Video editing software

[FowlersFreeTime]

Video is not a big part of this forum, I know, but some of you dabble in it and some of the new users who join might be interested in video too. I want to get back into editing little videos of my kid and family vacations, otherwise the video clips just live on my hard drive and never see the light of day. I struggled to use Adobe Premiere during the pandemic (when I thought I could become a Youtuber), only to find out that video editing is several orders of magnitude worse than photo editing, a truly depressing exercise. I have even less time and/or energy as a parent of a 3yr old now.

So, has anyone come across a video editing program that is more on the basic side, easy to learn, and hopefully doesn't have a subscription? I would like to edit 4k clips from my gopro and A6700, but no fancy music or transitions and definitely no color grading.
Thoughts?

 

[Unframed Dave]

Windows photos has basic editing capabilities.

 

[THXGEEK]

I have Cyberlink Director Suite - which includes photo, video and audio modules (available separately). Very powerful capabilities & recommended by PC Magazine, but I found it a bit cumbersome. YMMV. I've cancelled my annual subscription. You can download and try it out for 30 days before paying. Windoze & MacOS compatible.

 

[GvilleRick]

I use the Davinci Resolve free version. You can do pretty quick edits with it but it will also do more advanced edits as well.

 

[Richard A]

What computer do you use @FowlersFreeTime? I’m a Mac user. I always just used to use iMovie until I got my A7R5 and wanted to try S-log. Apple have a pretty generous 90 day free trial of Final Cut Pro. I gave it a try and found it pretty easy to use. There are loads of plugins available. I have a set that just replicates the sliders in most photo editors. If I wasn’t a Mac user I would probably give Davinci Resolve a try.

 

[SPB-universal]

I use the Davinci Resolve free version. You can do pretty quick edits with it but it will also do more advanced edits as well.

Absolutely! Resolve is fantastic for quick edits as well as much more detailed videos needing more work. Plus of course it is free or comes with a Blackmagicdesign camera. I frequently do short bird video clips, and have to do very little to them and Resolve does a great job without big complications and it is fast.

 

[SPB-universal]

What computer do you use @FowlersFreeTime? I’m a Mac user. I always just used to use iMovie until I got my A7R5 and wanted to try S-log. Apple have a pretty generous 90 day free trial of Final Cut Pro. I gave it a try and found it pretty easy to use. There are loads of plugins available. I have a set that just replicates the sliders in most photo editors. If I wasn’t a Mac user I would probably give Davinci Resolve a try.

I struggle with FCP and manage pretty well with Davinci Resolve instead.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Resolve is fantastic for quick edits

Oh thanks, I never knew that. I always thought it was "just" a full-on-professional tool with a learning curve steeper than one's first few raw stills edits.

It's always nice to use a tool that can be quick and simple but also offers vast depths for as and when one wants/needs to go there. I'm a darktable user.

 

[Soundmike]

On a separate note regarding software, I purchased Topaz Ai version 4 as part of a deal a while ago. I'm not a great fan of over editing but I decided to purchase it to edit some personal family pictures. Tried it out on some high iso shots but have found the results very severe. Just wondering if anyone uses it and what they think, I only use it as a standalone program as I'm not that good with computers. I just love getting out there and taking in nature's wonders and not worry too much about perfect photos.

 

[THXGEEK]

I use a combination of DxO PhotoLab 9, Topaz Photo/AI and Radiant Photo2.

I agree, Topaz AI can be quite harsh in its initial pass of automated enhancements, so I usually turn that off and apply them manually and sparingly... I find it most effective at removing objects (stupid branch in front of the bird!) and upscaling less than perfect pictures. It absolutely excels at restoring old photos (dust & scratch removal, enhancing faces and sharpening/refocusing). I recently rebuilt/enhanced a 60+ year old family album that my cousin had digitized and the results were fairly breathtaking!

For clear, crisp photos taken with my current stable of hardware, I use DxO for its unrivaled denoising and initial cropping and color correction - but I am far from an expert at this (need to run thru more tutorials) and then usually dump the pic into Radiant for final color/black level corrections. Radiant also has a variety of presets that you can apply ('looks') that can subtly - or drastically - alter the mood of a photo.

What an awesome time to be a photographer!



I hope this helps!

 

[Soundmike]

I use a combination of DxO PhotoLab 9, Topaz Photo/AI and Radiant Photo2.

I agree, Topaz AI can be quite harsh in its initial pass of automated enhancements, so I usually turn that off and apply them manually and sparingly... I find it most effective at removing objects (stupid branch in front of the bird!) and upscaling less than perfect pictures. It absolutely excels at restoring old photos (dust & scratch removal, enhancing faces and sharpening/refocusing). I recently rebuilt/enhanced a 60+ year old family album that my cousin had digitized and the results were fairly breathtaking!

For clear, crisp photos taken with my current stable of hardware, I use DxO for its unrivaled denoising and initial cropping and color correction - but I am far from an expert at this (need to run thru more tutorials) and then usually dump the pic into Radiant for final color/black level corrections. Radiant also has a variety of presets that you can apply ('looks') that can subtly - or drastically - alter the mood of a photo.

What an awesome time to be a photographer!



I hope this helps!

Hi , Yes that's very helpful, something to add to my next investment, a new computer.

 

[THXGEEK]

Hi , Yes that's very helpful, something to add to my next investment, a new computer.

I built my current workstation in November '24 with (at the time) leading-edge components - hot Intel processor, 96GB of fast RAM and a Nvidia 4090 GPU. I'm a bit of a geek, so I've overclocked many of the timings to make it that much faster. Fast GPUs are horribly expensive, but you get what you pay for - LOTS of speed. I hate relying on 'cloud computing' for any photo enhancements and with my system I do it all locally.

It pays to be a geek.