Photo and Video Help/Suggestions

Looking for any blogs where I might be able to learn about doing video (both live and photo montages) and the best places to use for photo uploads, etc.

ANY websites/blogs that could help would be appreciated! I am all over the place and would like to find one place that discusses it all if possible.

I have photos in Picasa and Flickr and want to know what is better, worth the price to upgrade and things like that. I am so unorganized with this and need to get it under control.

Any help appreciated!

I'm using Flickr and YouTube, mainly because there are share buttons for those on almost any site/plugin. They integrate well with the "social web". As for tutorials, what are you using to create your videos - or are you still undecided? You're familiar with Animoto I know, which is good if you upgrade. You can also use CamStudio.org for video editing, which is a free open source program like Camtasia.

I'm liking Speedy Web Videos as an inexpensive ($37) and GOOD course on creating/editing video, especially slideshow & presentation type video. If you're using CamStudio, they have free tutorials as well. I'm using iMovie on my macbook, so I hit their built-in tutorials a lot.

I have to upgrade my Flickr account too, by the way - I've reached my limit. I saw you were asking about that on Facebook. Any good responses about that??

For screencast videos I think Lon Naylor is the go-to guy. He & Michele Schoen teach Camtasia techniques at LearnCamtasia.com. Then Lon & I have created a site with resources & tutorials for using PowerPoint & Camtasia, royalty-free music, and graphics. You can find those at ScreencastStudios.com. There's a great 4-hour video tutorial on using PowerPoint 2010 along with Camtasia. I saw Lon give this same tutorial live and it completely changed my thinking on making videos for a lot of purposes.

Then Bob Jenkins has a course called Simple Video Velocity covering all sorts of videos. He brings in Lon, Felicia Slattery, James Wedmore and Tony Laidig to teach various aspects of the class. So you get training from Lon on screencast videos, from Felicia on live "talking head" videos, from James on YouTube tips and Tony on finding creative commons content.

Looking more for video editing software for our travel videos in addition to making montages of our trip and being able to add our website, sayings, etc.

Thanks for the input ladies.

Hi Angie

I do video editing quite frequently. If you are looking for good video editing software - you may want to try Power Director from Cyberlink . com (Skipped a space to avoid placing a link in the post) It is an excellent software for travel videos and making home movies.

To Your Success,
- Martin

Thank you, Martin. I did my first video putting together pictures and I'm going to TRY to edit using Windows Live Movie Maker for now until I get a grasp on what I need and as I plan for future videos. I think it turned out OK but there were a few things I definitely need to work on:)

Best way to learn about video editing is by doing it. If you are using windows then use windows movie maker, it should be in the start menu. It will help you learn about the basics of video editing before you buy any special software.

Mike, I did find a video on You Tube that walked me through Windows Live Movie Maker. I was able to put a video together with pictures but I have yet to edit videos we have so that is the next step.

Angie, I really enjoyed all the answers you got. I need to learn more about video so I am going to check these out and see how hard they are.

Gail

I have used WIndows Movie maker. The hardest point was getting the video into the correct format for editing; the editign was quite easy from there.

Thanks Charlotte, I'll try to be patient lol

Angie,
To add to the conversation here, Serif has a line of photo editing and video editing products that are pretty easy to follow and reasonable. I have been using their products, including PhotoPlus for years. I think they just came out with PhotoPlusX5. MoviePlusX5 is their video editing software. I am not sure how this software compares with MovieMaker or Camtasia, but it would probably be worthwhile researching...

The only drawback is that the company is relentless with telemarketing for cross sells and upsells. I just have to watch my caller id, which I always do anyway, lol...
Best, Mary

Thanks Mary!

The thing about the free Camstudio is that it doesn't work to edit video that you have already taken. It's to make video from screen captures. I downloaded it and everything but just couldn't figure out how to get a current video edited. THEN I read somewhere that you couldn't.

Going to stick with Movie Maker for now then expand once I do more video. I appreciate your help!