How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro [Complete Beginner Guide]

Video content is getting ever more popular with the rise of video-based platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and others like them. To make visually attractive videos that not only tell a story but also deliver it with aesthetics, you’ll need prominent video editing software.

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

Table of Contents
- What is Adobe Premiere Pro?
- How to use Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to create a new project?
   - How to add a video clip to Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to add a music or sounds to Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to add text to Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to add transitions to Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to zoom in Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to crop a video in Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to fade audio in Adobe Premiere Pro?
   - How to export a video from Adobe Premiere Pro?
- How to Download Adobe Premiere Pro?
- What’s the Adobe Premiere Pro Price?
- What are the Adobe Premiere Pro System
 Requirements?
- Other Frequently Asked Questions about Adobe
Premiere Pro
   - How to Enable GPU Acceleration in Adobe Premiere
 Pro?
   - What are the Best YouTube Export Settings?

Among the dozens of video editing tools available today, Adobe Premiere Pro is probably one of the top contenders for the best editing software in the market. In this article, we will discuss how you can get things done with Adobe Premiere Pro.

But before we get into the meat of using Adobe Premiere Pro, let’s step back and get to know the video editing software a little better.

Let’s dive right in.

What is Adobe Premiere Pro?

Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editing software developed by Adobe and was published as a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. As one of the most powerful video editors in the market, Premiere Pro offers many features and tools to create a visually stunning video.

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

As a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, Premiere Pro can synchronize almost seamlessly with other tools in the same ecosystem, including:

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe XD
  • And many other Adobe-owned platforms

In other words, if you’re working in the content creation industry, you’ve probably used at least one of Adobe’s creative software.

Adobe Premiere Pro boasts the tagline “Video editing. Unlimited.” – which may as well be true with the amount of video editing features and customizations you can do to your clips when you use the software. There are hundreds of features, ranging from basic to beyond advanced, that you can use to edit, manipulate, and render your clips together into a beautiful movie.

But before we go into the deep-end of Adobe Premiere Pro’s advanced features, let’s start with the basics first.

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How to use Adobe Premiere Pro

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

How to Create a New Project in Adobe Premiere Pro

Editing your video in Adobe Premiere Pro requires you to create a project that will put all the clips, audios, effects, and everything you’d use in one neat file. When you save your edits as a project file, you won’t have to locate all the assets you used if you don’t finish editing in one sitting.

Here’s how to create a new project in Adobe Premiere Pro:

  1. Launch Adobe Premiere Pro.
  2. Click New Project… when the welcome screen pops up.
  3. Insert the name of the project; the default file name is Untitled.
  4. Set the project file location in your storage.
  5. Click OK.

Once you’ve successfully created your project, you can now start importing videos, audio, and other assets that you want to include in the outcome. Now, let us show you how to import a new video into an Adobe Premiere Pro project.

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How to add a video clip to Adobe Premiere Pro

Before you can start putting on transition effects and aesthetic features into your videos, you’ll need to import them into the Adobe Premiere Pro project. Once you’ve created a project, you’ll see a rather complicated user interface that might be overwhelming at first. But when you know what you’re looking for, everything is pretty intuitive.

To import a video clip into Adobe Premiere Pro, you can follow these steps:

  1. Open or create your Adobe Premiere Pro project file
  2. Click on File > Import.
  3. Select the videos that you want to edit and click OK.
  4. Your videos should pop up in the media library at the bottom left corner of the window.
  5. You can start editing them by dragging your videos into the Timeline.

Importing your videos into an Adobe Premiere Pro project is just the first step to utilizing the full potential of this powerful video editor. But now that you’ve got your videos ready to edit, you may want to start with something basic, like adding songs or audio effects to them.

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How to add music or sounds to Adobe Premiere Pro

To add music or sounds to your Adobe Premiere Pro project, you can follow these steps:

  1. Click on the File menu at the top left corner of the window and select Import.
  2. Locate your music or audio file, and click OK.
  3. Your music or audio is now loaded in the Adobe Premiere Pro project.
  4. To add them to your videos, drag your audio file from the media library to the timeline.

It’s pretty simple, right? Now that you’ve done some audio edits to your video, it’s time to do some visual edits.

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How to add text to a video in Adobe Premiere Pro

Now that you’ve learned how to add a soundtrack to your video in Premiere Pro, you may want to add some visual touches as well.

Adding text to your video is one of the easiest ways to touch up its appearance. Here’s how you can add texts to your videos using Adobe Premiere Pro:

  1. Open your project file in Adobe Premiere Pro.
  2. Click the Add Text button; it should be on the left side of your timeline.
  3. Click where you want to place the text in the video and start typing.
  4. You can customize your text using the Essential Graphics panel.

