From Raw Footage to Finished Film: A Beginner’s Guide to Editing Your First Video in Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is renowned as a powerful yet incredibly approachable editing software, making it the perfect choice for creators looking to elevate their visual storytelling. When you combine the robust colour and detail captured by Canon cameras, such as the EOS R5 Mark II (my main setup) and the PowerShot V1, with clear, efficient editing techniques, you unlock your footage's full cinematic potential.

Having developed my personal workflow over years, I've seen firsthand how adaptable Premiere Pro is to different styles. My process, which I've refined to leverage the maximum dynamic range of Canon's Log footage, focuses on structured efficiency. By following this step-by-step guide, beginners can turn their Canon footage, including C-Log 2 and C-Log 3 clips, into polished, engaging videos.

1. Importing and Culling: How to Set Yourself Up for Success

Before you import, the key is organisation. Start by sorting your footage using the tagging tool in your operating system's file manager (like Finder), marking clips you like.

• A Quick Start: The easiest way to begin is to drag your tagged clips directly into the timeline. This automatically sets your sequence settings (resolution and frame rate) to match your footage. I typically shoot at 4K30 with my R5 Mark II or PowerShot V1, so I match the timeline settings to that.
• Organising Footage: In Premiere Pro, you can create "bins" which act like folders to keep your Project Panel tidy. While I personally skip this for a quick workflow, it's a great habit for complex projects. You could create bins named "R5 Mark II Footage".

2. Structure and Cutting: Razor Tool, Selection Tool, and the Art of Rhythm

This is where you build the foundation of your video, setting the structure and pace for everything that follows.

Master the Core Cutting Tools - The key to efficiency in this stage lies in two simple tools:

• The Razor Tool (C): My personal favourite. Press C to quickly switch to the Razor Tool. Use it to cut the exact start and end of the moment you want, effectively extracting that perfect segment from the longer clip.
• The Selection Tool (V): Immediately after cutting, hit V to switch back to the Selection Tool. This lets you delete the unwanted parts, then drag your remaining clips together and reorder them to craft your narrative.

Cutting to the Beat: Finding Your Rhythm

To truly level up your video and boost viewer engagement, you need to sync your cuts with the music, a technique known as cutting to the beat.

• Music Selection: I like choosing the music early because it sets the tone, mood, and pacing of the entire video. For social media (Instagram or TikTok), I often screen record the sound on my phone and then AirDrop it to my Mac to use in the timeline. For copyright-safe content, a library like Epidemicsound is an excellent resource for royalty-free music.
• The Remix Tool: For a fast start, you can use Premiere Pro's Remix Tool. Select it from the same toolbar as the Ripple Edit tool. By dragging the end of your music clip to the length of your video, the tool will automatically cut and remix the music to match your clips' duration.
• Manual Beat Matching: You can see the beats or instrument hits in the music track as peaks on the audio waveform. Listen closely, and use the Selection Tool to retime your video clips so the cut happens precisely on the beat.
• Pro Tip (The Anticipation Trick): Here's a small trick I use: place the visual cut a few frames before the music beat actually kicks in. I don't know the exact science, but it creates a more satisfying viewing experience, perhaps due to the way the human brain processes visual and auditory information.

3. SFX and Sound Design

Sound design is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful and enjoyable parts of video editing, even though it's purely auditory. It adds a crucial layer of texture, bringing your video to life and adding tangible details that draw the viewer into the environment you captured. You can find sound effects virtually anywhere: from royalty-free libraries like Epidemicsound (where I download many of my sounds) to free resources like YouTube.

• Replacing Audio: If the audio recorded directly from your Canon camera is poor, such as harsh wind directly on the microphone, then you can use sound design to fix this.
• Layering for Texture: You can layer multiple sound effects (like a wind storm and soft birds) on different audio tracks to create a richer, more immersive environment. Use the standard cutting and dragging process to match the length of your video clips.
• Balance the Levels: It is vital to keep your sound design very balanced. If the SFX are too loud, they can sound harsh and 'peak' when layered on top of each other and the music. Use volume adjustments to keep the effects subtle and supportive.
• Correlate with the Visuals: For a peaceful, slow scene (like a field of grass), include subtle sounds of the wind and birds to let the audience know what you experienced. If birds are flying across the screen, briefly amplify the bird sound effect to make them a little clearer and ensure the auditory element correlates with the visual.
• Rate Stretch Tool: Found where the Remix Tool is, use this tool to make the sound effect slower or faster, perfectly timing it to the on-screen movement.

