10 Portrait Lighting Patterns
OK bear with me on this one because I am going somewhere with it!
One of the first things you are probably going to notice if you start shooting video in a more controlled indoor environment is that the lighting gets kinda tricky.
Suddenly those overhead lights seem to be working against you and your subject is starting to look a little… rough?
The truth is that getting your camera or phone set up for shooting is not really all that complicated, but your lighting? Well that’s a whole different thing!
There are a gazillion tutorials on YouTube about how to get the right lighting set up for your videos and that’s fine but none of them will ever replace your own understanding of what is happening.
So in light of that (terrible pun I know!) here’s a tutorial on most of the possible lighting setups you can use BUT!!
I am not adding this tutorial for you to learn how to do them.
I am posting it so that you can look at the examples and by knowing them well, can identify exactly what is going on with your own lighting setup.
Often it is just as important to know what is causing the problem as well as not having the problem in the first place.
Blur Moving Faces And Objects The Right Way – PowerDirector
This is just a quick introduction to the tracking tool in CyberLink PowerDirector.
In the example given Maleik shows how to track an object or in this case, a face then use a blur effect on that object.
This is not the only use for the tracker as you can also attach objects like images or titles to the created track for other uses.
Creative Techniques for Title Editing
These are just some suggestion for a few things you can do to make your titles a little more interesting.
Of note is the technique for placing markers on the timeline on the beat of the music then using them as a guide to placing the titles.
In PowerDirector every time you hit the “m” key on the keyboard a marker is placed on the timeline which, as you can see in the video, can be used to quickly mark the beat.
This actually works in just about all other editing program I know of.
Make Your Travel Videos POP with Text Before & Behind Effects
One very effective way to add a dynamic feel to your videos is by using titles on-screen to highlight or emphasize what the viewer is seeing.
One problem with that is that the titling gets boring real fast!
A more interesting way to do it is to have the titles moving in, around, behind or in front of part of the video as it is playing.
This used to be a very complex process involving endless keyframe animations, multiple layers of video and wildly complex masking tasks.
These days it is a whole new ball game!
A.I. driven tools that automatically remove backgrounds coupled with preset title animations that you can customize, now make this a relatively simple process.
Check out some techniques in the video below but be warned, the voiceover is A.I. generated so there that.
5-Minute Video Editing — A Guide That Actually Works – Movavi Video Editor
One of the most common ways people “fall” into the whole world of video editing and creating content is sort of “reaction” based.
What I mean by that is that they have a desire to make a video thinking it might be fun or for whatever reason.
They “react” to that urge by grabbing a phone or camera and shooting some footage.
They dump that footage into an editor and realize that the footage isn’t really suitable or complete so the project gets kind of stalled.
On top of that they realize the audio is pretty bad which is something they didn’t really account for.
To each of these sudden problems, they “react” and find a way around them or solutions to them.
By the time they have completed a few projects they have developed a workflow that is based on reactions to problems.
On the surface this may seem OK but in the long run it almost always results in an inefficient and most importantly, unsustainable process.
Pretty soon the frustrations set in and it all goes a bit flat!
That’s why whenever I find a good, solid workflow tutorial I always post it here on the Friday Roundup.
Even if you think you have a pretty good workflow you should still do what I do and just quickly look at other suggestions to see if maybe yours could stand a polish.
How to Film CINEMATIC Smart Phone Interviews
Not sure about the reference to “cinematic” being of any real value here but the information is solid.
I spent a few years exclusively using phones as my video recording devices and at the end of the day you can get great quality footage.
In fact I still often use a phone as a source of b-roll footage or footage at a different angle for later use in editing.
These are some excellent tips for getting started.
Why Fancy Editing Doesn’t Make You a Better Video Editor
I feel like this is an important video for current times in which we live.
As you can probably imagine I get bombarded with promotional materials for all sorts of video related products every week.
Endless A.I this and A.I. that, new cameras, editing software, online A.I services it just goes on and on.
To be honest I am absolutely hopeless, I love that kind of stuff and probably spend way too much time playing with it all or checking it out.
However at the end of the day there is almost none of it that I actually use in my editing workflow.
Sure I can do the swirly, spinny in camera transitions with other effects added but at the end of the day… I don’t.
The reason for that is that there is no point engaging in any of that unless it actually applies to and furthers the message of the videos I am editing.
In this video Daniel covers this subject with a similar and common-sense approach to creating and editing videos.
How to add TEXT in DaVinci Resolve 20
If you haven’t been living under a rock and are interested in video editing, you would probably be well aware that DaVinci Resolve has updated to version 20.
Of course strictly speaking Resolve 20 is actually a Beta release but just about every version is a beta release until they upgrade to the next version so it really means nothing.
Anyhoo there have been many updates and improvements to the software and as a result, access to some of the features have changed a little… or a lot.
One of the more basic actions you can do in Resolve is adding text to a project so in light of recent changes here’s an updated tutorial from Casey Faris on adding text.
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