Do you want to edit and improve videos for social media have no clue where to start? Although video post-production requires skill and experience, there are several easy ways to improve your videos that you can try when you first start out.
By taking advantage of them, you can start to hone your skills and acquire the experience you need.
Some of the easy ways to start editing and improving social media videos during post-production are:
- Stabilize any video footage that is shaky
Most editors have an automated feature to help stabilize any video footage, and it will immediately improve any videos that are shaky. The extent of the improvement can vary, and even the best software stabilization can only do so much.
At most you may have to adjust a setting based on how shaky your social media video is in order to use this feature.
- Correct the color balance
Color correction (and color grading) can be a very nuanced and difficult area to come to grips with. However as a starting point you can correct the color balance using the automated white or color balance feature that is present in most editors.
Although the automated white and color balance tool is by no means foolproof, it is an easy first step to correct the color balance in your videos. From there you can try experimenting with the contrast, saturation, hue, and other color settings to fine tune it further.
The more you make it a point to try manually adjusting the color settings, the more familiar you’ll become with how each one affects your video.
- Improve the composition by cropping the frame
Making improvements to the composition of your video can be tricky, but one easy way is by using the crop tool. It will let you remove a section of video adjacent to the frame and re-frame the video and its composition.
For best results you should turn on the grid in your editor and use the rule of thirds as a guide. Some editors may have other grids available for different composition rules as well, but the rule of thirds is the easiest to start with.
Just be sure that you don’t crop your social media videos too much or their quality could be affected.
- Try out different types of cuts
One very significant way to edit and improve social media videos is to try different types of cuts. Initially you could focus on some basic types of cuts such as the L and J cut, action cut, jump cut, and cutaways – and see how each can be used.
In time learning how each cut affects your videos can help you to create social media videos that are far more compelling and smooth. That does require experience, but even being aware of the different types of cuts that are out there can help you to figure out which one is best in any given situation.
Make no mistake there are lots of other ways that you could potentially edit and improve social media videos such as by applying filters, learning how to reverse a video, using visual effects, and so on. However the four options listed above represent easy ways to edit and improve videos that can have a big impact on them, and help you to develop your skills further.
All said and done there is no substitute for hands on experience – and that is what you should aim to get. By starting to edit your social media videos in the ways that were outlined, you’ll quickly be able to come up with far more impressive videos.
