Maximizing Video Visibility on YouTube Through Lighting

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Professional Insights: Expert-Level Youtube Video Tweaks

How to Edit Youtube Videos by the YouTube Video Editor

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Note: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide. Now, it is back again.

Video editing usually requires a fair amount of technical knowledge and professional software. But YouTube has introduced its new YouTube Video Editor. It’s deceptively simple compared to the traditional desktop editing programs.

If you haven’t tried the YouTube editor , it’s time to get started.

It’s easy to learn and the guide below will give you an introduction for editing videos on YouTube.

You May Also Like:
Royalty free music for YouTube Videos >>
Best Screen Recorders for YouTube >>
YouTube Video Dimensions/Size: Guide for Upload Settings >>
The Best Video Editors for YouTube >>

---

How to edit a YouTube video with Filmora

If you want to have more controls on editing YouTube video, here we recommend using Filmora .

You can use it to trim/cut/split YouTube videos with handy tools. It also offer more than 50 royal free music to use. Various video filters and effects are available to make your videos amazing. The best part is you can apply animated text/titles to videos like a pro. After editing, you can directly upload videos to YouTube.

Now, download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

---

How to Use YouTube Video Editor to Edit Video on YouTube

Step 1. Get access to YouTube Video Editor

Sign in to your YouTube (or Google) account. To get access to YouTube Video Editor, you can go directly to YouTube studio (video editor) . Or click avatar icon in your YouTube site > YouTube Studio.

Learn more about Upload MP3 to YouTube

Step 2. Add your videos to the timeline

After getting to the editor, all your YouTube videos will appear. If you want to add a clip from the pool of videos into the project, simply drag it onto the timeline or hit the plus icon in the top right hand corner of each clip. You can also add any YouTube videos that were uploaded with a “Creative Commons” license.

To do this, go to the CC tab, find a video and drag it to the timeline.

Looking for best YouTube video editor alternatives? Check this complete guide here >>

Step 3. Edit the videos as you like

With the YouTube video editor, you can quick fix your videos, add audio track of your video, add texts, use various filters and more. Below is a detailed guide on how to use YouTube video Editor.

• Trim/Cut/Split video

• Change video settings

• Add filters

• Add text to video

• Add music to video

• Add transitions to video

#1 Trim/Cut/Split video

To cut or split your video, hover over the target clip and hit the scissor icon to cut the clip into pieces. You can also cursor over the edge of your video in the timeline and drag the handle to shorten or trim your video.

#2 Change video settings

YouTube Video Editor also provides the “Quick fixes” function which does a quick analysis of the video and tweaks its color, brightness, and contrast settings automatically.

You can just double click the video to enter the “Quick fixes” tab and easily change brightness and contrast, add slow motion and pan zoom effect, and stabilize, audio fix or rotate video.

#3 Add filters

You can also add stunning video filters provided by this editor. To get access this function, double click the video and switch to the “Filter” tab.

#4 Add text to video

To add text to video, go to the “Text” tab, tick “Enable text” and enter the text to the text column. Then customize the font, size, color, position of the text as you like.

#5 Add music to video

YouTube also allows you to swap out the audio with one of its licensed tracks. To do this, go back to the main interface of the editor and click the Audio tab. Then select a song from the library and either drag it to the soundtrack timeline or press the plus sign to the right of each title.

Note: You should note that some are songs are subject to licensing agreements, which means YouTube will automatically add advertisements to the video clip.

Another short coming is that you can’t edit the audio track at all. If a song is longer than your video, you can do nothing but let it play from the beginning until your video stops.

#6 Add transitions to video

If several video clips have been added to the timeline, you need transition to make the whole project smoother. To add transition, go to the Transition tab and choose from 16 transition effects.

YouTube Video Editor is really easy to use, but it only provides some basic video editing functions and is really easy to crash when dealing with large file. If you want to make your video more professional, try Wondershare Filmora .

This desktop video editing tool can help you easily complete video editing tasks.

Download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Note: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide. Now, it is back again.

Video editing usually requires a fair amount of technical knowledge and professional software. But YouTube has introduced its new YouTube Video Editor. It’s deceptively simple compared to the traditional desktop editing programs.

If you haven’t tried the YouTube editor , it’s time to get started.

It’s easy to learn and the guide below will give you an introduction for editing videos on YouTube.

You May Also Like:
Royalty free music for YouTube Videos >>
Best Screen Recorders for YouTube >>
YouTube Video Dimensions/Size: Guide for Upload Settings >>
The Best Video Editors for YouTube >>

---

How to edit a YouTube video with Filmora

If you want to have more controls on editing YouTube video, here we recommend using Filmora .

You can use it to trim/cut/split YouTube videos with handy tools. It also offer more than 50 royal free music to use. Various video filters and effects are available to make your videos amazing. The best part is you can apply animated text/titles to videos like a pro. After editing, you can directly upload videos to YouTube.

