Does still photo resolution determine maximum movie quality?

I am making a movie combining relatively low quality jpegs and dv footage.
It seems that I read somewhere that if you are going to combine still photos and dv footage that you have to import the video first or else the resolution of the photos will set the maximum resolution of the whole movie. Is this true?
Thanks,
Artlover13060

Artlover,
Never heard that one before, but what do I know? The following may be totally wrong, but I feel like taking a stab at this, so if I'm wrong, I'm sure I will be quickly pounced on. I believe that iMovie sets a maximum resolution on imported photos, your low quality ones will be used as is, I imagine. They have to be converted to a video format anyway. The video clips will be used as is, but sized as 720X480 to fit your TV screen. Am I right folks?
Forest

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Acceptable and Quality Still Photo Resolution for HDV Documentary

I've scanned through several pages of posts on photo resolution here, but I haven't actually found a simple answer to a beginner's question. Two, actually:
1. If someone is supplying you with still photo prints for scanning and use in a documentary (shot in HDV, edited on FCP5), is there a particular size print that you should ask for? Does the broadcast venue (theatrical, TV, etc.) have any relevance?
2. If someone is scanning photos and sending you a CD with them, what are the specs (size, resolution, etc.) you should ask for? And are there "minimum acceptable" specs and "preferred, high quality" specs?
Thanks.
Paul S.
Power Mac G5 [email protected]; 4GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.4) FCP 5 (FC Studio), Logic Express, Presonus Firebox

Having worked on several long-form historical docos with hundreds of source photo scans, I'd highly recommend getting the originals in as high a resolution as you can (at least 300 DPI), and getting the entire photo scanned. You just never know when you need to apply pans or zooms or crop into a particular area to improve the edit, and there are many simple ways to prep the selected photos for import.
The simplest is just to do the scaling & cropping in FCP. It will do a fine job of this, but if it turns out most of the photos will be static, you can waste computer resources by importing unnecessarily-large images. As mooblie pointed out, you strictly only need enough resolution to prevent scaling up past 100%, as this will create pixelated lower quality output.
The most common way to prep scans is in Photoshop, where you can scale the image to a desired pixel size very easily. I'd still leave the image at its natural frame size (as scanned), so you have the most creative choice when you are framing it in the timeline using FCPs cropping & motion tabs tools.
If you've got lots of photos and lots of pans & zooms, consider using one of the third-party tools that will help with this, such as Photo to Movie from LQ Graphics, Moving Picture from StageTools, or even the plugin for FCP I wrote to help with the docos I mentioned above. It's called Pan Zoom Pro and you can see about it and download a demo here: http://www.lyric.com/fcp-plugins/index.htm#pzp .
Cheers,
John
Lyric Media

Premier Elements. Rcommendation for still photo resolution/size

I have a Panasonic composite camera. It shoots HVCHD lite. It also takes 16:9 (3968*2232 9Meg) still photos. I wish to produce a composite DVD in Pal format suitable for a wide screen TV. What resolution and size is recommended for the still shots? I am using Windows XP with Powertoy image resizer. Or is it more convenient to use the Oraganizer in Elements to resize the photos? Tony

For my thoughts on still images, you might want to see this THREAD. In your case, you'd substitute my 720x480 PAR 0.9 for your HD Project's framesize. If you need to do any panning on images that will be fully zoomed out, I'd not go any larger than you will need to accomplish this. Some Projects require that I use several different Actions in Photoshop, if I will do much panning on the zoomed out images. Since I do not do any automatic pan/zoom Effects, but create each by hand, as each image is unique, I can tailor the resizing to exactly what I will need. If you let your program do these Effects automatically, then just give a bit more wiggle room and your good to go. Having overly large stills in your Project costs you, both in processing power and also quality - PS's resizing algorithms are better than Premiere's and doing this outside of the NLE is much more efficient.
Good luck,
Hunt

Still Photo Resolution

The resolution of my still photos looks terrible, even though I imported large jpeg files and scaled them down, not up. I'm doing a project that is only stills and audio, no video and the orginals were quite large. They looked horrible in the program panel, but I figured they would look fine on export, but no. I tried exporting my project about six different ways, maximum render, etc.

