Railfan Technology > Playing with video editor.

I shot a video with my phone this morning of a train because I liked the color of the clouds and a flock of buzzards flying over.  Well the clouds washed out and the birds are too small to see but I decided to try and play with the video editor that came on my computer to try and fix the shaking.  The editor doesn't seem to do a very good job of removing shaking.  Is there a decent free editor available as an app for windows computer or is just too hard to remove the shakeing?  I know I could get a tripod but I really wouldn't use it enough to justify hauling it around. 
I haven't posted many (maybe 1) videos so if this works there should be the original and then the edited one.
Derek



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/15 18:23 by howeld.

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Unfortunately, your phone probably has a CMOS sensor with "rolling shutter" which makes removing the shaking difficult with a video editor. Your edited video is better, but in exchange for removing some of the shaking, you got the "watery" side effects.

There's an interesting pattern in your shaking - it's just on the horizonal axis. Your have very little if any vertical axis movement. What are you using for the video editor? Live Movie Maker with the stabilizing option? (only avaiable with Win 8.1 or later, I was told, which I do not have)

May I suggest a monopod instead of a tripod.  They fold small and can be stuck under a seat.

I know next to nothing about editing video.  Can you edit the contrast?  The sky is too light and probably why the birds washed out but they may still be there and most of the train and the foreground are too dark. A reduction in the contrast might really help.

Marty Bernard
 

The editor is Windows Movie Maker that came preloaded on our dell computer.

As for the shake in only on the horizontal I had braced against the side of a fence trying to keep still but it wasn't enough.

When I get home from work I will look to see if there is a way to adjust the contrast.

Posted from iPhone

howeld Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The editor is Windows Movie Maker that came
> preloaded on our dell computer.
>
> As for the shake in only on the horizontal I had
> braced against the side of a fence trying to keep
> still but it wasn't enough.
>
> When I get home from work I will look to see if
> there is a way to adjust the contrast.
>
> Posted from iPhone

If the Live Movie Maker for Windows 8.x is similar to the previous versions, then look for the brightness controls when you select the "Visual Effects" tab, or whatever it is called on your version. That's as close as you get to changing the contrast. Microsoft changed the interface around, so features might not be where you expect it.

Well, if you decide to go more than just occasional, casual videos, a real camcorder is the only way to go, really.  Besides being capable of manual control of things like iris, shutter speed, frames-per-second, and so on, they have built in stabilization features.  I have two Sony camcorders that feature a B.O.S.S. - Balanced Optical Steady Shot - which is a gyro/gymbal kind of physical stabilization of the entire lens assembly.  You can point that camcorder at yourself, move it just slightly, and watch how the lens moves inside the camcorder body to help stabilization.  Amazing reults for handheld shots.  Especially in fast situations where setting up a tripod or monopod just can't be done in time. 

Thanks for the comments. I fiddled with the contrast a bit but as some have said the phone just isn't going to give a good video in these conditions.

Posted from iPhone