Quick Video Using Camtasia 2019

I have used Techsmith’s Camtasia and Snagit for several years. For the most part I have used them to produce tutorial screen casts. Over the years, Camtasia has added features that rival consumer level video editors, such as Adobe’s Premiere Elements.

Much of my photography is centered around taking videos and photos of my granddaughters competing in sports. On a recent weekend, I videoed Lucy in one of her soccer games as the goalkeeper.

I decided to use Camtasia 2019 to produce the final video. However, I took multiple steps and programs to create the final short video.

Here is what I did.

Shooting the video Clips

•  For this project I used my Sony AX53 Camcorder to take the 1080p video.

  • This camera is lighter and easier to hold for extended periods than my Canon 7D Mk 2. Since Lucy is a goalkeeper, much of the time the action does not involve her. I keep her roughly in the frame as I watch the game. When she tenses and begins to prepare for action, I begin the video.

  • Doing this I end up with a large number of short video clips by the end of the game.

Post Processing

1. I used Lightroom Classic to Import and then add Keyword tags to all of the video clips.

2. Then using the Picks and Rejects flags I identified those that are not worth retaining. This is the vast majority. I deleted them.

3. Then I used the Star Rating system of Lightroom Classic to identify just those very few clips that I wanted to include in the current project.

4. My camcorder did a pretty good job of recording the raw video. However, for each clip I used Lightroom Classic’s Quick Develop mode within the Library module, and selected Auto Tone. This brightened up each clip. Lightroom Classic is not optimized for video editing, but it does do a nice job here.

   

5. I used Premiere Elements 2020 to convert two of the clips to slow motion, since the action was too fast to follow easily.

6. I saved the edited clips back into the same folder the original clips are stored, but with new names. And then I Imported them into Lightroom Classic and tagged them accordingly.

7. At this point, I would normally finish the project by adding transitions, titles etc using Premiere Elements 2020, but this time,  I chose to use Camtasia 2019 to finish my project.

8. Specifically, I did the following in Camtasia 2019:

   • Imported the four clips to a single track.

   • Added Transitions and adjusted their duration. I used a couple of different transitions.

   • Added  lower thirds title for the video, customizing it a bit from the default.

   • I added a music background and deleted the audio that my camcorder originally recorded, except at the very end of the video, which I thought was cool.  The music I added came from Techsmith’s selection of free music.

   • Finally, I saved the project as an MP4 HD 1080p video file on my hard drive.

So for this project, I used three separate programs. Lightroom Classic is pretty unique here in what it does. However, I could have used Premiere Elements 2020 to do everything that I did in Camtasia 2019. I could have also converted the slow motion clips with in Camtasia 2019 instead of Premiere Elements 2020, but the process would have been harder.

So, I often find in creating a video project, I end up using multiple programs. And remember, the features of Camtasia 2019 for this simple project only scratched the surface of its capabilities. In future projects, I will explore more of what it can do.

CLICK HERE to see the resulting video.

If you liked this post, give it a LIKE, Ok?

Until next time…

 

 

Dipping My Feet into Adobe Portfolio

For some time now Adobe as offered a free website building tool to help you build your own online photo gallery. It is called Adobe Portfolio, and it is free with any subscription to the Creative Cloud. In my case I subscribe to the option that gives me Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Photoshop CC for ten dollars a month.

Adobe has added new features since they first introduced it. I played with it a couple of years ago, but never really got into it. So today I began my second venture. I have put up a very basic gallery so far. There are plenty of additional elements I can and will in time.

But my first attempt at least allows the viewer an easy way to view the few pictures I have uploaded so far. It is easy to upload your photos from Lightroom. You just put your photos in a Lightroom Album and upload the pictures from there. If you are a Lightroom Classic user, you must sync the desired Collection with Lightroom where that Collection becomes an Album. You can also just upload pictures directly from your computer.

Here is the URL for Adobe Portfolio https://portfolio.adobe.com/

Here is the link to my first simple gallery.  https://donstouder.myportfolio.com/

There is a lot more customizing that I will be doing as time goes on. As with most everything, there is a bunch of YouTube tutorials that should bring me up to speed pretty quickly.

Until next time…

Screen You Photos in Lightroom Classic

Unless you make a conscientious effort to screen your images and videos, you very quickly end up with so many that even if you have them tagged, it will be difficult to quickly find those few images that are worth further work.

After a photoshoot, you can easily end up with hundreds of images. I take a lot of sports action photos. I generally have my camera set on its burst mode. After photographing two or three softball or soccer games during the weekend, I will come home with about 300-400 images. Amongst these are probably less than 50 that are even worth saving.

In the AppTip Sheet linked in this post, I describe a method that I adopted from an eBook by photographer, Chris Marquardt (https://chrismarquardt.com). It is only one of may ways that can be used to quickly go through your photos to end up with only the very best.

Click on the figure below to view the tutorial.

In the next tutorial in this series, we will begin to cover some basic editing capabilities in Lightroom Classic.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. I f you did please Star Rate it at the top of the post. Also, comments are always welcome.

Until next time…

How to Use Lightroom Classic Keywords Part 2

In this second and final part of using Keyword Tags, I will cover the very basics of using previously assigned tags to quickly find your photos.

There many other ways to find images in Lightroom Classic. Additionally, keywords queries can be structured in a variety of ways to do more sophisticated searches. But the material here should get you started at least.

Click on the link below to go to the PDF file that contains the tutorial.

If you found this to be helpful, please give it a star rating at the top. Better yet, please leave a comment or share it with others. Thank you.

Until next time…

How to Use Lightroom Classic Keyword Tags – Part 1

It has been awhile since I have posted any tutorials, so I thought I better do one. Actually, I was going to post one big one, but I have decided to break it into two or three parts.

Although Lightroom was initially developed to help professional photographers manage their huge collection of photographs, it has evolved over the years.

It has steadily acquired more advanced editing capabilities. Now more and more people use it for their prime photo editor and only draw on Photoshop CC when they absolutely must. Consequently, most of the current written information deals with the Develop Module, sometimes ignoring the Library Module or using it incorrectly, thus generating unnecessary problems for themselves.

In Part 2, I’ll cover how to quickly find your images using your assigned keyword. So stay tuned. If you found this to be helpful, please give it a star rating at the top. Better yet, please leave a comment or share it with others. Thank you.

Until next time…

 

Importing Images from Your Camera into Lightroom Classic

I should have included this tutorial earlier in my series on using Lightroom Classic. However, I have focused this series from the perspective of someone who is knew to Lightroom Classic, and is migrating their Photoshop Elements Catalog to Lightroom Classic.

Additionally, I am concentrating on keeping this series devoted to the basics of using Lightroom. Importing your images from you memory card or your camera itself is quite straight forward.

Click Here to view or download the AppTip Sheet.

If you found this tutorial to be helpful and would like to see more, please give it a star rating and a Like.

Until next time…

 

 

Lightroom Classic Library Module Workspace Overview – Part 1

As I have described in previous posts, I am transitioning from using the Photoshop Elements Organizer to Lightroom to manage my photos and videos. In this video, I review the general workspace of Lightroom Classic’s Library module. To be clear, this video is intended for new users of Lightroom who may have little or no experience using the program. As I increasingly use Lightroom CC as the hub of my workflow, I will add additional tutorials and videos.

To keep the length of the video down, I have basically covered only the left panel of the workspace. In a subsequent video, I will cover the other parts of this module’s workspace.

If you found this video helpful, and would like to see more, please leave a comment, share it on social media, and give it a Like.

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.