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2 hours ago, Gabby1162 said:

I’m wanting to combine photos and video snippets into 1 video. What are some easy apps or programs to use?

 

Adobe Premier Elements. It is a home version of their professional video editing software. It allows presentation of slides of stills in any combination. Normally less than.$100 and often on sale for much less.

 

Also can be found bundled with Photoshop Elements.

 

Dave

Edited by pierces
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All the Adobe products require a monthly subscription, so they should automatically get written off for casual creators.

 

On a computer, VSDC is extremely simple to use and will do everything you're asking for. On a tablet, I'm with Havoc315 and can highly recommend Lumafusion.

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2 hours ago, Sean_B said:

All the Adobe products require a monthly subscription, so they should automatically get written off for casual creators.

 

On a computer, VSDC is extremely simple to use and will do everything you're asking for. On a tablet, I'm with Havoc315 and can highly recommend Lumafusion.

 

The "Elements" versions of the Adobe products are single purchase packages and are quite robust. The Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019 (Photos) & Premiere Elements 2019 (video) is on sale for $99 on a Prime Day deal right now ($69 for Premier Elements alone). Premier Elements offers a surprisingly complete subset of the subscription only Pro version. I have used an older version for some slide/video presentations and it offers a lot of control over transitions, audio tracks and trimming video clips. Nice package.

 

I went to check out Lumafusion but found it to be IOS only.

 

Corel's Video Studio offers a lot of features for a reasonable price. It is $69 for the "Ultimate" package on Amazon today.

 

Lots of good stuff out there. The free stuff works and if you only want to power through one project to see if you like the results, it is a cheap trial. In the long run, you get what you pay for and plunking down a few dollars for a mature software solution pays off in time saved.

 

Dave

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Windows 7 is in Extended Support mode now which means that no more updates beyond critical security will be available. Official End of Life date is January 2020 after which there will be no support of any kind. 

 

You can find MovieMaker online but not from Microsoft. It was included in the Windows Essentials 2012 package and Microsoft no longer has it in the download catalog.

 

Also:

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The Photos app mentioned above will create video projects with stills included in much the same way as MovieMaker. I still maintain that while it is good for trying one's hand at this sort of project or occasional simple projects. If you dive into these with a passion, it runs out of options pretty quickly. The Windows Store has an assortment of free and for-purchase apps but IMHO, Premier Elements has the best bang for the buck if this type of production becomes a regular activity.

 

Why doe we fail to blink at dropping $1000+ on a piece of equipment but freak out at $75 for an OEM battery or a piece of software? 🙂

 

 

Dave

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20 hours ago, pierces said:

In the long run, you get what you pay for and plunking down a few dollars for a mature software solution pays off in time saved.

 

Dave


DaVinci Resolve would like to have a word with you.

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On 7/14/2019 at 2:41 PM, pierces said:

 

Adobe Premier Elements. It is a home version of their professional video editing software. It allows presentation of slides of stills in any combination. Normally less than.$100 and often on sale for much less.

 

Also can be found bundled with Photoshop Elements.

 

Dave

This is the package I bought for my new laptop to edit my GoPro Alaska Video. At $99, it was an amazing deal. Alas, I had to go get CyberLink PowerDirector ($75 annual) so that I can edit any of the HVEC video I decide to shoot with the GoPro. I'm not shooting much in 4k or high frame rates but Premier Elements is missing that feature I really wanted. And I did not do my homework first. If HDD space is never an issue, it's not much trouble to convert from HVEC (H.265) to the H.264 which only takes a lot more space.

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On 7/17/2019 at 6:55 PM, masterdrago said:

This is the package I bought for my new laptop to edit my GoPro Alaska Video. At $99, it was an amazing deal. Alas, I had to go get CyberLink PowerDirector ($75 annual) so that I can edit any of the HVEC video I decide to shoot with the GoPro. I'm not shooting much in 4k or high frame rates but Premier Elements is missing that feature I really wanted. And I did not do my homework first. If HDD space is never an issue, it's not much trouble to convert from HVEC (H.265) to the H.264 which only takes a lot more space.

DaVinci Resolve takes HEVC from a GoPro quite handily and it's free.

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On 7/14/2019 at 11:45 PM, ski ww said:

I use Movie Maker in Windows 7, it's free.

 

Of course you know Windows 7 has gone throuh a couple upgrades(?) to Windows 10 and about to be replaced.

 

But 7 was a good program compared to some of the other previous versions.