There are many ways you can customize your text in Premiere Pro, including applying a pre-made style or using simple animation to make it more interactive. You’ll have to explore these features for yourself and channel your inner creativity.

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How to add transitions to Adobe Premiere Pro

After placing a bunch of videos into the timeline, you may find that the visual of each clip isn’t all that similar. As a result, the transition between clips can feel a little bit odd.

Premiere Pro has many transition effects that you can use to smoothen out the transition between clips in your timeline. Here’s how you can add transitions to your video in Premiere Pro:

  1. Launch Premiere Pro and open your project.
  2. If you haven’t already, place the videos to add a transition to the timeline.
  3. Click on the Effects tab, and there should be a new panel containing a list of folders.
  4. Open the Video Transitions folder, and select the transition you want to use.
  5. Apply the transition effect by dragging it into the beginning, end, or in-between videos in your timeline.
  6. To add the default transition effect, you can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + D (Windows) or Cmd + D (macOS).

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How to zoom in Adobe Premiere Pro

While Premiere Pro isn’t as straightforward as other video editors, it offers more immaculate control over each effect you add to your videos – including zoom effects.

Here’s a simple guide that you can follow to add a zoom effect to your video in Premiere Pro:

  1. Navigate to Effects Control
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Motion
  3. Place the play head to the part of the video where you want to zoom.
  4. Adjust the zoom rate next to the Scale menu in the Effects Control Panel.

If you wish to add a continuous zoom effect to your videos, you can use the keyframe feature by following these steps:

  1. Place your play head to where you want the zoom to start.
  2. Click the timer icon next to Scale; this will turn on the keyframes feature.
  3. Drag the play head to the part where you want the zoom to end.
  4. Adjust the Scale value to get the final zoom effect that you want.

There are many more things that you can do with the keyframes feature; you can learn more about this feature in Adobe’s guide to keyframes in Premiere Pro.

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How to crop a video in Adobe Premiere Pro

You can also crop your videos in Premiere Pro with a lot of customization controls. While simpler video editors typically offer a fixed cropping shape (like rectangle or circle), Premiere Pro allows you to specify how much you want to crop each side of the video.

Here’s how you can crop a video in Adobe Premiere Pro:

  1. Place the video you want to crop to your timeline.
  2. Open the Effects workspace and search for Crop.
  3. Go to the Effects control panel.
  4. Locate the Crop effect and click the drop-down arrow to expand it.
  5. Adjust the crop area using the left, top, right, and bottom menus.

Similar to the zoom effect, you can also turn on keyframes to apply frame-by-frame cropping control. But if you’re new to Premiere Pro, you may need some time to get used to how the keyframe feature works.

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How to fade audio in Adobe Premiere Pro

Now that you’ve learned to do a bunch of stuff for the video, it’s time to touch a bit on the audio editing features. Among the many things you can do to edit your audio tracks in Premiere Pro, adding a fade effect is one of the simplest features.

Adding a fade effect allows you to add a better flow to the video by gradually reducing or increasing the audio track volume. Here’s how you can add a fade effect to audio tracks in Premiere Pro:

  1. Drag the audio you want to add a fade effect to into the timeline.
  2. Open the Effects panel, and expand the Audio Transitions folder.
  3. Click on the Crossfade sub-folder.
  4. Choose a fade type to apply to your audio.
  5. Drag the desired audio effect into the audio clip in your timeline.
  6. Adjust the position of the fade.
  7. (Optional) double-click the fade effect to adjust the speed.

You can read more about navigating and working with the audio transition effects in Premiere Pro in Adobe’s guide to audio transitions.

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How to export a video from Adobe Premiere Pro

Exporting videos from Premiere Pro is relatively easy. You’ll only need to click several buttons, and Premiere Pro will export your video in no time.

Here are the steps to export a video from Adobe Premiere Pro:

  1. Once you’ve finished editing the video, go to File > Export > Media.
  2. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M (Windows) or Cmd + M (macOS)
  3. Adjust the export settings to your preference.
  4. Click on Export to begin the rendering and exporting process.
  5. Note: you won’t be able to use Premiere Pro while it’s exporting.

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How to Download Adobe Premiere Pro

Now that you’ve read all the things you can do with Premiere Pro, you may want to give the software a try. Since Adobe Premiere Pro is a paid software, you’ll need to buy a license first before you can start using it.

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

You can follow these steps to get a Premiere Pro license and download the software into your device:

  1. Go to the Adobe Premiere Pro official landing page.
  2. Sign in to your Adobe account or create a new one.
  3. Click the Buy Now button at the top right corner of the window.
  4. Find the Adobe Premiere Pro plan, or use the Adobe Creative Cloud plan to use the entire creative app suite.
  5. Fill out your payment credentials and proceed to payment.
  6. Once the payment is made, visit the Adobe Premiere Pro download page to start downloading your copy of the software.

