Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Chapter 21. Photoshop and Video

Everybody’s shooting video these days, whether it’s with a smart phone, video camera, point-and-shoot camera, or fancy digital SLR. You might not realize it, but Photoshop has been able to edit videos since CS3, though only in the more expensive Extended version (which, as you know from page xxiii, doesn’t exist anymore). Back in CS6, Adobe moved the video-editing features into the more affordable standard version of Photoshop. This is great news; since you already know how to use Photoshop, you don’t have to learn another program just to edit videos.

Now, while you can create an extensive video project in Photoshop complete with animation and dancing flamingos, other tools are much better suited for that, such as Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Sony’s Vegas Pro, and Avid’s Media Composer. Instead, you’ll want to use Photoshop for creating small- to medium-sized video projects that contain only a handful of clips, or for cleaning up clips for use in those other programs. That being said, Photoshop is ideal for creating promotional pieces for nearly any business type, portfolio-based slideshows, as well as sellable add-ons to your photography business (just imagine a combo of stills and video clips from a romantic wedding or family portrait sitting!).

Here’s a more detailed list of what you can do with video in Photoshop:

• Trim and split clips, as well as add a nice array of transitions between ’em.

• Clean up unwanted objects ...