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Filmora looks very interesting.  Seems pretty powerful for $60...more powerful than Premiere Elements??  I'm generally an Adobe fan but not a power video editor.  Anyone with first hand experience of both Filmora9 and Premiere Elements?

 

To Dave's point on people balking at paying for software...the mobile software experience seems to have completely changed user perspective.  Many people won't even look if it's not free, it better be good to pay $1.99, and it better be a damn good piece of software for the unheard of price of $4.99.  People don't even blink though at dropping $5+ for a latte that is gone in a few minutes. 🤔

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5 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Filmora looks very interesting.  Seems pretty powerful for $60...more powerful than Premiere Elements??  I'm generally an Adobe fan but not a power video editor.  Anyone with first hand experience of both Filmora9 and Premiere Elements?

 

To Dave's point on people balking at paying for software...the mobile software experience seems to have completely changed user perspective.  Many people won't even look if it's not free, it better be good to pay $1.99, and it better be a damn good piece of software for the unheard of price of $4.99.  People don't even blink though at dropping $5+ for a latte that is gone in a few minutes. 🤔

I pay about $120 a year for the Photoshop/Lightroom combo and don't think twice about it. It actually just renewed about 10 days ago for the 5th time I think.  I only use a fraction of what PS is capable of, but $10 a month is nothing in the grand scheme of things. (especially in the expensive hobby that can be photography).  

 

Not really relevant to the OP's question about making videos I guess. But not the first post to go slightly off topic on this website. 

Edited by TruckerDave
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/4/2019 at 2:18 PM, bobmacliberty said:

Filmora looks very interesting.  Seems pretty powerful for $60...more powerful than Premiere Elements??  I'm generally an Adobe fan but not a power video editor.  Anyone with first hand experience of both Filmora9 and Premiere Elements?

 

To Dave's point on people balking at paying for software...the mobile software experience seems to have completely changed user perspective.  Many people won't even look if it's not free, it better be good to pay $1.99, and it better be a damn good piece of software for the unheard of price of $4.99.  People don't even blink though at dropping $5+ for a latte that is gone in a few minutes. 🤔

 

I also found a couple of others that might be interesting. Davinci Resolve and ShotCut. Both are completely free for "personal" use. I could not get DaVinci to run decent - too much lag and ShotCut was missing some features/effect/transitions I wanted, so I will stick with Filmora. One caveat at Filmora, the software is free but they have an effects store that is $10-$50/month and you only get to use the effects with active subscription. Filmora is perfectly functional without the added library, but could explain the low cost.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/29/2019 at 1:13 PM, Dat Cruisin Couple said:

For casual users(no disrespect to our professional brethren) I would go with Final Cut Pro X on Mac and Filmora9 on Windows. Both are designed to be simple, but capable of pulling off some rather professional looking end products.

Casual users aren't going to spend $300 on FCPx. Especially when world-class products like Resolve are available for free.

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2 hours ago, Sean_B said:

Casual users aren't going to spend $300 on FCPx. Especially when world-class products like Resolve are available for free.

 

i see your point about cost, but I could not get Resolve to run on my computer. I had 32 GB of RAM, SSD, i7 and 8GB Nvidia GPU. I hope it was drivers, but that was frustrating. Ended up with Filmora.

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25 minutes ago, Dat Cruisin Couple said:

 

i see your point about cost, but I could not get Resolve to run on my computer. I had 32 GB of RAM, SSD, i7 and 8GB Nvidia GPU. I hope it was drivers, but that was frustrating. Ended up with Filmora.

Were you trying version 15 or version 16?

I had no issues with v16 on my mid-2015 MacBook Pro. 16 GB RAM, i7 with 2 GB GPU. Couldn't do HEVC, obviously, but optimized media wasn't a problem at all.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wouldn't casual users just use iMovie?

On 7/29/2019 at 9:13 AM, Dat Cruisin Couple said:

For casual users(no disrespect to our professional brethren) I would go with Final Cut Pro X on Mac and Filmora9 on Windows. Both are designed to be simple, but capable of pulling off some rather professional looking end products.

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16 hours ago, MauiLvrs said:

Wouldn't casual users just use iMovie?

 You're right. Good point. 

 

I guess I was referring to enthusiasts. Then I would go professional.  Casual users don't need basic features and a few extras and don't need a cost. An enthusiast is willing to spend some money and wants a little more control. The Pro sees the value of the expense and needs even greater control.

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