If you’re unsure whether Premiere Pro will suit your needs, Adobe offers a 7-day trial period to help you get familiar with the environment, or check the 15 best free video editing software list we made.

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What’s the Adobe Premiere Pro price?

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

Adobe Premiere Pro used to be a one-time license software purchase, but it has now become a subscription service as time goes by. Adobe uses two pricing groups, one to gain access to one app and another to access all apps in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

There are several different subscription plans that you can choose to get an Adobe Premiere Pro license:

Individual plans

  • US$20.99/mo (Premiere Pro only)
  • US$52.99/mo (all apps)

Business plans

  • US$33.99/mo (Premiere Pro only)
  • US$79.99/mo (all apps)

Student & Teachers

  • US$19.99/mo (all apps)

Schools & Universities

  • US$14.99/mo (Premiere Pro only)
  • US$34.99/mo (all apps)

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What are the Adobe Premiere Pro system requirements?

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

The majority of video editors available today require certain system specifications to run smoothly, and Premiere Pro is not an exception. However, the plethora of features and tools available in Premiere Pro requires you to have at least mid-end system specifications to run it smoothly.

According to Adobe’s official website, these are the minimum system specifications that you’ll need to run Premiere Pro:

  • Processor: Intel® 6th Gen or newer CPU – or AMD Ryzen™ 1000 Series or newer CPU
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit), v1909 or later
  • RAM: 8 GB of RAM
  • GPU: 2 GB of VRAM
  • Storage space: 8 GB of available hard-disk space
  • Screen resolution: 1280 x 800

With the above’s system requirements, you’ll be able to run the app somewhat smoothly. However, Adobe recommends a higher specification than that for better performance:

  • Processor: Intel® 7th Gen or newer CPU – or AMD Ryzen™ 3000 Series or newer CPU
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit), v1909 or later
  • RAM: 16 GB of RAM for HD media; 32 GB for 4K media or higher
  • GPU: 4 GB of GPU VRAM
  • Storage space: 8 GB of available hard-disk space; fast internal SSD for app installation and cache.
  • Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 or greater

Note: You can check the list of the recommended graphics cards to use with Premiere Pro here.

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Other Frequently-Asked Questions about Adobe Premiere Pro

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro in 2021 [Complete Beginner Guide]

How to enable GPU acceleration in Adobe Premiere Pro?

Typically, the CPU in a computer is the one that handles all the video rendering processes – which may become a very long task. But Premiere Pro supports the use of GPU to accelerate the video rendering process.

You can enable the GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro by following these steps:

  1. Go to File > Project Settings.
  2. Navigate to General.
  3. Go to the Video Rendering and Playback tab.
  4. Set the Renderer setting to Mercury Playback Engine GPU Accelerated (OpenCL/CUDA/Metal).

Depending on the GPU you have in your system, there may be some difference in performance. Some older GPU models are also incompatible with Premiere Pro’s GPU acceleration feature.

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What are the best YouTube export settings?

You can use several presets to export your videos from Adobe Premiere Pro, including one for YouTube. When you use this preset option to export your video, you’ll get an ideal output video that will work just fine for YouTube.

To export your video for YouTube, follow these steps:

  1. Open File > Export > Media file from the menu
  2. Select H.264 for the export format
  3. Select the YouTube 1080p Full HD preset
  4. Set the Frame rate to 23.976 and make sure that the video uses 1920 x 1080 resolution
  5. To optimize the bitrate setting, set the Bitrate encoding to VBR, 2 Pass.
  6. Set the target Bitrate to 15 and Maximum Bitrate to 40.
  7. Check the Use Maximum Render Quality box to get the best result.
  8. Navigate to the Audio tab, and adjust the settings to be as follow:
  9. Audio Format: AAC
  10. Audio Codec: AAC
  11. Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
  12. Channels: Stereo
  13. Audio Quality: High
  14. Bitrate Settings: 320
  15. Precedence: Bitrate

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Conclusions

Adobe Premiere Pro is an excellent video editor that has a steep learning curve. But once you’ve learned all the features and tools that it offers, you’ll be able to do thousands of different things to your videos.

If you’re ever wondering what’s the best video editing software in the world. In that case, Adobe Premiere Pro is a true contender for the title, along with several other top-tier apps like Final Cut Pro X and DaVinci Resolve.

Despite the premium subscription price, Adobe Premiere Pro is a powerful video editor worth getting if you are working in the creative industry.

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