HOW DO I RENDER A STILL IMAGE AND KEEP QUALITY

Question

I'm still in search of help with why High Res. still pictures lose quality when I render.   The images are at 300dpi, roughly 1900x1200 (they vary in size).   I input them fine.  Then, when I go to put them on the timeline - I get a pop-up window asking me to "AutoFix" this clip?  When I say "yes" it drops down the quality and it becomes grainy.  If I say "no" the clip remains looking the same - great.
But - then when I go to "render" that clip, in the timeline - it drops down in quality and becomes grainy - AFTER I render it.
HOW DO I USE STILL IMAGES - AND KEEP THEM HIGH QUALITY WHEN I RENDER?
My Project Settings are; 1920/1080  ---  30fps DROP frame  (should it be Non-Drop?)  --  Capture is HDV and Video Rendering is only marked at "Optimize Stills"
I'm using Adobe Premiere Elements 11 on a Windows 8 PC
Any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks

Answer 1

joeyMPI
OK. Let us give this a try. If I go off course anywhere along the line, please let me know.
1. Open Premiere Elements 11 on Windows 8 64 bit to the Expert workspace.
A. Under Edit Menu/Preferences/General
Remove the check mark next to "Show all do not show again messages."
Set the "Timeline render quality (valid for HD projects)" = "High quality, Slow speed"
Leave a check mark next to Default Scale to Frame Size.
B. Right Click the Edit area monitor, select Magnification and make sure it is = "Fit".
C. Right Click the Edit area monitor, select Playback Quality and make sure it is = "Highest".
D. Setting the Project Preset Manually to Get the Sharpest End Product Photo Display
Go to File Menu/New/Project and Change Settings
In Change Settings, change the project preset to
NTSC
DSLR
1080p
DSLR [email protected]
Close out of there.
In the new project dialog that appears, make sure that you have a check mark next to
"Force Select Project Setting on this Project". Close out of there.
E. The project preset that has been selected has a 16:9 aspect ratio, and it will direct the program to set
up a 16:9 space in the Edit area monitor for editing. So, best results are expected with photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
If an imported photo does not fill the Edit area monitor space, you can try to scale it (zoom in) just to the point of
getting rid of any black borders. A quick scale can be done by clicking on the monitor screen, and dragging on a handle
of the photo's bounding box which has appeared.
But, now for the moment of truth..
a. You should not have seen any helpful Fix messages.
b. If you render the Timeline content by clicking on the render button above the Timeline
what you see should look the same or better before and after the render.
Also keep in mind, that having to scale up too much can create pixelation.
300ppi or dpi has no significance in video. Pixel dimensions are the focus. And here, video is 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. In
this specific case 16:9. It would be a good idea to plan ahead on the sizing of the photos beforehand. As far as I know the perk of enhanced
sharpness in the end product is associated with just the one project preset that I pointed to in the workflow.
But, right now, our target is on the maintaining the quality of the photos in the Edit area. And, I realize that you realize
that no matter how great the resolution of the imports, the imports will be reduced to the sizing characteristic of the export
preset.
We will be watching for your results. Thank you for considering the suggestions.
ATR