How to Edit a YouTube Video as a Beginner in 2026 (Step-by-Step)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV4UnrHznR8
[00:00] If you've never edited a YouTube video before, it can feel pretty overwhelming at the beginning, but the good news is this, it's actually a lot easier than you think if you follow the right process.
[00:11] So, in this video, I'm going to teach you how to edit your first ever YouTube video so you can start making your own videos.
[00:17] So, step one is to choose which software you're going to use to do your video editing, and for beginners, we highly recommend starting with the software CapCut.
[00:25] It's really user-friendly, it's completely free to get started, and there's a lot of really great tools for beginners who are wanting to make videos faster.
[00:32] If you do want an editing program that's a little bit more professional, there is a software called DaVinci Resolve that pros use to edit all the time.
[00:39] Some of the editors on our team use DaVinci Resolve, and it's a world-class editing software, and they have a free version that is very capable.
[00:45] But, for today's video, you can go ahead and download CapCut, and make sure to grab the desktop version for whatever computer you have, either Mac or Windows.
[00:54] Now, the next step is to organize all of our content before we bring it into our editing software, so we just make sure we set up our project files correctly.
[01:02] we set up our project files correctly.
[01:03] So, whether you recorded your video on your computer or a smartphone or even a dedicated camera, you want to make sure that you pull those files onto your computer and organize them in distinct categories.
[01:13] So, I've made a folder for this video called how to edit a YouTube video as a beginner, and there's three main folders that you want to create.
[01:18] You want to create one folder called A-roll, and this is for your talking head video.
[01:22] So, if you're talking to the camera, this file would go into this folder called A-roll.
[01:28] If you have supplemental footage that you recorded to reinforce whatever you're talking about, we call this B-roll.
[01:34] And these are like shorter clips that we use to just reinforce if I'm talking about this microphone for today's tutorial, we shot a bunch of footage of the microphone that we can use as overlays to help better explain what we're talking about.
[01:46] So, content like this would go in your B-roll folder, and then project files would be any other things like graphics or logos, animations, stock footage, or music that we would want to bring into our project as well.
[01:59] So, be sure to organize your files before you bring them into your software.
[02:02] It's going to make things a whole lot easier once you
[02:04] make things a whole lot easier once you get editing.
[02:05] Our next step is to get our project set up and import our footage into CapCut.
[02:09] So, once you open up CapCut, you can sign in if you would like, but I'll show you what this is like completely with the free version without even being signed in.
[02:16] So, the first thing we need to do is select this really big button up top called create a project, and immediately the CapCut interface will open up, and this is what you'll see.
[02:26] Now, the first thing we'll want to do right now is just import our media, so I'm going to go open my finder window and bring in the A-roll and the B-roll for this video.
[02:33] So, I'm going to click and drag, and drag those both of those folders actually directly into this import button, and they import as folders, which is really nice for organization.
[02:44] If I click and open this tutorial folder, we can see what's inside of there, which is these two clips.
[02:48] We have audio that I recorded as well as the talking head A-roll, and if I click this video, it'll automatically start playing this clip, so we can see how my A-roll's looking.
[02:58] So, these are the four main windows that you'll be using inside of CapCut.
[03:02] This top left one is how you ingest all of your media,
[03:05] one is how you ingest all of your media, you import footage, you also can add different audio and text effects with this left panel.
[03:09] The middle panel right here is for viewing your actual video, either previewing content that's not yet on your timeline or actually viewing your edit that you've already started editing.
[03:22] This top right panel is more details and information about the clips on your timeline, and you can do some editing to those clips with this right panel.
[03:29] And this very bottom window right here is your editing timeline.
[03:31] So, as you drag in media that you actually want to edit, we'll start building our timeline right here.
[03:36] So, now that our project is all set up, it's now time to start editing our A-roll or the main story and the talking head portion of our video.
[03:44] So, if I go up to this clip right here, this is the video that we're editing today, and I can actually just click and drag that directly onto this timeline, and I can start editing.
