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Stabilize video footage with Shake Reduction

Last updated on Oct 1, 2024

Learn to use the Shake Reduction effect in Premiere Elements to fix shaky videos.

Shake Reduction in Premiere Elements stabilizes shaky video footage, making it smoother and more visually appealing. This effect is especially useful when working with handheld or action shots, where camera shake is common. Shake Reduction automatically analyzes your video and applies stabilization to reduce the effects of unwanted motion, resulting in a more professional-looking final video.

Stabilize with the Shake Reduction effect

To stabilize motion using the Shake Reduction effect, do the following:

Select the clip you want to stabilize.
Open the Effects panel and choose Video Effects. Search for Shake Reduction in Video Effects and drag the Shake Reduction effect to your clip.

Note:

The Shake Reduction in Premiere Elements requires that the clip dimensions match the sequence settings. If the clip does not match the sequence settings, you can nest the clip and then apply the Shake Reduction effect to the nest.

Shake Reduction settings

Analyze: There is no need to press this button when you first apply Shake Reduction; it is pressed for you automatically. The Analyze button remains dimmed until some change takes place. For example, if you adjust a layer’s In or Out points, or there is an upstream change to the layer source. Click the button to reanalyze the footage.

Cancel: Cancels an analysis in progress. During analysis, status information appears next to the Cancel button.

Note:

Analysis does not take into account any effects that are applied directly to the same clip.

Stabilization

Stabilization settings allow for adjusting the stabilization process.

Result: Controls the intended result for the footage (Smooth or No Motion).
- Smooth motion (default): Retains the original camera movement but makes it smoother. When selected, Smoothness is enabled to control how smooth the camera movement becomes.
- No Motion: Attempts to remove all camera motion from the shot. When selected, the Crop Less Smooth More function is disabled in the Advanced section. This setting is used for footage where at least a portion of the main subject remains within the frame for the entire range being analyzed.
Smoothness: Chooses how much the camera’s original motion is stabilized. Lower values are closer to the camera’s original motion while higher values are smoother. Values above 100 require more cropping of the image. Enabled when the Result is set to Smooth Motion.

Borders

Borders settings adjust how borders (the moving edges) are treated for footage that is stabilized.

Framing: Controls how the edges appear in a stabilizing result. Framing can be set to one of the following:
- Stabilize Only: This option displays the entire frame, including the moving edges. It shows how much work is being done to stabilize the image and allows you to crop the footage using other methods. When selected, the Auto-scale section and Crop Less Smooth More properties are disabled.
- Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling. Stabilize, Crop is identical to using Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale, and setting Maximum Scale to 100%. With this option enabled, the Auto-scale section is disabled, but the Crop Less Smooth More property is enabled.
- Stabilize, Crop (default): Crops the moving edges and scales up the image to refill the frame. The automatic scaling is controlled by various properties in the Auto-scale section.
- Stabilize, Synthesize Edges: Fills in the blank space created by the moving edges with content from frames earlier and later in time (controlled by Synthesizes Input Range in the Advanced section). With this option, the Auto-scale section and Crop Less Smooth More are disabled.
Note:

It is possible for artifacts to appear when there is movement at the edge of the frame not related to camera movement.

Advanced

Detailed Analysis: When set to on, makes the next Analysis phase do extra work to find elements to track. The resulting data (stored in the project as part of the effect) is much larger and slower with this option enabled.
Fast Analysis: It improves the time Premiere Elements takes to analyze shaky footage while leaving the actual stabilization process unchanged. This option is selected by default. You can deselect the checkbox if you want.

