Absolute Newbie-Editing videos

[rblu]

Greetings All,
I'm new to the forum so hopefully this is posted in the correct place.
I know absolutely nothing about editing video.
I installed Shot Cut and have watched a few tutorials on U-Tube.
I loaded some video clips from my iPhone 11 pro, shot at
1080p HD 60 fps. When I view them on Shot Cut they were not smooth,
I guess it was lag, noticeable jerky,not a lot but not as smooth as when viewed in the iPhone.
I left the setting on AUTO in the editor.

Does fps on the editor need to be the same as the camera???
Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!!
Richard

[Cornucopia]

When editing, it is always best to match framerates & resolutions, etc., so you have the least amount of change.
Change entails interpolations = guessing, which often means loss of quality.

You can edit where you set your edit project/session/timeline to match your original camera setting.
This can work fine except when you have more than a single clip and some have different settings.
Then, you either go with the more frequently used setting & convert the others, or go with the more important clips and convert the others, or go with an intended timeline (and final clip) setting, and convert those that don't match.

It's usually best practice, for pros & semi pros, to figure out ahead of time what your most common intended settings should be (for end use, distribution, certain device optimal playback, etc.), then you set your cam to that setting & keep it there so everything will match from the get-go.

However, if you are using an iPhone, you are at a disadvantage: iPhones rarely are able to maintain a consistent & constant framerate. It is slightly possible with higher end (pro?) cam apps AND there is more than sufficient light. Otherwise, in an effort to maximize efficiency of exposure iPhones (and most androids as well) will/must use variable framerate to cut corners.

Remember a universal formula for image exposure:

Image brightness ∝ Scene illumination * Subject reflectivity * Lens aperture area * Shutter open time * ISO sensitivity

Notice if scene & subject is low, and aperture is fixed (as often with phones), and sensitivity has only certain limits of adjustment, what must make up the difference is shutter open time. Aka longer exposures = slower framerates.

So my guess is that shotcut is probably not the best app to convert from VFR (Variable FrameRate) to CFR (Constant FR).
Hate to say it but not many apps are good at this. Some are better than others - it was only recently that such a flagship editing app as Adobe Premiere Pro was able to do it decently.

But if your FR varies wildly, there is little you can do to improve it, as often the timebases won't match for whole frames and it'll have to do some kind of blend (interpolation), or utilize frame duplications/drops (which exaggerates stuttering of motion).

There are some recommended processes listed on other threads here, but all are compromises. As mentioned, it's best to avoid in the first place, either by applying those pro workflows, or using different/better cameras.


Scott

[johns0]

I changed your thread title so more people will help.

[rblu]

Many thanks for your time and input ,obviously I have a lot to learn. I have a Canon 5DMRKiii I'll shoot some video with that. Besides trial and error any suggestions on web sites/books on learning?..

thanks again,,
Richard