Editing my drone videos

minipro3 · Dec 25, 2023

I want to start to edit my vids and have questions. I understand that there are free programs out there,
* if I purchase a pay program is the learning curve easier
* is there downloadable music tracks in the free versions
I won't be doing a lot of technical stuff, just enough to stitch together shots with a sound track. I do understand that it takes a while to learn, just not sure if I should pay or not, money is not an issue

MS Coast · Dec 25, 2023

minipro3 said:
I want to start to edit my vids and have questions. I understand that there are free programs out there,
* if I purchase a pay program is the learning curve easier
* is there downloadable music tracks in the free versions
I won't be doing a lot of technical stuff, just enough to stitch together shots with a sound track. I do understand that it takes a while to learn, just not sure if I should pay or not, money is not an issue

I suggest Adobe Premiere Elements. It's one of the easiest to start with and it has capabilities far beyond what you describe. There's a free version of DaVinci Resolve, but the learning curve is much steeper. Premiere Elements is available for about $75, or for about $100 you can get Premier Elements and Photoshop Elements for both video and photo editing.

There are royalty free music tracks available from many locations. They don't have to come from the video editing software itself. Youtube has a good library of free downloadable tracks. And there's a forum member who offers thousands of tracks, requiring only attribution of the source.

Eric Matyas

mavicpilots.com

Prop Wash · Dec 25, 2023

I've been using Capcut. It's free and has a lot features. Learning curve is relatively easy plus there are lots of tutorial videos on YouTube. It does have some music that comes with it, but not all of it is royalty free. As @MS Coast stated, there are lots of sources, some free w/credit to the source in your video, some you pay a monthly fee. Epidemic Sound is one of those fee based sources.

smbishop · Dec 25, 2023

I use Adobe Premiere Elements, simple to use and a ton of youtube tutorials. I also use Davinci Resolve, quite the learning curve.

I use, Soundimage.org for some sound, I think he is the forum member mentioned…

akdrone · Dec 25, 2023

Davinci Resolve has a free version and it's probably the most powerful of the free editors. Capcut gets good reviews and it's much easier. Final Cut Pro has a 90 day (?) free trial but then it's $300 but it's a one time payment.

minipro3 · Dec 26, 2023

I started looking into Photoshop Elements, but after calling them about computer requirements, they said I need a minimum of 16 rams of memory. I only have 8 rams. I have a iMac that is a year old. Customer support said it would probably work, but I would have issues, it would be slow and maybe computer crashes ??

Aerialskape · Dec 26, 2023

If you have a Mac then use iMovie as it’s free

LeeB · Dec 26, 2023

In addition to considering what software to use, you may want to get an external SSD USB to store and edit your videos. Video files are big and will fill up the internal drive on your computer pretty quickly. An SSD has no mechanical parts and it completely electronic thereby offering fast access and updates as you edit your videos.

Robert Prior · Dec 26, 2023

minipro3 said:
I have a iMac

Then you should already have iMovie installed, as it comes free with all Macs. iMovie is easy to use and had a lot of features. I suggest you start with it while you're learning.

If you decide you want more features then Davinci Resolve has a free version, but the learning curve is a lot steeper than iMovie's.

tca · Dec 26, 2023

I was using DaVinci for a few years and a friend told me about Filmora.....it is GREAT.....easy to learn and works really good...lifetime membership is around $70.00

RangerEd · Dec 26, 2023

minipro3 said:
I want to start to edit my vids and have questions. I understand that there are free programs out there,
* if I purchase a pay program is the learning curve easier
* is there downloadable music tracks in the free versions
I won't be doing a lot of technical stuff, just enough to stitch together shots with a sound track. I do understand that it takes a while to learn, just not sure if I should pay or not, money is not an issue

The rule of thumb when it comes to paid software applications is that the more expensive it is, the more features/functions it has and thus requires a steep learning curve.

akdrone · Dec 26, 2023

minipro3 said:
I started looking into Photoshop Elements, but after calling them about computer requirements, they said I need a minimum of 16 rams of memory. I only have 8 rams. I have a iMac that is a year old. Customer support said it would probably work, but I would have issues, it would be slow and maybe computer crashes ??

