Sometimes a video comes out perfect, but sometimes they are too dark, too light, lacking contrast or some other problem. FlexClip online editor can fix problems and add watermarks and more.
Smartphones are getting smarter every year and cameras are steadily improving to the point where they can take professional quality video. Most videos shot on a smartphone (or a proper camera), are pretty good, but occasionally they are not and the exposure is wrong because we have too much sky in the frame, are shooting into the sun or make some other rookie mistake. Smartphones are smart, but they cannot correct every mistake we may make.
For this reason, we may need to correct minor problems with some of the videos we take. They may need lightening, darkening, exposure, saturation or contrast correction and so on. FlexClip is an online tool that can do all of this and more. Some things it can do are free.
If you share your videos online, such as on social media, your blog or company website, you might not want others to take them and use them or claim them as their own. Adding a watermark to a video helps to protect it. A watermark is a semi-transparent logo or copyright text that identifies a video as belonging to you or your company. It can be tucked away in the corner of the clip so that it does not get in the way. It will not prevent people taking your video, but it does make it easy to identify if they do.
There are many video editors for desktop and laptop computers and Mac users have iMovie and Final Cut Pro, Windows users have Adobe Premiere Rush and Pro, and there are 100+ alternatives. FlexClip is one of them. It is an online video editor that works in a web browser, so it is not for editing an hour of 4k video. It is for editing short clips for fun, social shares, video ads, tips, guides and tutorials. Short snappy, entertaining videos.
Go to the tools section of the FlexClip website and there are many free tools, like Add Logo to Video, Add Music to Video, Add Text to Video, Compress Video, Convert Video and so on. Here I am going to look at two of these tools, Video Brightness and Add Watermark.
Adjust video brightness
After using a few of these tools, you will realize that they are not separate ones. There is a single online video editor, which has many tools. No matter which tool you choose at the site, the video editor loads. Choosing a tool just opens the relevant menu or adjustment panel in the editor for you, so it saves a step or two.
You can simply drag a video clip from the computer’s disk and drop it on this page in the web browser to upload it. Be sensible and don’t try to upload gigabytes of video, it works best with short clips of up to 10 of minutes at HD quality.
I chose the Adjust Brightness tool, so the video editor opens like this, with the clip showing and the Adjust panel open on the left. You can video editor switch tools using the blue panel on the left, so you can start with another tool and come here by selecting it in the left sidebar. You can also start here and switch to a different tool afterwards.
Here is a larger picture of the Adjust panel.
Correcting problems with the video is a simple matter of dragging the sliders and viewing the results. The effect is instant and you can preview the whole clip. The video can be made a bit warmer or cooler, the saturation can be increased or decreased, highlights and shadows adjusted and so on. Just experiment with the sliders until the video looks as you want it to.
Add a watermark to a video
Once the video editor is open, there is no need to return to the FlexClip tools page to choose a different tool. The tool can simply be selected in the blue sidebar. Watermark is at the bottom of the sudebar and selecting it opens the Watermark panel.
There are Text and Image tabs and the Text tab is shown above. The watermark text can be entered, the font, size and opacity selected. The text or logo can be positioned in any of the four corners of the video clip. There is nothing to it really and it is very easy to add a copyright message or company logo to the video.
All the other tools on the FlexClip tools page of the website are in the left sidebar, so you can customize the video further and add more to it, like music, text and so on. Let’s move on to saving it though.
Save the edited video
To export your modified video, you must be signed up and signed in to the FlexClip website. Free accounts and subscriptions are available.
I am signed in with a free account and 480p video resolution is offered for the edited video. The other two options require a paid plan. However, I was able to choose the 1080p HD export option for free by agreeing to have an intro added to the start of the video.
There are several intro templates to choose from and they can be plain or fun. I chose a simple one that animates the video name and created by text. The FlexClip branding appears briefly after the title if you are a freeloader like me, but not if you have a paid subscription.
Click the Export Video button and the video is created and downloaded. The time taken depends on the length of the video of course. Short ones are quick, but longer ones may take a few minutes.
That’s it. The modified and watermarked video is in your Downloads folder and ready to be used wherever you need it, like your website, blog, social media and so on.
What you can do for free at the FlexClip website is limited as you might expect and if you are serious about video editing you probably want a Basic or Plus plan. It is up to you.
