Want to learn video editing, lead me down the right way.

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superakuma

New member
I am new here. I found this forum from google. A little background info on myself. I am an amateur photographer. I've been shooting for over 10 years now and is currently going to school for photography. I hope to make my way to becoming a pro and have my own business. As we all know dSLR have made its way to the video world. I can not ignore the fact that I will need to learn video or I will be left behind in this very competitive market.

I am new to this world of video. Sorry if I am asking some very noob question or if I am beating a dead horse here.

Since I am entering the video world, I would need to learn how to edit them. Since I am used to photoshop I was thinking about learning adobe premier as my editing program. After talking to a few people they said that Final Cut Pro was the industry standard. I know you need to pay to play but I am trying to avoid getting a Mac. I work in the PC world and have a lot invested on my PC. Another options that I was told about was Sony Vegas.

Again I am new to video so please excuse my ignorance. Is it possible to get the job done with just using Adobe premier or Sony Vegas? I know in the photo world, you can get all your job done with Adobe lightroom and photoshop.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help. I am looking for feedbacks from those who work with video and STILL photography.

There will be more questions that I will ask but I don't know where to start asking right now.
 
If you are shooting for yourself, there is no reason for you to go to FCP. Purchase a copy of the new Adobe CS5 and you should be golden. If you had plans to make movies then I might suggest FCP or Avid since they are the heavyweights in the business, but I can't see any need for that based on what you are talking about here.
 
First of all, drop the word "just." I've used Premiere Pro for the past 4 years and it is on a roll with CS5 to the point where it now truly is a Pro app. FCP has fallen behind in many areas. If you are good with other Adobe software by all means buy the integrated suite if you can swing it and don't look back. On the other hand, Sony Vegas is a very capable program that is the easiest for most beginners to get up to speed with and start editing on. Free 30 day trial downloads are available for both so you can check them out.
 
welcome to the boards superakuma! so now you have a bit of feedback...tell us what you shoot, and what camera(s) you're working with?
 
Chris Light said:
welcome to the boards superakuma! so now you have a bit of feedback...tell us what you shoot, and what camera(s) you're working with?
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I don't have any plans to buy a camcorder anytime soon, I still need to do some more research in that field. If you are asking what camera I shoot for still, I shoot with the D700, D40 and an inferred converted D70. As far as the lens, I have too many to list. I know non of these does video and I know Nikon is not as good as Canon when it comes to dSLR video. But when I am ready to shoot video I will buy a dedicated camcorder or I hope that Nikon will up their game in the next line of DSLR. As far as brand goes, it is too early for me to say.


Deepfocus88,
Thanks for the link. I didn't know that book came out already. I heard Richard Harrington talking about on TWIP podcast a few months ago and I forgot all about it.

Thanks everyone else for the reply. I am not picking a fight but I hope everyone here is right when they say Adobe is all I need. It would be such a relief that I don't have to spend a grand on the software and another $1500 for the mac.
 
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superakuma said:
Thanks everyone else for the reply. I am not picking a fight but I hope everyone here is right when they say Adobe is all I need. It would be such a relief that I don't have to spend a grand on the software and another $1500 for the mac.
Click to expand...

I cut for years on Adobe, and so have a lot of other folks. If you find that you need to start playing "with the big boys" then maybe a jump to something else would be justified. But if I was just cutting for myself right now, and had Adobe available to me, I'd be darn happy with it. I'd sure love to have After Effects, that's for sure!
 
If I were jumping in to the game right now, I'd take Final Cut out of the equation and go with Adobe CS across the board. Just make sure your computer is fast enough to handle it. You'll need 64 bit for Premiere and After Effects.

My 2 cents.

And yeah, that book would be right up your alley.
 
Actually, if I was just starting out and wanted to see if I had any editing ability* at all, I'd go with one of the cheap versions of whatever first. (Like the $99 Vegas version, if it still exists).

*A good shooter isn't necessarily going to be a good editor...especially if editing their own stuff. Kinda like everyone thinks their own kids are georgeous and wouldn't change a thing...
 
Premiere Pro is a great tool, affordable, and likely to do everything you'll need it to do, for quite some time (like, possibly the remainder of your career). And of course it will continue to be upgraded, expanded and improved in its capabilities, so by the time you need a more sophisticated or powerful NLE it will very likely have evolved to meet your requirements.
 
Remember the history of editing is cutting/splicing and chopping film and moving it around. Editing is fairly simple when you think about it like that.

1. upload it to your computer and place it into your editing program
2. drag it into your timeline and start slicing it and connecting it where you want it
3. export it out in the file format you want to preview it in

Piece of cake. You don't need to spend hours with books or tutorials to get started. Simply shoot something very basic you can practice editing on. Export it out and upload it online and try to get feedback on it.

The real complexities that come with editing are when you get into effects. What color, how to fix certain problems, how to get it to look better online with better compression settings. And then on the matter of style. Where should you cut, how to manipulate emotions with pace, how to get the music to fit properly. What transitions to use. That all comes from watching films to form your own tastes.

When I got my hdslr, it was my first time shooting on an hdslr so I took it somewhere that I could get a wide range of shots..the Dallas Aquarium. So I'd recommend going somewhere interesting like the zoo, an aquarium and spend the day getting shots. Then cut the best shots down with some music and see how it looks.

What I did was picked a song I wanted to use and brought the song into the timeline. I then made cuts on the song on key parts where it transitions. That was to mark a point where I might cut what is visually seen as well so it feels more like the visual elements are intentional and match the mood set by the song.

Here's one of birds you can check out and notice how it cuts on certain tone changes in the song. All leading up to the finale in the song and the final image. That is the thing about editing just like in storytelling, what will be your first image, and what will be your last? It's a lot of pressure when you really think about it. However it can be exciting and fun at the same time...

 
^ second that. When you're talking about straight cuts, it's not about technical sophistication, it's about developing your eye and your sense of visual rhythm, learning what you can create through juxtaposition.
 
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