[03:52] Alternatively, if I delete this, I could go up to the clip, right-click, and then hit new timeline with selected item, and that's another really easy way to create a new timeline.
[04:03] If you want to zoom in on your clip, you can use this zoom slider right here or hit the command
[04:07] slider right here or hit the command minus and plus buttons to see your clips
[04:10] minus and plus buttons to see your clips just a little bit bigger if you'd like.
[04:12] just a little bit bigger if you'd like.
[04:14] You could also grab this video layer to expand it a little bit if you want to
[04:15] expand it a little bit if you want to see the audio a little bit better.
[04:17] see the audio a little bit better. Now, if you recorded audio separately, you
[04:19] if you recorded audio separately, you can drag your audio directly into the
[04:21] can drag your audio directly into the timeline, and then you can sync up those
[04:23] timeline, and then you can sync up those clips manually by just aligning the
[04:26] clips manually by just aligning the audio layers to make sure your audio is
[04:28] audio layers to make sure your audio is all in sync. Now, because I actually
[04:30] all in sync. Now, because I actually recorded audio separately, I'm going to
[04:32] recorded audio separately, I'm going to mute this track by grabbing this audio
[04:34] mute this track by grabbing this audio little levels right here and drag it
[04:36] little levels right here and drag it completely to the bottom. So, now I've
[04:37] completely to the bottom. So, now I've just muted my A-roll clip because I want
[04:39] just muted my A-roll clip because I want to use this high-quality podcast audio
[04:42] to use this high-quality podcast audio for this video. And because these are
[04:44] for this video. And because these are treated as separate clips right now, I'd
[04:46] treated as separate clips right now, I'd like to actually merge them together.
[04:48] like to actually merge them together. So, what I'm going to do is highlight
[04:50] So, what I'm going to do is highlight both of them, right-click, and then
[04:52] both of them, right-click, and then create a compound clip. And all this
[04:54] create a compound clip. And all this does is treat these almost like one
[04:56] does is treat these almost like one video file, and it just makes life a lot
[04:58] video file, and it just makes life a lot easier for me. So, it's something you
[05:00] easier for me. So, it's something you could try out if you ever want to create
[05:01] could try out if you ever want to create compound clips. So, now I need to go in
[05:03] compound clips. So, now I need to go in and start editing this introduction
[05:05] and start editing this introduction because I actually did the intro three
[05:07] because I actually did the intro three different times, and the third take was
[05:08] different times, and the third take was actually the best one.
[05:08] Let's watch that.
[05:10] actually the best one.
[05:10] Let's watch that.
[05:12] This is my favorite budget wireless microphone for beginners.
[05:14] It's the Hollyland Lark A1.
[05:17] So, at this point, everything to the left of that clip needs to be deleted, so I'll hit B on my keyboard to open up the blade tool, and this is how I make a bunch of edits.
[05:18] everything to the left of that clip needs to be deleted, so I'll hit B on my keyboard to open up the blade tool, and this is how I make a bunch of edits.
[05:20] keyboard to open up the blade tool, and this is how I make a bunch of edits.
[05:22] this is how I make a bunch of edits.
[05:24] So, I can clip, clip, clip all in here, and then if I want to, I can click A to highlight and drag and delete all those clips.
[05:26] I can clip, clip, clip all in here, and then if I want to, I can click A to highlight and drag and delete all those clips.
[05:28] then if I want to, I can click A to highlight and drag and delete all those clips.
[05:31] highlight and drag and delete all those clips.
[05:32] clips. We don't need any of those things.
[05:34] things. And now there's this big gap right here, and what I can do is actually move this over if I would like, or I can turn on automatic snapping right here.
[05:36] right here, and what I can do is actually move this over if I would like, or I can turn on automatic snapping right here.
[05:38] actually move this over if I would like, or I can turn on automatic snapping right here.
[05:41] or I can turn on automatic snapping right here.
[05:42] So, if I click this button, everything's going to snap automatically anytime I make an edit.