Now, download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

---

How to Use YouTube Video Editor to Edit Video on YouTube

Step 1. Get access to YouTube Video Editor

Sign in to your YouTube (or Google) account. To get access to YouTube Video Editor, you can go directly to YouTube studio (video editor) . Or click avatar icon in your YouTube site > YouTube Studio.

Learn more about Upload MP3 to YouTube

Step 2. Add your videos to the timeline

After getting to the editor, all your YouTube videos will appear. If you want to add a clip from the pool of videos into the project, simply drag it onto the timeline or hit the plus icon in the top right hand corner of each clip. You can also add any YouTube videos that were uploaded with a “Creative Commons” license.

To do this, go to the CC tab, find a video and drag it to the timeline.

Looking for best YouTube video editor alternatives? Check this complete guide here >>

Step 3. Edit the videos as you like

With the YouTube video editor, you can quick fix your videos, add audio track of your video, add texts, use various filters and more. Below is a detailed guide on how to use YouTube video Editor.

• Trim/Cut/Split video

• Change video settings

• Add filters

• Add text to video

• Add music to video

• Add transitions to video

#1 Trim/Cut/Split video

To cut or split your video, hover over the target clip and hit the scissor icon to cut the clip into pieces. You can also cursor over the edge of your video in the timeline and drag the handle to shorten or trim your video.

#2 Change video settings

YouTube Video Editor also provides the “Quick fixes” function which does a quick analysis of the video and tweaks its color, brightness, and contrast settings automatically.

You can just double click the video to enter the “Quick fixes” tab and easily change brightness and contrast, add slow motion and pan zoom effect, and stabilize, audio fix or rotate video.

#3 Add filters

You can also add stunning video filters provided by this editor. To get access this function, double click the video and switch to the “Filter” tab.

#4 Add text to video

To add text to video, go to the “Text” tab, tick “Enable text” and enter the text to the text column. Then customize the font, size, color, position of the text as you like.

#5 Add music to video

YouTube also allows you to swap out the audio with one of its licensed tracks. To do this, go back to the main interface of the editor and click the Audio tab. Then select a song from the library and either drag it to the soundtrack timeline or press the plus sign to the right of each title.

Note: You should note that some are songs are subject to licensing agreements, which means YouTube will automatically add advertisements to the video clip.

Another short coming is that you can’t edit the audio track at all. If a song is longer than your video, you can do nothing but let it play from the beginning until your video stops.

#6 Add transitions to video

If several video clips have been added to the timeline, you need transition to make the whole project smoother. To add transition, go to the Transition tab and choose from 16 transition effects.

YouTube Video Editor is really easy to use, but it only provides some basic video editing functions and is really easy to crash when dealing with large file. If you want to make your video more professional, try Wondershare Filmora .

This desktop video editing tool can help you easily complete video editing tasks.

Download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Note: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide. Now, it is back again.

Video editing usually requires a fair amount of technical knowledge and professional software. But YouTube has introduced its new YouTube Video Editor. It’s deceptively simple compared to the traditional desktop editing programs.

If you haven’t tried the YouTube editor , it’s time to get started.

It’s easy to learn and the guide below will give you an introduction for editing videos on YouTube.

You May Also Like:
Royalty free music for YouTube Videos >>
Best Screen Recorders for YouTube >>
YouTube Video Dimensions/Size: Guide for Upload Settings >>
The Best Video Editors for YouTube >>

---

How to edit a YouTube video with Filmora

If you want to have more controls on editing YouTube video, here we recommend using Filmora .

You can use it to trim/cut/split YouTube videos with handy tools. It also offer more than 50 royal free music to use. Various video filters and effects are available to make your videos amazing. The best part is you can apply animated text/titles to videos like a pro. After editing, you can directly upload videos to YouTube.

Now, download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

---

How to Use YouTube Video Editor to Edit Video on YouTube

Step 1. Get access to YouTube Video Editor

Sign in to your YouTube (or Google) account. To get access to YouTube Video Editor, you can go directly to YouTube studio (video editor) . Or click avatar icon in your YouTube site > YouTube Studio.

Learn more about Upload MP3 to YouTube

Step 2. Add your videos to the timeline

After getting to the editor, all your YouTube videos will appear. If you want to add a clip from the pool of videos into the project, simply drag it onto the timeline or hit the plus icon in the top right hand corner of each clip. You can also add any YouTube videos that were uploaded with a “Creative Commons” license.

To do this, go to the CC tab, find a video and drag it to the timeline.

Looking for best YouTube video editor alternatives? Check this complete guide here >>

Step 3. Edit the videos as you like

With the YouTube video editor, you can quick fix your videos, add audio track of your video, add texts, use various filters and more. Below is a detailed guide on how to use YouTube video Editor.

• Trim/Cut/Split video

• Change video settings

• Add filters

• Add text to video

• Add music to video

• Add transitions to video

#1 Trim/Cut/Split video

To cut or split your video, hover over the target clip and hit the scissor icon to cut the clip into pieces. You can also cursor over the edge of your video in the timeline and drag the handle to shorten or trim your video.

#2 Change video settings

YouTube Video Editor also provides the “Quick fixes” function which does a quick analysis of the video and tweaks its color, brightness, and contrast settings automatically.

