In this article, we’ll cover 7 of the most underrated features in Premiere Pro.
Premiere Pro is arguably the most robust and well-respected video editing application in the world. However, given the complexity of the app, it can be challenging to learn all of the various features inside the software.
Premiere Pro is full of helpful features that you have probably never heard of. As a result, we thought it’d be fun to share a few of our favorite underrated features in Premiere Pro. Enjoy!
7 Underrated Features in Premiere Pro
Here’s a list of a few helpful features that we think you’ll love.
1. VR Workflows
Premiere Pro has wholly embraced the emergence of VR technologies in recent years. Luckily for us, this means we can edit, color grade, mix, and monitor VR footage directly in Premiere Pro.
I’ve used Premiere Pro to edit multiple VR projects and I am constantly blown away at how easy it is to edit and export footage for VR production.
This great video from Jason Levine shows us how to edit 360 VR video directly inside Premiere Pro. You might be surprised to hear that you can edit VR footage using a VR headset to monitor your video. Yep, it’s true! Premiere Pro supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. You can find more on supported VR headsets over on Adobe’s site.
Also, if you’re looking to practice shooting VR footage one of my favorite go-to 360 cameras is the Richo THETA. The quality isn’t perfect, but the footage is good enough to shoot some fun projects and edit the results in Premiere Pro.
2. Shot Matching
Every now and then Adobe releases a feature that seemingly works like magic, and Shot Matching is one of those features. Released in 2018, shot matching automatically applies color correction and grading to perfectly color match two different shots. I know… it’s crazy.
This feature is a game changer for those who work with footage that features inconsistent lighting. Gone are the days of ‘eyeballing’ color correction changes. Instead, editors can simply select an ‘Apply Match’ button to match the color correction/grading between shots. This is a perfect feature if you do a lot of work on documentaries or event videos.
This video from Jason Boone shows us how to utilize this incredible feature:
3. Lumetri Color Presets
The Lumetri Color panel isn’t necessarily a hidden feature in Premiere Pro, but it is certainly underutilized by modern video editors. In the world of video editing, color presets have developed a bad reputation as a cheap alternative to actually grading video by hand. However, the Lumetri Color Panel goes far beyond just adding action-movie stylizations to your video.
The feature can be used to save presets that can be used for different lighting scenarios and shared with fellow editors. The presets can also act as LUTs that allow you to unlock a higher level of dynamic range if you footage was shot in a log format.
This video from Becki and Chris is a great tutorial for using the Lumetri panel for primary and secondary color correction.
4. The Essential Sound Panel
I use the Essential Sound Panel all the time in Premiere Pro. Before the days of the essential sound panel, editors had to either use the limited sound features in Premiere Pro, or edit the audio in an external program like Adobe Audition. Not anymore…
The Essential Sound Panel acts as an acoustic dashboard in Premiere Pro. While there are many features that you’ll probably find useful, I’ve found (because I’m not an expert in audio) that the built-in presets are fantastic tools for kicking off my audio mix.
Just like color grading presets, audio presets are not a substitute for a professional sound mix, but they do give you a great starting point to begin editing your audio.
This video from Adobe’s Jason Levine is a great overview of this feature.
5. Libraries
It’s called the Creative Cloud for a reason. As the creative world moves into a browser-driven editing environment, Adobe has begun developing extensive tools to help connect teams through online servers via the library feature.
The library feature allows you to save everything from colors and fonts to Motion Design templates and assets in a secure online folder. This folder can be accessed across multiple Creative Cloud apps like Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and more.
By organizing important assets on the cloud using Libraries, you can make it easier for you to collaborate with others in a team environment. You can also access your assets while you’re away from your primary workstation.
This tutorial from Adobe is a great example of what you can do with this feature.
6. Multi-Project Support
Most editing applications only allow you to open a single project at a time. In many cases, that is no problem, but what if you want to copy and paste assets between projects?
Premiere Pro allows editors to open multiple projects at a time and easily copy and paste assets between timelines. I use this feature all the time to copy presets, music tracks, and repetitive graphics across multiple projects.
The best part is this feature doesn’t seem to slow down the speed of Premiere Pro. Here’s a quick video of this feature in action.
7. Sync Audio
As a video editor, you probably know how challenging it can be to sync up audio by hand. You have to zoom in, look for waveform patterns, and try to line them up perfectly. It can be a real pain.
However, Adobe Premiere Pro allows you to automatically sync multiple audio clips together with a handy ‘sync’ feature. To use the audio sync feature, just follow these steps:
Select the two audio files
Right click on the file
Select ‘Synchronize’
Select ‘Audio’
Select ‘Ok’
Your audio will now be automatically synced together. This video from Dansky is a quick overview on how to use this feature.If your audio continues to cause Premiere Pro to incorrectly sync your clips together I recommend checking out PluralEyes from Red Giant.
Learn More About Premiere Pro
If you want to learn more about the various features inside Premiere Pro, here are a few of my favorite resources from around the web:
