Software Review: Editing Video with Telestream ScreenFlow 5.0

For any photographer transitioning from shooting stills to video, one of the biggest challenges is learning how to effectively edit video content. As anyone who’s wrestled with Photoshop knows, there is a steep learning curve, and that’s no less the case when learning Apple Final Cut or Adobe Premiere.

Telestream ScreenFlow 5.0 offers a welcome alternative to those high-end editing applications. This Mac-only software provides a powerful and intuitive design and workflow that frees photographers to spend more time producing content rather than mastering yet another software application.

USER-FRIENDLY
My introduction to ScreenFlow revolved around the powerful screen-capture capability for which it was originally designed. However, Telestream has continued to improve and expand its capability to produce one of the most straightforward and timesaving video applications that I’ve used. Though I have ready access to more advanced video-editing programs, I often find myself deferring to ScreenFlow 5.0 for its speed importing, cutting and outputting a short video.

Telestream’s ScreenFlow video-editing software offers a simple but robust timeline-based interface for editing multimedia produced from DSLRs, HD camcorders and screen captures.

Importing and organizing video clips, stills, audio and music is simple whether you are importing video from your still camera or a high-end HD camcorder. ScreenFlow provides native support for MPEG transport streams and AVCHD file formats, so you and your PC won’t get bogged down in transcoding.

Video, audio and stills are gathered in the software’s media panel on the right side of the desktop alongside other oft-used controls for transitions, video effects and callouts. The latest version of the software effectively integrates the Mac’s native iPhoto and iTunes libraries—a big convenience for those of us who have created collections of audio and stills within those respective applications.

The Editing Experience
The real value of ScreenFlow 5.0 is its editing capability. Built around a traditional timeline format, which includes multi-track editing of both video and audio, you can simply drag-and-drop clips into your timeline. For those familiar with older versions of Mac’s own iMovie software, the look and feel of ScreenFlow should be relatively familiar, especially for those who feel much more comfortable with a traditional timeline interface.

Video-correction tools are minimal, but the software still provides the use of Apple-based video tools for adjusting brightness, color saturation, contrast and more.

The video panel provides a simple but powerful set of tools for controlling scale, opacity, saturation, brightness and contrast. Though it may not have the powerful color-grading tools found in Final Cut or Premiere, these basic tools are more than efficient, particularly if you’re a videographer who takes advantage of the visual presets in your camera. For those who desire a greater degree of control, video filters can be added to provide a white point, gamma, hue adjustments and more.

Working with primary and secondary audio tracks is easy with the ability to quickly separate the audio from the video. Then, using the waveforms, the editor can sync the audio from an external audio recorder.

Though the audio-editing capability is not exhaustive, it is compatible with Apple-based audio-editing tools commonly found in GarageBand.

Like the video-editing tools, there are some basic controls for audio beyond just a volume control. The interface includes some built-in effects that allow you to take advantage of the native Apple audio filters, familiar to those who use GarageBand. Though they are not as sophisticated as the tools found in more advanced applications, they are often more than sufficient, especially if you have recorded high-quality audio to begin with.

The application makes it easy to output video to popular sharing sites including Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube.

What we really liked about ScreenFlow is how easy it is to output the finished video to popular sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook, as well as to a Dropbox or Google Drive folder. Whether it’s full-resolution HD video or a lower-resolution file, ScreenFlow allows you to share the content without having to weed through an endless assortment of output formats. For those of us who want to keep it simple, it’s a valuable resource.

Effective Tools
As mentioned before, ScreenFlow has built a reputation on its ability to capture video off of the computer desktop, which has made it a great tool for teachers and businesses that use such recordings for education and training purposes. However, these very same tools provide advantages for creators who are producing content for clients who desire a multimedia experience beyond simply cutting media clips together.

Titles, subtitles and lower-third text are easily added using a wide variety of fonts and text styles.

The powerful Text tool offers the ability to create not only titles and credits, but other text-based content as well including lower-thirds text for documentary-style projects. It takes advantage of the wealth of Apple OS fonts, as well as including controls for alignment, color, outline and backdrops. Like much of the rest of the application, the modest controls make the experience of using the application fairly easy to master.

The call-out capability, which lets you draw indicators on the video or stills for emphasis, is also valuable for those content creators who offer their services to business clients. Also, ScreenFlow provides a chroma key feature that can be valuable for those times when you need to work with a green screen.

Intuitive and Affordable
Though I sometimes pine for more advanced features such as more robust audio-editing controls and multicam support, I welcome the more modest choices available in ScreenFlow. While simpler, it almost always provides me just the right resources to complete a multimedia piece within a reasonable period of time.

At a cost of just $99, ScreenFlow is very affordable and is a fraction of the price of other editing applications. Yes, Premiere and Final Cut are more advanced and offer a greater wealth of features and controls. If you have the time to learn to master them, they are indeed the gold standard. However, in a world where time is money, there are those that will find that ScreenFlow is both cost-effective and invaluable.

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