There was a post on this site a couple of years ago by Jeff Belune (as I recall) that provided a work flow for this. I fiound it to be effective. Most of the people who post here recommend that you do the scaling in Photoshop and then import the *.PSD file. The pixel dimensions W x H must match the scenario preset pixel dimensions (the DPI and/or image dimensions in inches, have no meaning). If your scenario is 1920 x 1080, then that's what the image size needs to be.
I only remember some of the steps Jeff laid out, but, it was to open the image in Photoshop, set the GENERAL preference to best for reduction, Change the image to 16 bit. Make color, exposure changes as desired, use unsharp mask set to 198, 0.6, 2, set the crop tool to your desired pixel dimensions, and crop the image to the desired size, if desired change the mode back to 8 bit, and save the file under a new name (never mess with your original. I created a photoshop action to speed the process.

I want to know how can add still photos(iphoto) to the movie trailer projects?

How can I do what I asked above?

Go to the Project Library View and select your Trailer. Then in the top menu, click FILE/CONVERT TO PROJECT.
Now you can further edit your trailer, with all the capabilities of iMovie, including adding photos.

Only able to add two photo overlays to my movie

I have move that I'm adding still images over the video in various times. It's easy enough, Just drag the photo from the photo browser onto the clip and then it appears on top of the image.
I have added two still photo's to my movie so far, but when I add more still pictures, they appear above the movie strip, but it doesn't 'overlay' on playback.
I hope I'm making sense.
Any idea?
Thanks in advance.

So I tried another project, and I got upto 4 picture overlays untill iMovie would not 'overlay' any more that I added.
I'm off to Final Cut Express...and i move was so easy and enjoyable until this happened

I figured out how to snap a still photo of a movie clip, but where then does it go, and how can I import it into my iPhoto library?

I was working in iMovie and discovered how to take a still photo of a movie clip. Now I can't find that still photo! Where did it go, and how can I import it to my iPhoto library?

Just found out and it is simple. When you find a frame in your video/movie of which you want a still photo or screen shot, just go to the frame and click on command, shift and the #3 in quick succession. You will hear a "click" like a camera taking a photo. The screen shot will then go to your desktop where you can drag it to iPhoto or an e-mail, or anywhere you like. Also you can rename the screen shot by double clicking on the wording under the screen shot on your desk top. Whew!

Why are still photos blurry when I play movie?

I am making a video slideshow using Adobe Premiere Elements 9. Most of the video is made up still photos. When I playback the video the still photos are blurry. What should I do to prevent this? Thanks!

I read your article Bill, and that just seems like a massive amount of work for the average individual who wants to put together a movie. Is all of that really necessary?
With PS, or PSE, and Scaling Actions, one can do batch processing of entire folders of images in moments. That linked article gives setup tips for doing batch scaling very easily, and the Action, plus Automate to Batch, will work on entire folders. My workstation will automatically process ~ 500 4000x3000 pixel images to 720x480 in about 2 mins.
There are two benefits when Scaling stills in an image processing program, prior to Import into an NLE (Non Linear Editor) program:
The processing overhead is greatly reduced
The quality is greatly improved, as the Scaling algorithms in an image processing program, are much better *
If one wants to let the NLE program do the processing, and one has many large images (especially at still camera resolutions), then they WILL need a very powerful computer.
Good luck,
Hunt
* PrPro, as of CS5, has improved the quality of Scaling, but the overhead issue still exists.

Poor quality "still" photo

I'm using Premiere Elements 12. When I'm choose "Tools", "Movie Menu", Then choose from a "Menu Theme", I am given the option of inserting a still photo. However, the quality of the photo in my final product is reproduced with VERY POOR resolution. Is there a solution to this problem? Does Premiere Elements 13 correct this problem?
Joe Nunes
Turlock,CA

britt142012
Thanks for the follow up.
Have we ruled out whether or not the issue exists with and without the antivirus and firewall(s) disabled?
Back to the now....
When did you get the Error 16 - after naming just the SLStore Folder to SLStoreOLD? Or did you do the renaming of both the SLCache as well as SLStore Folders to get the Error 16? You should be able to convert back to the original by deleting the newly created SLStore or SLCache Folders and removing OLD from the renamed ones. Is Error 16 gone then?
After that, try just the renaming of the SLStore Folder again.
Before we give up on renaming SLStore and SLCache Folders, check the permissions for each so that they are set for write/read for Everyone.
Then the classical generic ways....
1. Delete the Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs file and, if that does not work, delete the whole 12.0 Folder in which the Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs file exists.
Local Disk C
Users
Owner
AppData
Roaming
Adobe
Premiere Elements
12.0
and in the 12.0 Folder is the Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs file that you delete. If that does not work, then you delete the whole 12.0 Folder in which the Adobe Premiere Elements Prefs file exists. Be sure to be working with Folder Option Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives active so that you can see the complete path cited.
2. If that does not work....
a. uninstall the usual Control Panel way
b. do a free ccleaner run through (regular clearner and registry cleaner parts) to get rid of any leftovers from incomplete uninstalls reinstalls
CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download
c. reinstall with antivirus and firewall(s) disabled.
We will be watching for the new developments.
Thank you.
ATR

