Adjust transitions, color, and more

To add a transition to the start and end of a clip, select a clip in the timeline, and click any transition preset in the Transitions panel. After applying the transition, you can adjust the duration of the transition in the Edit tab. You can also double-click on the transition in the timeline and edit its duration. Lastly, you can also click the transition in the timeline to bring up orange handles around the transition. Those orange handles can be dragged inward or outward to shorten or lengthen the duration of the transition.

To delete a transition, select the transition on the timeline, and press delete on the keyboard.

You can adjust a clip's color by applying a color preset. Or manually adjust exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, temperature, tint, vibrance, saturation, and other color controls in the Edit tab of the Color panel. If you add a color preset, you can continue refining the look of your video by going to the Edit tab and making further adjustments.

To add a color preset, select a clip in the timeline, open the Color panel, and click a preset. Once you choose a preset, you can simply adjust the intensity of the preset by using the Intensity slider, at the bottom of the Presets tab, or you can further edit the color properties in the Edit tab. You can also create a customized preset, which can be used for other clips in your timeline and in other projects.

To further edit the color properties, double-click the preset or click the Edit tab. The color adjustment settings are grouped into Basic and Advanced controls.

Basic:

• Exposure: Adjust the exposure of the clip.
• Contrast: Adjust the contrast of the clip.
• Highlights: Adjust the brightness of the light areas in the clip.
• Shadows: Adjust the darkness of the darker areas in the clip.
• Temperature: Fine-tune the white balance by moving the slider to the left to make the video appear cooler, and to the right for warmer colors.
• Tint: Fine-tune the white balance by moving the slider to the left to add a green tint, and move it to the right to add a magenta tint.
• Vibrance: Adjust the intensity of the more muted colors in the clip with less effect on the higher-saturated colors.
• Saturation: Adjust the saturation of all colors in the clip equally from 0 (monochrome) to 200 (double the saturation).

Advanced: 

• Faded Film: Apply a faded film effect to the clip.
• Sharpening: Adjust edge definition to create a sharper-looking video.
• Vignette - Amount: Set the amount of lightening or darkening along the edges of an image.
• Vignette - Feather: Define the edge of the vignette. A smaller value creates a harder, sharper edge, whereas, a larger value indicates a softer, thicker edge.

You can create and save your own custom presets for later use, which include the color preset and the settings from the Edit tab. The created presets are saved into the "Your Presets" section in the Presets tab.  

To create a preset based off the color adjustments you've made in the Color panel, open the Color panel, choose the ••• (more options) button, and select Create Preset.

You can modify the appearance of your clip using crop, rotate, and scale (for example, to create a picture-in-picture effect). To make these types of adjustments, select the clip in the timeline and open the Crop & Rotate panel. The adjustment settings are grouped into Basic and Advanced controls.

The Basic controls let you adjust the position and scale of the clip.

• Horizontal Position: Adjust the Horizontal position of the clip.
• Vertical Position: Adjusts the Vertical position of the clip.
• Rotation: Rotates the object +180° when dragging to the right and -180° when dragging to the left. 
• Scale (Maintain Proportions): This check box, when checked, adjusts the scale width and scale height uniformly on both axes. When the check box is Off, the width and height can be adjusted independently.
• Scale Width: Adjust the width of the clip. 
• Scale Height: Adjust the height of the clip. 

Here is an example showing how you can tweak some of these properties in your clip. For example, if you are creating a travel vlog, you can use these transform properties to remove unwanted elements (such as removing a face from your video) and change the focal point.

The Advanced accordion lets you crop and modify the appearance of the clip.

Crop:

• Crop Top: Crop the top edge of the clip.
• Crop Bottom: Crop the bottom edge of the clip.
• Crop Left: Crop the left edge of the clip.
• Crop Right: Crop the right edge of the clip.

Appearance:

• Opacity: Adjusts the opacity and transparency of the clip. For example, 75% opacity equals 25% transparency. Playing with opacity allows you to create cool effects segueing between clips on the timeline.
• Edge Feather: Applies an edge feather to all edges of the clip.

You can create videos in Landscape, Portrait, and Square aspect ratios. You can also change orientation of your video at any time during the editing process.

To change the aspect ratio of your video, click ••• (More Playback and Sequence Options) at the bottom of the preview monitor. Within the Orientation menu, choose between Landscape, Portrait, or Square aspect ratios.

After you change the orientation of your video, you can adjust the scale and position of a clip on the preview monitor, so that the focus is on the most important part of the clip.

To scale a clip, select the clip in the Timeline, click the clip in the preview monitor, and blue handles appear around the clip. To scale the clip, click drag-and-drop the white circles along the edges of the blue handles.

To reposition the clip, select the clip in the Timeline, click the clip in the preview monitor, and blue handles appear around the clip. Click drag-and-drop the clip to your desired position in the preview monitor.