Yes, that is likely the case. You will be limited to some lower or middle tier software. You could, of course, give the free version of Davinci Resolve a try or try Final Cut Pro trial version a go but stitching together some shots with music is a pretty simple thing and iMovie, Capcut (or whatever that name is), and the others mentioned would work fine. So would Powerpoint for that matter. It's kind of made for that and you -can- buy a stand alone version of MS Office, often at a great discount if you look around and watch some of the mac oriented web sites like Appleinsider, Macworld, MacRumors, etc. I have quite a few startup items on my MacStudio and after quitting all programs my Mac is using 17GB of RAM. It would be less after a restart I think but you might pull up Activity Monitor and check how much RAM you are using after a restart. I'd guess at least 6GB which leaves you very little overhead before you start swapping memory to your SSD. For that reason - your SSD is going to be reading and writing - you should definitely get an external Thunderbolt SSD to which you will install the files you'll be working on so those changes won't have to happen to the internal SSD which would slow things down even further. Apple shouldn't even sell computers with 8GB of RAM but now that you have one your best recourse is to use an external SSD with Thunderbolt, keep your installed startup items to a minimum and use a program that has a small RAM footprint.

minipro3 · Dec 26, 2023

Thank you guys, I think I'll start with iMovie and go from there.

Photobobhunt · Dec 30, 2023

I got back into video editing when I started flying in 21 (I use to edit video tape in the last century). I tried many different free software packages as well as a few cheap ones, Shotcut, Videopad, and others. All of them had some basic limitation . I bit the bullet and downloaded DaVinci and found it the best and its free. It does have a steep learning curve, but if my geriatric brain can figure it out, anyone can. I also use a cheap HP computer with 16 gigs of ram and edit via "proxy files" and get good results.
You're going to eventually move up to Adobe Premier or DaVinci (DaVinci is Free) and lots of help on YouTube
give it a shot, nothing to loose

MotoSavy · Dec 30, 2023

LeeB said:
In addition to considering what software to use, you may want to get an external SSD USB to store and edit your videos. Video files are big and will fill up the internal drive on your computer pretty quickly. An SSD has no mechanical parts and it completely electronic thereby offering fast access and updates as you edit your videos.

I do my editing on my PC which has two NVMe M.2 drives (2TB & 1TB). They are the newer and faster generation of SSDs.

I later save all my old stuff to my NAS (Network Attached Storage) which is a 36TG RAID 10 device. Meaning it has 4 18TB drives running in spanned and duped mode.

I've been doing photography for a long time and shoot in JPG+RAW which eats up a lot of storage. I am also paperless, so I scan all my documents and shred. I also have a huge music collection.

The external SSDs are nice, but on onboard one will be faster and if you computer supports NVMe M.2, much better, they are cheaper than external drives with larger capacities. If you can't go internal, the external SSD is then the way to go.

MotoSavy · Dec 30, 2023

tca said:
I was using DaVinci for a few years and a friend told me about Filmora.....it is GREAT.....easy to learn and works really good...lifetime membership is around $70.00

I am just getting started with videos and after doing some research I also decide to go with Filmora. Filmora has a one time purchase that like @tca said is about $70, but I think you only get one lifetime version update or only upgrades to the version you buy. They also offer a $49 yearly plan which keeps you current on all new versions.

But no matter if you get the Lifetime or Yearly version, it is crippled software. It has a lot of additional content that if you want to use, it's an additional $99 a year. It includes more special effects, stickers, music, transitions, titles, stock photos and videos, etc.

There was a title and transition I really liked and they were both part of the paid upgrade so I got it. So over all I'm paying $149 a year for a pretty decent and easy to use package. A couple days ago, I was building a website and needed stock images, and I got them from Filmora. So an added bonus to have stock photos and videos.

So far, very happy with Filmora. Very easy to learn and they have a lot of tutorials.

I already added the DJI D-LOG M to Rec.709 Luts for my Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro.

You can try it for free and has all the premium content, the premium content has a diamond on the top left of them, but anything you output will have a Filmora Watermark on it until you pay the lifetime or get the annual subscription.

Give it a try, it's pretty easy to use.

Photobobhunt · Dec 30, 2023

Filmora has good reviews, and would likely be a good choice.
The computer does make a difference but not that much. I upgraded my HP with a NV Me M.2, 500 gb drive which does give faster processing. I shoot my drone video in log (except the MIni 2, )4K-30 or 60, but usually output in 1080 since most people will view it on a tablet or phone. I make a personal copy in 4K that I can view on my 56 inch Samsung but I really don't see much difference. The TV may be upscaling the video.
I do offload all created videos and associated files to an external drive because they really eat up space and can bog your system down.
Good conversation. I could have used this input when I started . HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Robert Prior · Dec 30, 2023

The advice I just got from my niece (professional filmmaker) is it's better to start with simple software and learn how to shoot and edit with purpose than worry about learning the ins-and-outs of a more capable package without really knowing why you should make certain adjustments.

This mirrors the photography advice I've received from countless professional photographers: worry less about the camera, more about the shot. Wait to upgrade until you feel the limits of what you have.