"Still" photo quality in iMovie & iDVD

I work with still photographs only. Trying to produce a slideshow DVD that maintains the original quality of the photo. After reading some postings on iMovie & this problem, I took the advice of several photographers & now use FotoMagico. Photo qulaity is execellent as images are not coverted to video as they are in iMovie. Program also allows the transitions & Ken Burns effects available in iMovie. To produce DVD, you must export to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After export to iDVD the images degraded - both on the screen & on the burned DVD & hen played on screen or HD TV. I don't have Roxio Toast. Does Roxio maintain the photo file or covert to video image? Can someone tell me what it will take to produce a DVD from Still photographs that will maintain image quality & offer transitions & title slides?

There is a > Discussion > iMovie > iMovie HD6 going on into which I entered. I posted the following earlier today. I am the entrant with trhe Japanese doll in red, can't miss it.
Have you a set prescription that you use when beginning the Burn to Disc from iDVD. That's where my problem is.
Please read the following and send help soon . . . potis
"My rendering is from iPhoto to FotoMagico. There the album is assembled with all of FoMo's attributes. I find it very user friendly. The blurring of a photo in iPhoto with the Blur adjustment does blur alright and it my instances I get a perceptible lightening of the image. Useable, but not the original. —Cut to the finish. Beautiful rendering in FoMo, so sent to iDVD the 130 photos and music. Beautiful in iMac playback in iDVD. Cannot complain a wink. Burn disc. Play disc, and there are the jaggies on the two buildings, one a church with lots of green and white marble on the facade, the other the Ponte Vechicco shimmering as in a desert as the zoom moves out. The jaggies appear on any horizontal or vertical shape, especially buildings (as noted elsewhere in this forum).
My logic says that if the project plays very well in iDVD and wavers in a DVD burnt from iDVD, that the wavies are introduced in the burn process. I tried recording at Slideshow settings of HD 720p as suggested. No help there.
Another suggestion has been that the digital cameras are ahead of the iMac Dual Core capabilities. I don't know about that. My Pentax SLR does load them in.
For the moment I am eliminating the two dramatic zooms because they are distracting and waiting for a solution which will have to take form outside of my meager experience.
Thanks muchas for your reply.
potis
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7) "

Poor still photo quality in iMovie 10

Does anyone know how to improve the quality of still photos imported from iphoto to imovie 10. They are fine in iphoto but
become blurry in imovie 10

There is a > Discussion > iMovie > iMovie HD6 going on into which I entered. I posted the following earlier today. I am the entrant with trhe Japanese doll in red, can't miss it.
Have you a set prescription that you use when beginning the Burn to Disc from iDVD. That's where my problem is.
Please read the following and send help soon . . . potis
"My rendering is from iPhoto to FotoMagico. There the album is assembled with all of FoMo's attributes. I find it very user friendly. The blurring of a photo in iPhoto with the Blur adjustment does blur alright and it my instances I get a perceptible lightening of the image. Useable, but not the original. —Cut to the finish. Beautiful rendering in FoMo, so sent to iDVD the 130 photos and music. Beautiful in iMac playback in iDVD. Cannot complain a wink. Burn disc. Play disc, and there are the jaggies on the two buildings, one a church with lots of green and white marble on the facade, the other the Ponte Vechicco shimmering as in a desert as the zoom moves out. The jaggies appear on any horizontal or vertical shape, especially buildings (as noted elsewhere in this forum).
My logic says that if the project plays very well in iDVD and wavers in a DVD burnt from iDVD, that the wavies are introduced in the burn process. I tried recording at Slideshow settings of HD 720p as suggested. No help there.
Another suggestion has been that the digital cameras are ahead of the iMac Dual Core capabilities. I don't know about that. My Pentax SLR does load them in.
For the moment I am eliminating the two dramatic zooms because they are distracting and waiting for a solution which will have to take form outside of my meager experience.
Thanks muchas for your reply.
potis
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7) "

Keeping High quality photo resolution?