[05:44] everything's going to snap automatically anytime I make an edit.
[05:46] So, same thing over here, everything on the left side of this hook needs to be deleted, so I'll click, hit A on my keyboard to remove this video clip, and then hit delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:48] over here, everything on the left side of this hook needs to be deleted, so I'll click, hit A on my keyboard to remove this video clip, and then hit delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:49] of this hook needs to be deleted, so I'll click, hit A on my keyboard to remove this video clip, and then hit delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:51] I'll click, hit A on my keyboard to remove this video clip, and then hit delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:53] remove this video clip, and then hit delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:55] delete, and everything snaps over to place.
[05:57] place. Let's watch the hook now.
[05:57] This is my favorite budget wireless microphone for beginners.
[05:59] my favorite budget wireless microphone for beginners.
[06:02] It's the Hollyland Lark A1.
[06:03] So, at this point, I need to go through the entire timeline and just get my story solidified.
[06:05] through the entire timeline and just get my story solidified.
[06:07] So, I'm going to go through and cut out all of the different
[06:09] through and cut out all of the different mistakes, and if I kind of rambled on, I want to delete that as well, and just get the story as tight as I can.
[06:14] So, I just went through and edited all of the A-roll for my video, and this is probably what your timeline would look like.
[06:21] You have a bunch of different clips and different lines and cuts in the video because you removed several mistakes.
[06:25] And what we need to do at this point is actually add what's called B-roll.
[06:29] So, this is supplemental footage that will help reinforce whatever we're talking about in our video, but it also helps cover cuts or mistakes that we made in our video to make the video feel more seamless.
[06:41] So, if I go back up to this media pool, I can click all to view all of my media sources, and I want to click in this folder and look at Lark A1 B-roll.
[06:48] If I stretch this out, I can see more of the clips, or I'll make it maybe just like right here so I can view three rows, and I can scroll through and look at all of this high-quality B-roll that we shot for this video.
[07:00] So, let's listen to what I say right here in this portion of the video.
[07:02] All of it fits right inside this really tiny carrying case.
[07:05] So, as I talk about that tiny carrying case, it'd be great to visually show the
[07:09] case, it'd be great to visually show the case that I'm talking about, and I shot a bunch of B-roll that I can overlay over the top of that portion to even cover this cut that exists right here.
[07:17] So, as I scroll through my media pool, I can see this clip right here where I'm highlighting the case.
[07:23] And actually, instead of dragging the entire clip onto the timeline, I don't need the whole clip.
[07:28] And instead of having to like drag out these handles here, I can actually go up to this window, and then as the video plays, I can hit I on my keyboard to set an in-point, and then hit O to set an out-point.
[07:39] So, now I'm just dragging this tiny little portion of this video by selecting I and O to tell the software don't drag the entire clip, just drag this little portion that I actually want to use.
[07:50] So, I'll pull that down into the video right here, and we can see that it's actually a little bit shorter than we need it to be, and I need the clip to actually be extended all the way to the end of this frame to cover this cut right here.
[08:01] Now, what I could do is just drag out the handle a little bit more, but maybe the footage gets a little shaky at the end, and that's not preferable.
[08:09] Now, I actually recorded this B-roll in a higher frame
[08:11] recorded this B-roll in a higher frame rate so I could slow that footage down.
[08:13] rate so I could slow that footage down later, and I'll show you how to do this.
[08:14] later, and I'll show you how to do this here inside of CapCut.
[08:16] here inside of CapCut.
[08:16] So, if I click on this clip, we can just go up to this top right corner and click on speed, and I'm able to adjust the speed all the way down to 40% because I shot this clip in 60 frames per second.
[08:27] And because of the timeline setting that I'm working on with my A-roll being 24 frames per second, this clip can be slowed down all the way to 40% and still play back buttery smooth.
[08:38] Now, all I need to do is adjust my handles to the proper position.
[08:40] So, maybe I want the clip to start right here.
