Image from Photoshop is getting masked in black or something

Question

I have a file that I flattened in Photoshop. It looks fine. I batch flattened a group from Bridge and it is the only one with this very strange issue. It was a document with a bunch of layers and when viewed in Photoshop or any other way it looks fine. In Premiere the center image is showing but it has blacked out all around it. Has anyone experienced this? I manually flattened it as a psd again and as a tiff and it is still looking strange in premiere.
Thanks for your input!
Holly

Answer 1

It looks like your Alpha Channel (used to create the Ellipse knockout) is coming in and obscuring the background image. I do my Exports before Import into Premiere directly from PS. While I may have an Alpha Channel in my PSD, when I Import as Footage w/ Flattened Layers, the Alpha Channel is not used. If I wish to use it, I'll Import_As_Sequence (in PrPro) and then get a Timeline with all Layers separate.
If the PSD's are coming into PE with the Alpha Channel, try deleting any Alpha Channel, before you Flatten. If you are using this as a Layer Mask (the way that I'd do it), definitely do a Save with all Layers, Alpha Channels and Paths, then remove any un-used Paths and Alpha Channels, Flatten and do a Save_As using PSD and changing the name, say to Image_001_Flatten.PSD, or similar. Import that.
Last, when working with still images, you will be best served if you re-size to the frame size of your Project in PS, before you Import. The re-sizing algorithms in PS are better than those in PE, or PrPro in my opinion. Also, you will not have the overhead of working with large stills. This can cause no end to problems with resources and can even lead to all black, or all green display in the NLE program. If you plan on panning on a zoomed out image, it'll be bigger than your frame size, but should be just barely big enough to do your pans. Steve Grisetti recommends 1000x750 as the max size. That is a very good figure to use as the max. I re-size to exactly what I will use, so most of my stills are smaller than that. Let PS do this re-sizing for you, as you will improve the final output by some degree.
If the Alpha Channel is still a problem, after using my Flatten and Save_As method above, attach one of your .PSD's (in finished form, just before you Import) and e-mail it to me. My e'dress is in my Adobe profile. I'll be glad to study it for you, and find the exact problem. Also, try the re-sizing. In PS I have an Action to do the re-sizing, usually to NTSC DVD 4:3 specs., and just do a Batch Process on a folder full of stills. I can process 100+ files in moments. Then, I Import into Premiere.
Good luck,
Hunt