How to stabilise a shaky clip in Video by Zaweba

Handheld footage from a phone, a walk with a camera or a clip from a moving car can be too shaky to watch comfortably. The quickest fix in Video by Zaweba is a menu command: Clip, then Stabilise. It makes a steadied copy of the clip using FFmpeg's deshake filter and stores that copy in a stabilised folder. Your original file is never changed.

Running it

Select the shaky clip on the timeline and choose Clip, then Stabilise. The app works through the footage, measuring how the picture moves from frame to frame and shifting each frame to cancel out the unwanted movement. The result is a new file, kept in the stabilised folder.

Since stabilising makes a new file, it takes a little time to run, longer for long clips. It is a one-off job rather than something worked out every time you play the timeline, which means the steadied clip plays back as easily as any other.

Why a copy is the safe approach

Keeping the original untouched has real advantages. If you don't like the result, nothing is lost: the original is still there and you can go back to it. If you later decide to try a different approach, such as the stabiliser effect with its finer controls, you start from the untouched footage again. And your source media stays exactly as the camera recorded it, which matters if you archive projects or share files with others.

It also follows the wider rule in Video by Zaweba that original files are only ever read, never changed.

What to expect from the result

Stabilising works by moving the picture to counteract shake. Moving the picture exposes its edges, so stabilised footage is usually slightly cropped or shows moving borders at the edges. Scaling the clip up a touch in the Inspector hides them.

Deshake is good at small, quick jitters, the kind you get from holding a phone at arm's length. Large, deliberate camera moves, such as panning to follow someone, should stay, and a good stabiliser keeps them while smoothing the jitter around them. Very violent shake, or footage where most of the frame is moving, is harder, and results will vary.

Motion blur is the other limit. When a camera shakes quickly, each frame can be smeared. Stabilising steadies the frame's position, but it can't remove the blur within it, so very shaky footage can end up steady but soft.

Clip > Stabilise or the stabiliser effect

Video by Zaweba has two routes. Clip, then Stabilise is the simple, fast option: one command and you have a steadier copy. The stabiliser effect is more detailed. It analyses the shake and keys corrections, with adjustable smoothness, zoom and edge handling, and has a perspective mode for shake that tilts the picture in depth. Use the command when you just want a usable shot quickly, and the effect when you need control over how much movement to keep.

There is also a rolling shutter repair effect for the wobbly, jelly look that fast movement can give phone footage. That is a different problem from shake, and stabilising alone won't fix it.

Tips for better results

Trim the clip before stabilising if only part of it is needed, so the work is spent on the part you use. Stabilise early in the edit, before grading and effects, so later work is done on the steady version.

If the stabilised result looks floaty, with the picture drifting oddly, the original movement may have been part of the shot's character. Sometimes a little natural movement looks better than a perfectly locked frame.

And shoot with stabilising in mind next time. Hold the camera with both hands, keep elbows in, and frame slightly wider than you need, so there is room to crop.

For most everyday clips, Clip, then Stabilise in Video by Zaweba is all it takes to turn a jittery shot into one that is pleasant to watch.