[08:41] I'll drag this over, and then re-align the clip to make sure it actually is over the cut point right here, and then I'll drag this handle so that it covers that clip so that as I'm talking about the charging case, this B-roll plays in slow motion.
[08:56] Let's watch that clip.
[08:58] and computers.
[08:58] All of it fits right inside this really tiny carrying case.
[09:02] Perfect, it's looking really good.
[09:04] So, I just added a little bit more B-roll to the timeline.
[09:05] Let's check out how this is looking.
[09:07] The kit comes with two kinds of receivers.
[09:09] You can use the lightning receiver for older iPhones,
[09:13] lightning receiver for older iPhones, and then the USB-C receiver for newer
[09:15] and then the USB-C receiver for newer iPhones, Android devices, or even
[09:18] iPhones, Android devices, or even tablets and computers.
[09:20] tablets and computers. All of it fits right inside this really tiny carrying
[09:22] right inside this really tiny carrying case.
[09:24] case. So, that additional B-roll footage really helps cover some of those cuts
[09:26] really helps cover some of those cuts and mistakes that I made in the video,
[09:27] and mistakes that I made in the video, but also just reinforces exactly what
[09:29] but also just reinforces exactly what I'm talking about in the video.
[09:31] I'm talking about in the video. That viewer is now able to see visually
[09:33] viewer is now able to see visually everything I'm speaking about.
[09:35] everything I'm speaking about. Now, maybe you don't have time to go out and
[09:36] maybe you don't have time to go out and film all of your own B-roll, or it's
[09:38] film all of your own B-roll, or it's just sort of impractical for the kind of
[09:40] just sort of impractical for the kind of content that you create.
[09:42] content that you create. Well, that's okay because there's services out there
[09:44] okay because there's services out there like Storyblocks, which is the sponsor
[09:46] like Storyblocks, which is the sponsor of today's video.
[09:48] of today's video. Storyblocks gives you unlimited access to a massive library of
[09:51] unlimited access to a massive library of high-quality stock assets all for one
[09:54] high-quality stock assets all for one predictable subscription cost.
[09:56] predictable subscription cost. They have amazing 4K and 1080p footage and also
[09:59] amazing 4K and 1080p footage and also have motion graphics and music, sound
[10:02] have motion graphics and music, sound effects, and more.
[10:04] effects, and more. I've personally been using Storyblocks for about 8 years to
[10:06] using Storyblocks for about 8 years to fill in all of those missing pieces of
[10:08] fill in all of those missing pieces of my video projects here at Think Media or
[10:10] my video projects here at Think Media or even in my professional freelancing
[10:12] even in my professional freelancing business that I just don't have time to
[10:13] business that I just don't have time to go out and shoot myself.
[10:15] It's honestly such a game-changer and has saved me hours on different projects.
[10:19] Storyblocks is also making a point to highlight real creators' work and creators are adding new content to the platform all the time that's high quality and looks fantastic.
[10:28] And there's also a ton of overlays and texture packs and transition animations, all of these different things that as you grow as an editor, you will love leveraging.
[10:39] So, I use Storyblocks all of the time.
[10:40] If you want to give it a try, you can click the link down in the description below or head to storyblocks.com/thinkmedia to sign up today.
[10:48] Now, after our B-roll is complete, it's time to add some music and sound effects to just make the sound experience of our video a little bit better.
[10:55] What's great about CapCut is they have a bunch of built-in audio and different music and sound effects that you can leverage right away or you can drag in your own content that you have to work with.
[11:04] Like right here, I have an entire folder of music from Storyblocks that I downloaded.
[11:08] If we click into this folder, we can see all of these different audio tracks that I could drag right into my timeline.
[11:13] Let's listen to one of these.
[11:16] Hey, I think this one fits the vibe of this video.
[11:19] So, I'll drag this audio right onto the timeline and place it below my A-roll's audio and it can just live right there on audio layer two.
[11:27] I will click the blade tool and clip off the end so we're not getting any of this additional audio in our export.
