A Step-By-Step Guide to Using Lumen5

What is Lumen5

Lumen5 is a video creation software designed to create professional looking videos within minutes.
Anyone without training or experience can easily create engaging video content on Lumen5. Here’s a
step-by-step guide on how you can create your own video content using Lumen5.

Step 1: Create an account

First up, create an account. Creating an account is easy. Just type ​https://lumen5.com​ on the address
bar and either click the “Sign up for free button” at the top right corner or the “Get started for free”
button.

Add your name, email and password — and you’re done!

After you’ve signed-up, you’ll be able to use Lumen5 for free to create short and shareable videos
from any link.

Step 2: Create a video

Click on the “Create Video” button at the top right corner of your screen. The screen below will
appear. You can either 1) enter an article link or URL of the content you want to create your video
with, provided the article has been published online or 2) copy and paste your content in the box
provided.

Whichever option you choose, you will then be prompted to choose a video format of your video. As
you can see below. You will get three options. Choose the one you like. The first option (Landscape
video works great for videos on social media channels (Twitter, Facebook) and the Square video is
also great for Instagram videos.) Landscape tends to work well in most social media platforms, as it is
more accommodating and flexible.
Once you have chosen the video format of your liking, you will then be promoted to now choose
your desired theme.

The next screen you’ll see after you have chosen the theme and the format of your video will be
your storyboard. This is where you will be able to choose which text you want to include in your
storyboard with a simple click, and reorder or delete any items.

The platform leverages Artificial Intelligence to match the content of your article with relevant
images and video clips, creating a slideshow type of video with text overlays.

It will show your article text on the left and your slideshow on the right.

You will notice that some images have already been added/ prepopulated by the programme and
some texts have been selected. You can always change the text and the images used.

The pre-highlighted text (with blue highlights) on the left are parts of your story that have been used
by the programme to prepopulate the video slides on the right.

To select the text you want included in your video, simply highlight the text you want by clicking the
text on the story (left) and it will be automatically added to your slideshow/video (right). However,
bear in mind that when you click on the text you want to add to the video, the slide will be added to
the bottom of the board. So simply reorder it by clicking the arrow on the left of your slide as
indicated below. Click on it until it is at your desired section.
Editing your video

The diagram below shows you some of the editing tools available for your video. Each slide has a
menu/ editing tools on the right. Here’s an outline of what each of the various tools can help you do
(the diagram below also shows you exactly where you find the menu items):

● Preview​ – you can see what the slide will look like when animated.

● Text​ – you can decide whether the text on that slide is a title, a quote or normal text. You
can even decide not to have any text at all.

● Text position​ – this is where the text will appear on the slide when the video is finished.

● Highlight​ – this feature lets you highlight the key message in the text on your slide. You can
pick the colour too (more on that later.)
Adding Media & Audio

Once you are done adding the text you want to feature in your video, you’ll have the option to
choose the visuals from the library, search for relevant images, GIFS, short videos and audio files
based on your keywords, or upload your own media. Lumen5 ensures that all the images, videos and
audio files in their library are royalty free so you can use them without having to worry about
copyrights. Some images are marked for editorial use and you may not be able to use them in your
video. Simply drag and drop the video/images you want to any slide.

There is also a pretty decent music library, so you can choose an audio track for your video. You can
search the music based on “mood.” You can also upload your own audio file.

Step 3: Publish and Share Your Video

When you’re happy with your video, just click “Finish” at the top right corner of the screen. Now you
will see a preview of your video, as shown in the below image. If you’re satisfied with the outcome,
click the blue “Finish” button at the bottom of the preview, if not you can continue editing by
clicking the ‘Continue editing” button.
Your video might take some time to render. Wait for it until it is done. Once your video is ready,
Lumen5 will send an email letting you know that your video is ready and the image like the one
below will appear: Click on “View Video.”

You will then be presented with various options. You can either, upload directly to Facebook, share
on Instagram, or download the video and save it in your computer or continue editing it if you are
not happy with the outcome.

Tips

● Lumen5 recommends creating short and effective videos, so always make sure you keep the
videos sweet and short. Shorter videos are more effective than longer ones. Try to keep your
video less than 2 minutes
● Short sentences are best, the text fields in your storyboard shouldn’t go over 140 characters.
● Try to keep each slide under 10 words. Remove unnecessary parts of the sentence and
choose your words for maximum impact!