I made a movie in iMovie of all still photos and music. I have always just exported the movie to media browser but I now have imovie 11 and looked at a tutorial telling me to send it directly to idvd. My photos are really high quality (large files) - is that the best way to keep the quality of the photos or should I export to quicktime and customize the settings for an HD movie? Sorry- I don't understand compression and such, but I would love to keep the quality as high as possible.
THANKS

Hi
There are several levels on this Q:
• DVD is as standard (whatever program used to author it) - interlaced SD-Video (at its best)
(HD-DVDs was a very short lived format and needed dedicated HD-DVD players from Toshiba to be played (at all))
• iMovie'08 to 11 - has no way to Export this known to me - discard every second line in the Picture resulting in even more loss
(I rather use iMovie HD6 or FinalCut - as they can deliver)
• Sharing to iDVD (as described in tutorials) has always resulted in degraded quality toi me - Whatever iMovie version used - especially if no Ken Burns effect is used (I never use this)
So I do
• in iMovie'08 to 11: Share to Media Browser and as Large (NOT HD or other resolutions as this too degrades quality)
_iMovie HD6 - just close it - open iDVD and drop Movier project icon (with a Star on it) into it. So much better result
_FinalCut Express or Pro - Export as QuickTime mov - NO QuickTime conversion ! ! - Use this .mov file in iDVD
Yours Bengt W

Why does my photo slideshow quality deteriorate when exported to iDVD?

I have a client whose photos look great in iPhoto & iMovie, but look all pixelated when exported to iDVD. I've tried making a slideshow directly with iDVD, but the photos still look worse than they did in the iPhoto slideshow.
The size of the photos is pretty large (as big as 5233 x 3546), which I'm guessing might be part of the problem, so I tried exporting them from iPhoto with a limitation of 720 x 540, but they still look bad. I expect a decrease in quality once I burn the DVD, but these look bad even in the DVD preview.
Any ideas?

All DVD slideshows are defaulted to 640 x 480 pixels. That's the standard. As long as the photos are in the 4:3 dimension ratio you can leave them at their fullest size. You can try using the Pro Quailty encoding to get better quality images. IMO the best image quality is obtained by creating the slideshow in iDVD from still photos. You don't get the Ken Burns effect, but in my opinion it's a bit over used too many time.
If you are creating your slideshow in iMovie then try the following.
1 - when your slideshow is how you want it quit iMovie.
2 - open iDVD, create a slideshow and open the slideshow edit mode.
3 - drag the iMovie project file into the slideshow pane on the left. (NOTE: this lets iDVD scale the movie file to the TV safe area when played on CRT TV sets.)
This also lets iDVD do the encoding for the iMovie assets and avoids two compressions, one by iMovie when you export to iDVD and the iDVD encoding.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Want to know if Premiere Elements has the capability to show movement on a still photo? Such as zoom

I am thinking of purchasing PE 12 if it has the capability to take a still photo and move the camera around on it like many videos I have seen. I am currently using PE 9. Thanks for any help on this subject.

Railfan Ken
What are you doing in Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1?
Are you keyframing the Motion properties of Scale (for Zoom) and Position (for Pan) to get a pan and zoom effect?
or
Are you using the Edit Header/Effects/Presets and one of the presets for a pan OR zoom effect (the Presets allow for only a pan per picture or a zoom per picture but not a pan and zoom per picture).
or
Have you been using the Elements Organizer 9 Slideshow Editor to create a slideshow with the pan and zoom feature there and then transfer the Elements Organizer 9 slideshow to Premiere Elements?
If it is the Premiere Elements 10, 11, or 12 Pan and Zoom Tool that is making you think to laterversion than 9.0/9.0.1, perhaps the following Adobe document may give you more information on that.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSeffff8bffc802084-494411db12fd35452dd- 8000.html
ATR

Resolution for Still Photos for film

Greetings,
I have a full length Digital Video film and want to add still photos to it. I have been using Photo to Movie software to add a Ken Burns effect to the photo, then exporting it under the movie format- DV(NTSC) 720x480, then importing that to the final cut time line. My question is what is the best resolution in the first place for the still photo before I do this process or is it okay to use the final render size from the Photo to Movie export? Or do you have a better idea.

I would suggest you to check your export preferences but it is my understanding that if you render the movie file, and then export, it you should be able to set the QT option for NTSC DV.

Does still photo resolution determine maximum movie quality?

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