[11:33] If we listen to the audio right now and just leave it as is, it's going to be way too loud and overpower our mix.
[11:38] Let's listen to it right now.
[11:39] This is my favorite [music] budget Like you can't actually even hear my voice.
[11:43] So, we need to lower the audio volume of the music to let my voice come through a little bit more.
[11:48] If I expand this audio layer, it'll be easier to see this little lever right here that I can pull up or down to increase or decrease my audio volume.
[11:56] And typically a great place for your audio to live is right around like -32 dB to 36 dB is where we typically keep it.
[12:06] So, let's listen to what it sounds like right around -33.
[12:07] This is my favorite budget wireless microphone for
[12:10] Now, that adds a really subtle ambiance.
[12:14] It's not too loud where it's overpowering the mix, but just enough to add a nice little
[12:17] but just enough to add a nice little vibe for the video.
[12:19] vibe for the video.
[12:19] The next step would be to add any titles or graphics that you might want to have in your scene and I'll show you just how to do a really simple one inside of CapCut.
[12:24] So, if we go up here to this top left window, we can click the text button right here and you can add a default text or look at some of these presets.
[12:34] Now, some of these are actually for the premium plan, so you got to make sure you're not grabbing like the purple diamond unless you pay for CapCut.
[12:42] Instead, you can actually just start with a default text and drag that right onto the timeline.
[12:46] And now it's visible on our timeline and I'm going to change this to the title or the name of the microphone.
[12:50] So, this is the Hollyland Lark A1.
[12:52] I'm going to highlight it all by hitting command A and I do want to change the font here.
[12:58] So, let's cycle through some of these different options, ones that are not a part of the paid plan to find one that we're liking.
[13:06] I like this Arial here and we need to make sure we scale it up or down to be the right size.
[13:09] There's different preset styles you can select if you would like and just make this based on your preferences.
[13:15] So, I'm just messing with this title screen a little bit to get it just right and that's part
[13:18] bit to get it just right and that's part of this process of editing is just of this process of editing is just messing with things for a while until you get the style you like.
[13:22] But what I want to do is add an animation to the in point of this text so that as the text comes on screen, it adds a little animation and movement to the text.
[13:30] Here's a simple effect called fade reveal.
[13:32] So, let's add this to the clip.
[13:34] It's the Hollyland So, as the Hollyland Lark A1 is announced, it actually slowly fades in and reveals the text and let's watch that back together.
[13:43] beginners, it's the Hollyland Lark A1.
[13:45] So, as we look at our timeline right now, what you'll notice is we're almost building distinct layers for every step of our editing process.
[13:51] So, our first video layer is all of my talking head footage.
[13:53] So, it's me looking at the camera speaking.
[13:55] Our second video layer is all of our B-roll.
[13:59] So, that's supplemental footage we can add to layer on top of our B-roll.
[14:04] And then our third video layer are all of our text animations that we can add and you could add subsequent video layers as your edits get more complex.
[14:10] But a helpful tip is try to keep all of the same type of content on its own video layer.
[14:14] So, all of my A-roll is always going to go on
[14:18] of my A-roll is always going to go on layer one.
[14:20] Layer two might be all of my B-roll and layer three could be all of your graphics as to not make your timeline too confusing.
[14:26] Now, one of the last things you could do before you export your video is make sure you color correct any clips that maybe just don't look the best.
[14:33] And so, all you have to do is click on a clip and then go to your very top right window up here and then there's all these different ones, speed, animation, but you want to go to adjust.
[14:43] And this is where you can adjust some of the colors of your clip.
[14:47] You could add a LUT, which stands for lookup table and that's kind of a color overlay, like a color preset you could add to your footage if you've ever downloaded those.
[14:54] That's where you would add your LUTs.
[14:55] But you can also just manually do this.
[14:59] If I wanted my footage to be a little bit warmer, I could do that, add some more contrast potentially, bring down my highlights if it was like a little bit too bright.
