusion section, there is no reason why a beginner can't be up and running doing some pretty spectacular things in a matter of days.

 

[vindibona1]

If you do a lot of photography, I'd stick with Adobe. In my case, I make frequent use of Lightroom/PhotoShop for still images and Premier Pro for video. If you only use a video editor for drone videos, I found iMovie to be very adequate.

How much do you pay monthly?

 

[wco81]

I do a lot of Video editing (mainly ground based news and documentary work) . Rexolve is NOT a good choice to start with. yes it is free but it is very buggy, has no tool tips and a 3,500 page PDF manual that is so opaque you will need the other dozen how to PDF's (each of multiple 100 pages) that are slightly less opaque.
It depends what platform you are on.
On Mac use iMovie. and then look at FCPX.
On PC there are multiple options including lightworks.

BTW I have been video editing for about a decade and have been getting to grips with Resolve for the last 6 months. Unfortunatlry it is rooted in a history and workflow from the last millennium. Those in the Hollywood LA/London bubble love it. As for the rest... well. FCPX has more paying users than Resolve has paying+free users. BMD do seem to be adressing this slowly but not this year

I tried using iMovie. I can't use LUT on the DLOG videos I shoot with M2P on iMovie.

So I download DVR, apply the LUT that DJI provided, which tends to oversaturate the colors a bit and slap on an MP3 track.

Don't bother to any editing though, just apply the LUT. DVR is a heavy application, takes long time to load, so overkill for that but I'm not paying for Premiere and probably not even Final Cut Pro.

 

[PBF]

For Video
DaVinci Resolve 16 , with just a bit of commitment, it is a dream come true for enthusiast (Free), right up to to Hollywood / BBC grade editors.
It is a young, energetic, forever improving masterpiece of an assistant in your editing toolbox.

Stills
Again, after an initial commitment to learning the very basics, Photoshop will be everything you will ever want to edit your images. (Just make sure you shoot in RAW for the full benefit). LightRoom is superb but does not do a 1/4 of what PS is capable of.

By the way, you (really) can't polish a turd so, make sure, in both DaVinci Resolve and Photoshop, you learn how to capture the original image properly 1st.

 

[RustyRussell]

try Filmora aswell way more computer friendly and way faster than divinci.i tried a few and settled on filmora ,if my pc was a very powerfull new build i may go and try divinci again.

Happy to see mention of Filmora9. It is just so easy to use, fast and doesn't bog my computer down and it does a great job!

 

[RussDrone]

How much do you pay monthly?

I pay $60 monthly ... but I use over 12 applications and 1TB of cloud memory. Here's my site: Schundlerphoto.myportfolio.com