Note:

By default, the Fast Analysis checkbox is selected. You have to uncheck the Fast Analysis checkbox before selecting the Detailed Analysis checkbox. This will help you track the selected Analysis.
Rolling Shutter Ripple: The stabilizer automatically removes the rippling associated with stabilized rolling shutter footage. Automatic Reduction is the default. Use Enhanced Reduction if the footage contains larger ripples. To use either method, set the Method to Subspace Warp or Perspective.
Crop Less <-> Smooth More: When cropping, controls the trade-off between smoothness and scaling of the cropping rectangle as it moves over the stabilized image. Lower values are smooth; however, more of the image is viewed. At 100%, the result is the same as the Stabilize Only option with manual cropping.
Synthesis Input Range (seconds): Used by Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing, controls how far backward and forward in time the synthesis process goes to fill in any missing pixels.
Synthesis Edge Feather: Selects the amount of feather for the synthesized pieces. It is enabled only when using the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing. Use the feather control to smooth over edges where the synthesized pixels join up with the original frame.
Synthesis Edge Cropping: Trims off the edges of each frame before it is used to combine with other frames when using the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing option. Use the cropping controls to crop off bad edges that are common in analog video capture, or low quality optics. By default, all edges are set to zero pixels.

Shake Reduction workflow tips

Apply the Shake Reduction.
While the Shake Reduction is analyzing your footage, you can adjust settings or work on a different part of your project.
Choose Stabilization > Result > No Motion if you want to completely remove all camera motion. Choose Stabilization > Result > Smooth Motion if you want to include some of the original camera movement in the shot.
If the result is good, you’re done with stabilization. If not, do one or more of the following:
- If there are occasional rippled distortions, and footage was shot with a rolling shutter camera, set Advanced > Rolling Shutter Ripple to Enhanced Reduction.
- Try checking Advanced > Detailed Analysis.
If the result is too cropped, reduce either Smoothness or Crop Less Smooth More. Crop Less Smooth More is much more responsive, as it doesn’t require a restabilize phase.
If you want to get a feel for how much work the stabilizer is actually doing, set the Framing to Stabilize Only.

When Framing is set to one of the cropping options and the cropping gets extreme, a red banner says, “To avoid extreme cropping, set Framing to Stabilize Only or adjust other parameters." In this situation, you can set Framing to Stabilize Only or Synthesize Edges. Other options include reducing the value of Crop Less Smooth More or reducing Smoothness.

You can stabilize shaky video footage using the Shake Reduction option. Shake Reduction removes the jitter caused by camera movements, transforming shaky, handheld footage into steady, smooth shots.

Shake Reduction is available in both Quick and Advanced views. However, for best results, use Shake Reduction from the Advanced view. The Advanced view offers advanced options that help fine-tune the results you achieve with Shake Reduction.

It is recommended that you take small sections of the clip that have unwanted shake and then apply Shake Reduction. You can trim or split a clip to break it into smaller sections.

For information about how to trim a clip, see Trimming clips. For information about how to split a clip, see Split clips.

Apply Shake Reduction from the Quick view

Click Quick to switch to the Quick view. From the timeline, select the video clip on which you want to run Shake Reduction.
Click Adjust to open the Adjust panel. Click Shake Reduction.

Shake Stabilizer option in the Adjust panel
Based on your requirements, select a mode to run Shake Reduction:
- Quick: Select this mode to analyze a clip quickly and stabilize the shakes. This mode is optimized for performance as it analyzes alternate frames. It takes less time, but the results might not be optimized.
- Detailed: Select this mode to analyze each frame and achieve better results. The Detailed mode takes more time.
Quick and Detailed modes
The Applied Effects panel is opened, and Shake Reduction is added as one of the effects.

Shake stabilization in progress - time remaining

While stabilizer is processing the frames, you can continue working on the project.
You can click Cancel to stop processing the frames. Click Stabilize to start processing again.

Apply Shake Reduction from the Advanced view

The Advanced view is the recommended view for performing shake stabilization on a video clip. You can configure the advanced options in this view to enhance the shake removal from the clip.

Select the Advanced tab to switch to the Advanced view. Select the clip in the timeline to stabilize motion in a particular video clip.
Click Adjust to open the Adjust panel. Click Shake Reduction.