[15:06] All of these different things you can do.
[15:09] I could sharpen it up if it was too soft.
[15:11] I can add some clarity as well.
[15:12] If your camera lens had some vignetting, you can correct for that by adding white to the edges of the frame or you could increase your vignetting if you want to kind of hone in on the center of the frame,
[15:20] hone in on the center of the frame, you could do that as well.
[15:21] And if you want to see what those color adjustments look like, you can turn on and off your adjustment layer really quickly to see that color correction.
[15:28] At this point, if you're feeling good about your edit, the next step is to actually review the entire edit to make sure everything is looking proper and this is where you honestly can catch a lot of mistakes and save you time and headache before you export your video and have a mistake in the video.
[15:42] You want to spend time watching your video.
[15:44] But a little hack for this is if you want to save yourself time, you can watch the video in two times speed.
[15:49] All you have to do is hit your space bar to hit play and then hit L to fast forward.
[15:53] And now this video is playing in two times speed and I do this all of the time.
[15:57] You can even edit in two times speed if you really want to save time editing.
[16:00] But reviewing your video in two times speed is a little hack that us editors use.
[16:03] Once you finalize and reviewed your video, it's time to export your video, which is our final step.
[16:08] So, all you have to do is go up to the very top right corner and you do want to adjust some specific export settings here.
[16:14] The first thing is you want to change the name of your export setting if you didn't change the name of your project to begin with.
[16:19] We can just call this like Lark A1 mini review.
[16:22] call this like Lark A1 mini review.
[16:24] You also want to export this to a specific destination.
[16:26] Maybe your downloads or into your documents, wherever you would prefer this to live, you can select a manual destination for it.
[16:29] Now, when it comes to resolution, you do want to export in a minimum of 1080p quality or if you shot your video in 4K, you can export in 4K quality.
[16:40] Just know that CapCut's free version does have different limits based on the credits that you've used for your different export settings.
[16:47] For bitrate, you do always want to select higher if possible.
[16:49] Don't choose recommended or lower, you want the highest bitrate possible because this will just give your video the most amount of information and quality once you've exported.
[16:56] For codec, we like the H.264 codec or ProRes 422.
[17:03] H.264 is usually fine for most people, so go ahead and select that.
[17:05] For format, go ahead and select MP4 instead of MOV.
[17:07] It's just more universally compatible.
[17:09] For frame rate, just export in whatever frame rate you shot your A-roll in.
[17:11] So, if you shot in 30 frames per second for your A-roll, export in 30 frames.
[17:15] If you shot in 24, you'll want to export in 24 frames per second.
[17:17] If you also wanted to export the
[17:23] second.
[17:25] If you also wanted to export the audio, you could do that right here as audio, you could do that right here as an MP3 or wave file.
[17:27] I would actually an MP3 or wave file.
[17:29] I would actually choose wave if I was just exporting the audio.
[17:30] Once you're finished with all this, you can go ahead and hit export
[17:32] and your video will export in honestly just a few minutes.
[17:36] CapCut is honestly pretty fast with their export times.
[17:38] And once your export finishes, you can open
[17:39] it up on your computer and just make sure that everything exported properly
[17:43] and you're good to go.
[17:44] And what's great about these 10 easy steps is that all of these steps are repeatable for literally
[17:48] every single video.
[17:50] Every video I make at Think Media, I've made like over 120 videos for Think Media.
[17:54] I follow all of these 10 steps for every single piece of content.
[17:56] If you want to try out CapCut, we'll link it down in the description
[17:59] below as well as Storyblocks if you want to enhance your videos with high-quality
[18:03] stock media assets.
[18:05] So, I'll link that in the description below as well.
[18:07] Now, if you're struggling at all with the recording phase of your videos, you can
[18:10] click or tap the screen right here to watch this video where I walk you
[18:11] through some of the easiest ways to start making better videos faster.
[18:17] So, go ahead and click the screen right there and I'll see you in the next one.