You can just double click the video to enter the “Quick fixes” tab and easily change brightness and contrast, add slow motion and pan zoom effect, and stabilize, audio fix or rotate video.

#3 Add filters

You can also add stunning video filters provided by this editor. To get access this function, double click the video and switch to the “Filter” tab.

#4 Add text to video

To add text to video, go to the “Text” tab, tick “Enable text” and enter the text to the text column. Then customize the font, size, color, position of the text as you like.

#5 Add music to video

YouTube also allows you to swap out the audio with one of its licensed tracks. To do this, go back to the main interface of the editor and click the Audio tab. Then select a song from the library and either drag it to the soundtrack timeline or press the plus sign to the right of each title.

Note: You should note that some are songs are subject to licensing agreements, which means YouTube will automatically add advertisements to the video clip.

Another short coming is that you can’t edit the audio track at all. If a song is longer than your video, you can do nothing but let it play from the beginning until your video stops.

#6 Add transitions to video

If several video clips have been added to the timeline, you need transition to make the whole project smoother. To add transition, go to the Transition tab and choose from 16 transition effects.

YouTube Video Editor is really easy to use, but it only provides some basic video editing functions and is really easy to crash when dealing with large file. If you want to make your video more professional, try Wondershare Filmora .

This desktop video editing tool can help you easily complete video editing tasks.

Download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Note: From 20th September 2017 users will no longer be able to use the complimentary editing suite. Check the best YouTube video editor alternatives from this complete guide. Now, it is back again.

Video editing usually requires a fair amount of technical knowledge and professional software. But YouTube has introduced its new YouTube Video Editor. It’s deceptively simple compared to the traditional desktop editing programs.

If you haven’t tried the YouTube editor , it’s time to get started.

It’s easy to learn and the guide below will give you an introduction for editing videos on YouTube.

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How to edit a YouTube video with Filmora

If you want to have more controls on editing YouTube video, here we recommend using Filmora .

You can use it to trim/cut/split YouTube videos with handy tools. It also offer more than 50 royal free music to use. Various video filters and effects are available to make your videos amazing. The best part is you can apply animated text/titles to videos like a pro. After editing, you can directly upload videos to YouTube.

Now, download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

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How to Use YouTube Video Editor to Edit Video on YouTube

Step 1. Get access to YouTube Video Editor

Sign in to your YouTube (or Google) account. To get access to YouTube Video Editor, you can go directly to YouTube studio (video editor) . Or click avatar icon in your YouTube site > YouTube Studio.

Learn more about Upload MP3 to YouTube

Step 2. Add your videos to the timeline

After getting to the editor, all your YouTube videos will appear. If you want to add a clip from the pool of videos into the project, simply drag it onto the timeline or hit the plus icon in the top right hand corner of each clip. You can also add any YouTube videos that were uploaded with a “Creative Commons” license.

To do this, go to the CC tab, find a video and drag it to the timeline.

Looking for best YouTube video editor alternatives? Check this complete guide here >>

Step 3. Edit the videos as you like

With the YouTube video editor, you can quick fix your videos, add audio track of your video, add texts, use various filters and more. Below is a detailed guide on how to use YouTube video Editor.

• Trim/Cut/Split video

• Change video settings

• Add filters

• Add text to video

• Add music to video

• Add transitions to video

#1 Trim/Cut/Split video

To cut or split your video, hover over the target clip and hit the scissor icon to cut the clip into pieces. You can also cursor over the edge of your video in the timeline and drag the handle to shorten or trim your video.

#2 Change video settings

YouTube Video Editor also provides the “Quick fixes” function which does a quick analysis of the video and tweaks its color, brightness, and contrast settings automatically.

You can just double click the video to enter the “Quick fixes” tab and easily change brightness and contrast, add slow motion and pan zoom effect, and stabilize, audio fix or rotate video.

#3 Add filters

You can also add stunning video filters provided by this editor. To get access this function, double click the video and switch to the “Filter” tab.

#4 Add text to video

To add text to video, go to the “Text” tab, tick “Enable text” and enter the text to the text column. Then customize the font, size, color, position of the text as you like.

#5 Add music to video

YouTube also allows you to swap out the audio with one of its licensed tracks. To do this, go back to the main interface of the editor and click the Audio tab. Then select a song from the library and either drag it to the soundtrack timeline or press the plus sign to the right of each title.

Note: You should note that some are songs are subject to licensing agreements, which means YouTube will automatically add advertisements to the video clip.

Another short coming is that you can’t edit the audio track at all. If a song is longer than your video, you can do nothing but let it play from the beginning until your video stops.

#6 Add transitions to video

If several video clips have been added to the timeline, you need transition to make the whole project smoother. To add transition, go to the Transition tab and choose from 16 transition effects.

YouTube Video Editor is really easy to use, but it only provides some basic video editing functions and is really easy to crash when dealing with large file. If you want to make your video more professional, try Wondershare Filmora .

This desktop video editing tool can help you easily complete video editing tasks.

Download it now to have a try!

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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