4. How to Colour Grade Canon Log Footage for a Cinematic Look

Shooting in Canon's Log (such as C-Log 2 or C-Log 3 ) is the key to professional colour grading. This format intentionally produces a flat, neutral-looking image, which crucially retains maximum data and dynamic range to give you the greatest flexibility for creative adjustments in post-production.

• Set Up Your Workspace: Enable the Lumetri Colour and Lumetri Scopes panels from the 'Window' menu. The Lumetri Scopes act like a histogram, helping you check exposure, colours, and dynamic range.
• Use an Adjustment Layer: Always apply your colour grading to a New Item > Adjustment Layer placed on top of your clips in the timeline. This makes your grade more adaptable and customisable across all clips.
• Input LUT: Your flat Log footage needs to be converted to the Rec.709 colour space for standard viewing. In the Lumetri Colour panel's Basic Correction tab, go to Input LUT. Select the official conversion LUT specific to your camera and Log profile (e.g., Canon C-Log2 to 709).
• Maximise Dynamic Range with Tone Curves: The Tone Curves control light and colour. The low part manages your shadows, and the high part controls your highlights. To maximise contrast and dynamic range, adjust these curves until the smallest parts of the waveform on your Lumetri Scopes just touch the absolute black and white lines.
• Instant Comparison: Use the eye icon on the Adjustment Layer to quickly toggle the layer on and off. This allows you to instantly compare your final colour-graded image against the original raw Log footage.
• Duplicate Your Grade: If all your clips were shot in the same environment and lighting, save time by holding Alt and duplicating the Adjustment Layer to your other clips. You'll likely only need to make minor, basic adjustments.

Example: To create a 'blue hour' look after sunset, I increased the shadows slightly, brought down the highlights, and adjusted the coloured tone curves to bring out the blues and pinks in the highlights.

5. Smooth Transitions and Polishing Touches

While a simple cut is often the best choice for a beginner, polishing your video also involves small, satisfying visual and audio elements.

• Warp Stabiliser for Smoothness: For shaky shots go to the Effects Panel and drag the Warp Stabiliser effect onto the clip. This will automatically smooth out the movement.
• Auto-Captions: To generate captions for dialogue, go to the Window menu and enable Text. In the Text panel, simply click "Transcribe and Create Captions". Premiere Pro will automatically generate all the text, which you can then easily edit and tweak.
• Creating Bold Text: For on-screen graphics, use the Type tool (or press the letter T) on the left bar. The Properties panel allows you to change the font, colour, and size.
• Transitions: While a simple cut is often best for beginners, you can find built-in transitions in the Effects Panel under Video Transitions. To apply, simply drag the effect between two adjacent clips or place it at the beginning or end of a single clip.

6. Export Settings for Social Media (Reels, TikTok, Shorts)

The final step is exporting, where I use a custom preset to ensure high quality for platforms like Instagram.

• Export Workspace: Use the shortcut Command + M (on Mac) or Ctrl + M (on Windows) to bring up the Export Workspace.
• Key Settings for Social Media:
    • Resolution & Frame Rate: Export at 4K, 30 frames (or whatever you shot at).
    • Quality: Always ensure Render at Maximum Depth and Use Maximum Render Quality are ticked.
    • Bitrate: I set my Target Bit Rate to 75.
    • Captions: If you have captions, make sure you choose to burn them into the video so they are visible upon upload.
    • Instagram Workflow: To maintain the highest quality for Instagram, I export the video in 4K, then bring that file into a phone editing app to re-export in 2K before uploading.

Final Thoughts:

The most important takeaway is that the entire process, from importing and cutting to sound design and colour grading can be tailored to your own workflow. I've developed this process over years because it's efficient for me. Remember, a complex final result is really just a bunch of small, simple steps put together. Start with these fundamentals, experiment with your Canon footage, and watch your storytelling evolve.

Watch the full tutorial in the video above, or explore more photo and video editing tips and tricks.