Shake Stabilizer option in the Adjust panel
Click Quick or Detailed to select the mode for running Shake Reduction. Refer to the Applying Shake Reduction in the Quick mode section for more information about the modes.

Quick and Detailed modes
The Applied Effects panel is opened and Shake Reduction is added as one of the effects.

Shake stabilization in progress - time remaining

While Shake Reduction is processing the frames, you can continue working on the project.
Click Advanced to view the available advanced options. You can select options to avoid extreme cropping or to adjust other parameters.

Advanced options - Shake Stabilizer

The options available in the Advanced tab are displayed. You can configure these options to fine-tune the Shake Reduction
effect applied on your video clips.
1. Motion: Controls the intended result for the footage. Smooth Motion retains the original camera movement but makes it smoother. When selected, smoothness is enabled to control how smooth the camera movement becomes. The No Motion option attempts to remove all camera motion from the shot. This setting is used for footage where at least a portion of the main subject remains within the frame for the entire range being stabilized.
2. Smoothness: Use the slider to increase or decrease smoothness in the video clip. Lower values are closer to the camera’s original motion while higher values are smoother. Values above 100 require more cropping of the image. Enabled when the Result is set to Smooth Motion.
3. Video Frame: Defines how the video frames should be stablilized. See Video Frame settings for more information.
4. Boost Stabilization: When selected, Shake Reduction starts again to find elements to track. When you select this option, an analyze and fix workflow on the clip is initiated. The analysis is slow but produces the best results.
5. Rolling Shutter Ripple: The stabilizer automatically corrects the rippling associated with stabilized rolling shutter footage. Automatic Reduction is the default. Use Enhanced Reduction if the footage contains larger ripples.
6. Crop Vs Smooth: When cropping, this option controls the trade-off between smoothness and scaling of the cropping rectangle as it moves over the stabilized image. Lower values are smooth, however, more of the image is viewed. At 100%, the result is the same as the Stabilize Only option with manual cropping. See Defining Video Frame for information about the Stabilize Only option.
7. Synthesis Edge Feather: Selects the amount of feather for the synthesized pieces. It is enabled only when using Video Frame to Stabilize, Synthesize Edges. It is enabled only when using the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing. Use the feather control to smooth over edges where the synthesized pixels join up with the original frame. See Defining Video Frame for information about the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges option.
You can click Cancel to cancel the effect from being applied on the clip. Click Stabilize to again start stabilizing the clip.

Video Frame settings

The Video Frame option controls how the edge appears in a stabilizing result. This can be set to one of the following:

Stabilize Only: Displays the entire frame, including the moving edges. Stabilize Only shows how much work is being done to stabilize the image and these are clearly visible around the edges.
Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling.
Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale (default): Crops the moving edges and scales up the image to refill the frame.
Stabilize, Synthesize Edges: Fills in the blank space created by the moving edges with content from frames earlier and later in time.

Recommendations for using Shake Reduction

Shake Reduction is a memory-intensive and time-consuming operation. While it lets you use the application during processing, it makes the application slow. Once Shake Reduction completes the stabilizing stage, the application returns to the normal state. It is recommended to first identify the shaky portion of the footage and then split to extract those portions and run Shake Reduction
only on those extracted clips.
If you are applying Shake Reduction from the Advanced view, try the Quick mode first. The Quick mode is faster but might introduce some unwanted crop in the output. If you are not satisfied with the results, try the Detailed mode. For better results, enable Boost Stabilization under the Advanced section while using the Detailed mode.
Make sure that project settings and clip settings always match.
- In some cases, the clip mismatches with the current project but matches with one of the application's project settings preset. In this case, Shake Reduction requires clip dimensions to match project settings. Create a new project to solve this problem.
- Another possibility is that the clip mismatches with the current project and also does not match with any of the application's project settings preset. To fix this issue, export the clip to one of the standard formats and then create new project using that clip.

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