The kids love re-watching our old family videos but I haven’t made a new one in ages. This guest post is great inspiration for me to start filming, editing and capturing memories once more:
Like most parents you probably enjoy recording home movies of your kids and some of the antics they get up to. In fact if you’ve been dabbling with video editing you may even have tried to spice up some of your videos with various effects.
To really make the videos that you record of your kids stand out however, you need to make sure that you use the right visual effects. Although that can vary on a case by case basis, there are three types of visual effects that are perfectly suited to home movies of kids:
Slow motion
The slow motion effect is definitely one of the best effects to use on videos with kids in them. By slowing down the footageslowing down the footage you can reveal a lot of additional detail, and even make some moments more dramatic or tense.
Some of the situations where you’ll want to use this effect are when your kids are darting around, or playing any fast-paced game. Slowing down videos of one of your kids breaking into a smile, laughing, or pulling a funny face can also make for a particularly stunning video.
Blur effects
To be entirely honest there are lots of different ways you can blur video, each of which is a bit unique. Overall however blur effects can be used to conceal certain details, draw focus to the subject, or even intensify the sensation of movement and action.
For home movies of kids one of the most frequent ways that blur effects are used are to hide the faces of kids and protect them if you post the video publicly. Aside from that however you could also use it to make any fast-paced action more intense, or make sure the focus is entirely on the kids.
Video filters
Filters are a very versatile set of effects that are designed to transform the colour, style and overall appearance of your videos. On the whole they are an easy way to transform the look and feel of your video using presets that will vary depending on the editor that you’re using.
If you want you can use some types of simple filters as a way to color grade your videos and enhance their mood. On the other hand you could just use them as an easy way to jazz up your videos stylistically.
As you can see each of the types of effects listed above can be used in lots of different situations. In fact you may even have several ideas of how you can use them in your own home movies of your kids.
Just remember to use any visual effects in your videos sparingly if you want to enjoy their full impact. Over-applying visual effects to your videos will make them look tacky, and end up detracting from them. That is why you should first identify the type of visual effects that you want to add, and the reason why you want to add them – before actually doing so.
It’s time to start filming our next family video…
Haven’t a clue ! Will be invaluable to teach the boys
Great tips, I love filters on photos so will enjoy trying them on film xx
I have never tried these. Must venture out of my comfort zone. Thanks for the nudge.