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Learn Video Editing

Recording high-quality video has never been easier, but recording video is only part of the story. To get video from its raw form to a finished, polished state, it needs to be edited. The good news is that video editing is not as complicated or hard to learn as you might think!

We've built a complete guide to help you learn how to edit videos, whether you're just getting started with the basics or you want to master video editing and post-production. This Learning Guide will help you:

  • Learn the basics of editing video.
  • Master the video editing software of your choice.
  • Understand and use color correction and grading.
  • Get to grips with audio processing for video.
  • Go further in post-production with video effects, transitions, and more.
  • Create compelling videos that engage your audience.

By the end, you'll have the skills and techniques you need to start editing your projects and telling stories of your own.

1. Introduction to Video Editing

Get started quickly and learn how to edit a video with our Introduction to Video Editing course. You'll begin with the basics by learning how to import and organize your footage and assets, how to trim clips and add them to a timeline, and how to improve audio. By the end of the course, you'll have learned about color correction and grading, video effects and transitions, and so much more! 

The course uses the best free video editing software HitFilm Express, so you can easily follow along and get real, hands-on experience editing video. 

Watch the introduction video below:

 

What Is Video Editing?

Video editing creates the building blocks of a story by making cuts and putting shots together: trimming your shots to just the good stuff, then putting it all in order. In this video from Introduction to Video Editing you'll learn about cuts, and how to evaluate your footage for emotion, story, rhythm, and more!

 

2. The Best Video Editing Software

There are a lot of choices available when choosing video editing software, but one stands head and shoulders above the others: Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere truly is a standout among its peers. Plus, it's available alongside Photoshop and Illustrator as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

This guide mostly features courses and tutorials that use Adobe Premiere Pro, but in most cases you can apply the same techniques in your video editor of choice. 

Alternative Video Editing Applications

Depending on what you're looking for, there are other options that may suit your workflow and be the best video editing app for you. We have courses to get you started in two other professional video editing applications: Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer. If you're new to professional editing systems then Sony Vegas Pro is a good option that's rapidly catching up to more established editors.

For other substitutes to Adobe Premiere Pro, check out our roundup of alternative good video editing apps. Every editor in this list is either fully free or has a free version, and we’ve personally tested those free versions to make sure they are still feature-rich and useful.

3. How to Use Adobe Premiere

Get up and running with one of the most popular video editing applications today in our course Introduction to Video Editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. In this course on Adobe Premiere basics, you'll learn how to use Premiere Pro, including how to:

  • organize your files outside Premiere
  • import your assets
  • set up your project 
  • make cuts
  • perform basic editing
  • use audio and video effects
  • export your project
  • and more!

Explore all our Adobe Premiere tutorials and learn about Adobe video editing in our Adobe Premiere Pro category.

4. Master Color

Color Correction

Color correction is the part of the post-production process where you balance all your clips to neutralize colors and get a uniform look to all the shots. Without color correction, your sequence can look disjointed and mismatched. This is different than color grading, in which you deliberately pull the look of the clips away from the natural and true to give them a stylized look to help sell the setting or mood.

Although this sounds like a complex process, the basics are easy to understand! Learn the basics of color correction for video in How to Color Correct Video With Adobe Premiere.

You will learn about what footage works best and what doesn't, what sorts of effects are used to adjust footage, and the steps of the process. You’ll also see a few demos of color correction in action! By the end of this course, you will be able to adjust exposure, fix white balance, and fix color cast issues.

Automatic Color Correction With DaVinci Resolve

What if you could automate the often tedious color correction process with quick and affordable tools?

You can! In our course Automatic Color Correction With DaVinci Resolve, you will learn how to color correct your video using an inexpensive color reference target and free software. 

You will get a brief overview of Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve, learn how to color correct with a reference target, and discover how to export your clips back to your editor. With this method, you can use one of your clips as a reference and then apply the correction to all the other clips that were shot under the same lighting conditions. This method takes a lot of the hassle out of color correction and gets you back to editing your project.

Color Grading

The art of color grading sometimes feels as if it's shrouded in mystery—the secret sauce that filmmakers use to get that magic “cinematic” look. Grading might seem a big, intimidating, costly process—and it definitely can be—but it doesn't have to be that way. Just a little bit of grading can go a long way to creating a compelling look in projects of all sizes, without breaking the budget!

In this course, you will learn some of the secrets of color grading:

  • how color enhances and shapes perception
  • how to push colors away from the neutral and into something more striking
  • how to create some popular looks
  • how to use vignettes, grain, and more!

5. Audio Processing for Video

Bad audio can ruin an otherwise well-crafted video production. Don't let that happen!

Master audio processing in our course Advanced Audio Processing for Video, and learn how to tackle the audio portion of your projects professionally. In this Premiere Pro editing course, you'll learn:

  • how to edit, process, mix, and master audio for your video projects
  • how to use essential audio plugins like EQs, compressors, gates, expanders, and de-essers
  • how to clean up dialog tracks by fixing noise, reverb, and mouth clicks
  • how to mix and process effects so that they sit in the mix
  • how to use some mastering plugins like compressors and limiters to keep your audio levels and tone in check

Watch the introduction video below:

 

6. Go Further

We have a huge number of tutorials that will help you learn video editing online and dig further into cleaning up noisy footage, creating video thumbnails, captioning your videos, video codecs, and so much more!

7. Learn Video Editing

This Learning Guide will continue to be updated with all the latest and greatest video editing tutorials and courses to help you stay at the very top of your game! 

To keep up with all the video editing content we publish, remember to:

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