We’ve all been there, editing our first videos, using a new editing program, not knowing what to do other than cutting out the hmmms and ahhhs in our videos.

I’m going to show you five simple techniques to instantly improve your videos in LumaFusion. Although this article is about Lumafusion, you could easily adopt the techniques in this article to your preferred editing software.

Adding Music and Sound Effects

The first technique is adding music and sound effects to your videos. Both, (when added correctly), have the ability to establish the mood, emotion, and energy in your videos. Music and sound can also help you tell a story, emphasise a point that you’re trying to make, or transition between scenes.

Within LumaFusion, there is a built-in library of royalty-free music and sound effects from storyblocks that you can use in your projects as long as you have a valid subscription, although there are a few free assets as well.

Using B Roll

The second technique is using b-roll in your videos. If you don’t know what b-roll is, it’s the additional footage that editors use to cut away from their main shots or A roll. B-roll can add context, variety, and interest to your videos. It can also help you cover up mistakes, jump cuts, or boring parts in your main shots.

Just like sound effects and music, Storyblocks within Lumafusion is the easiest way to get footage into your project, but there are other places where, with a subscription, you can download footage, music and sound effects for you project.

For me, I’m currently using Artlist for the music and sound effects in my recent videos on my YT channel.

Adding text and titles

The third technique is adding text and titles to your videos. Text and titles can help you introduce your topic, highlight key points, add captions, or create call to actions in your videos. LumaFusion has a title tool that lets you create and customise text and titles in your videos.

Adding Transitions

The fourth technique is adding transitions to your videos. Transitions are the effects that you use to switch between different clips or scenes in your videos, just like this. Transitions can help you create smooth and seamless changes, or add some flair and style to your videos.

LumaFusion has a wide range of transitions that you can apply to your videos. I made a video, (check out the link below), where I go through all of the transitions within lumafusion:

Colour Correction and Grading

The fifth and final technique, and one which can be optional, is using colour correction and grading to enhance the look and feel of your videos. These are the processes of adjusting the colour, contrast, brightness, saturation, and other aspects of your videos.

It can be a bit daunting to want to make changes to the look of the video that you’ve taken, because sometimes it might already look good or you might just want to leave it as there are so many sliders and effects to choose from, but sometimes you might want to make even the slightest enhancement.

Colour correction and grading can help you fix any issues with your footage, match the colours of different clips, or create a specific mood or tone for your videos. Within LumaFusion, there are tools that will let you fine-tune your videos.

Throughout your journey, you’ll find that you always learning about colour correcting your own videos but that’s fine and normal.

Bonus Tip: Just keep Experimenting

As a bonus tip, just keep trying different things with your edits. Experimenting when you’re new to video editing is important because it helps you to learn the basics of the software, develop your creative skills, and discover new ways of telling your stories with video.

Experimenting means trying out different features, tools, transitions, effects, and sounds that are available in which ever video editor you use, whether that’s Lumafusion, or a different program. It also means playing with the order, length, and pace of your clips, and seeing how they affect the mood and message of your video. If you do that, then you’ll find out what works for you and what doesn’t, and improve the quality of your videos over time.

This ever improving skillset of yours will allow you to express your unique vision and style, and make your videos stand out from the crowd.

Have you got any other techniques that you would add to this list?

If you would like to see the video version of this article, which features examples of each of the techniques and a before and after video, check out the link below:

If you want Music, Sound Effects and Stock Footage for your Videos, check out Artlist: https://artlist.io/artlist-70446/?artlist_aid=conveyorofrandomness_3114&utm_source=affiliate_p&utm_medium=conveyorofrandomness_3114&utm_campaign=conveyorofrandomness_3114