Ken Burns reduces photo resolution in slideshows?

Hey gang-
I'm running iPhoto 8 v7.0.1 on my new 24" 2.8GHz iMac. I've noticed something I hadn't detected in earlier versions of iPhoto- that is, when I'm playing a slideshow, photo quality if "Automatic Ken Burns" is enabled appears significantly lower than when Ken Burns is turned off. I've looked closely at a few photos that contain text and lines that can be pretty objectively judged, and photos definitely appear to be in a lower resolution and rather fuzzy if Ken Burns is enabled.
Turn Ken Burns off and play the same slideshow, and the photos appear sharp and crisp? Is this a known issue? Any way to adjust this? Thanks!
Dave

I just added some text with Photoshop to a photo and ran it thru the auto KB effect slideshow and didn't see any degradation of the image/text. What size is your file? If it has small pixel dimensions then it might be fuzzy when used in the KB effect as it would be enlarged.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto 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 written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), 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 08 libraries. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

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Ken Burns vs Photo to Movie test

I did a quick simple test to see how iMovie's Ken Burns and Photo to Movie manage high resolution, high frequency still images as their input:
I made a 3150x1728 (5 megapixel) TIF image. I chose that particular ratio because it completely fills both NTSC and PAL 16:9 frame when imported to iMovie HD 5-6's widescreen project.
I inserted 1 pixel thin horizontal and vertical black stripes at every 100 pixel. That kind of thin (high frequency) lines tend to flicker on a TV unless they are blurred.
Then I imported the still to a widescreen NTSC (I chose NTSC for Karl, Fred, Kirk and other NTSC-geared geeks iMovie HD 6.0.3 project and applied a 2 second 1-5x zoom to it.
I did a similar zoom with Photo to Movie 3.2.2's High Quality export setting and compared the results...
Well, the iMovie zoom-in was quite interesting: at modest zoom factors many stripes were omitted and the stripes disappeared and appeared as the zoom progressed! Some stripes were rendered grayish, but they were always 1 pixel thin (a recipe for flicker on a TV!). Only near the end of the zoom-in, all the stripes appeared and begun to grow thicker (and non-flickery on a TV).
The Photo to Movie zoom-in was much "duller": all stripes were preserved and they were slightly blurred (which prevents flicker on a TV).
The winner: Photo to Movie.
The input TIF and 2 second output .dv files are below (to my surprise the 15 MB input zipped to only 1.8 MB with this material). I turned ON the high quality display for you in the .dv files, but verify that the setting sticks when viewing them with QuickTime Player Pro. You can advance one frame at a time via the left/right arrow keys.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~shmhav/kenburnstest.zip

Discussing DVD playback on a TV, Matti said:
The output that used the original TIF as its input
was full of artifacts and lots of flicker with the
moderate zoom factors. Gaussian blur was also quite
bad while the 875x480 downsampled TIF was very
peaceful. Of course the 875x480 was somewhat fuzzy
with the extreme zoom factors.
Photo To Movie's Higher Quality setting was very
peaceful with practically no flicker on the TV.
I admit that this is an artificial and a very
difficult test image. But I have seen the same
artifacts with real JPGs as well if there are hard
lines in the image (buildings, wires, waves, fine
patterns etc).
I've seen similar results here too, burning perhaps a hundred DVDs in the last few weeks. The goal was to compare DVD slideshows created by iMovie, Photo to Movie and FotoMagico. Matti's conclusions look familiar.
My tests used photos that are the most difficult for iMovie to handle, lots of hard lines, buildings, wires, fences, roof lines, etc.
When the goal is to burn a DVD, Photo to Movie consistently delivers good quality with a variety of source images. The quality is good across a range of image sizes and content. If you like working in Photo to Movie, you can be quite confident you'll get good results.
But I like working in iMovie, so the goal of my tests was to find a way to make iMovie work better. The solution was to downsize the image before importing it to iMovie.
As Matti suggested, iMovie delivers good results if the source image is downsized before importing to iMovie. Virtually all flicker is eliminated by downsizing to 640x480 (NTSC) or 768x578 (PAL). (Downsize less if you plan to use a 2x or greater Ken Burns zoom.)
Downsizing is easily done with iPhoto's File > Export command. It takes just a few seconds to export new copies of photos at the new size.
So is Photo to Movie "better" than iMovie for slideshows? Sometimes Yes, if you don't want to resize problem images. But often not, at least from my tests. iMovie can deliver fine results too. And to be fair to iMovie, it has other advantages.
Note: Our tests may have little in common with the pictures you often shoot, the people pictures, the landscapes, the other "soft" images. They are WAY easier for iMovie to handle, and may not require downsizing. It depends on the photo's content.
Karl

Ken Burns on photos greater than 60 seconds?

I want to have one photo showing for the full 4:45 duration of a song with a slow, smooth, Ken Burns pan from beginning to end. Is there a way to do this? I tried on iMovie HD and iMovie '08 but can not find out how. It looks like to get greater than 60 seconds you have to import the photo 5 times (4 with a 60 sec duration and 1 with a 45 sec duration). How can you then apply a single Ken Burns effect across all 5 photos as if they were one photo? I tried to make a Podcast in GarageBand and there I could make the photo as long as I wanted with the music but there is no Ken Burns effect available there. I saved the podcast and then imported it into iMovie to apply the Ken Burns effect but it is not available to videos in iMovie, which it what the photo turns into after GarageBand saves it. Any help would be appreciated.

Is there a way to group the photos and apply a KBE across the grouping?
No. The KBE tool can currently only be applied to a single image.
If you are willing to trade quality for time in a Ken Burns Effect, you can always create a new iMovie HD project of the appropriate type/aspect ratio, bring in the photo, create the KBE at the length you want, export it to an iMovie '08 compatible compression format, and then import the file to iMovie '08. Just remember that iMovie HD handles photos at a lower resolution than iMovie '08 and the resulting loss in quality will probably be easy to see in comparison with other photos coming directly into iMovie '08.
Karsten,
Those are beautiful effects. My complements! Will have to try doing more work with stills using pre-edits in Photoshop.

Ken burns effect & photo size

when using the ken burns effect---I'm customizing the start & end settings for each photo/slide.....some of the photos/slides I'm not able to actually "zoom out" show that the entire photo fits into the screen......It seems that...if I have the "Image Size Slide" located in the bottom right corner of the screen....pulled/slide as far left (zooming out as far as it will let me)....that the entire photo should be displayed......I appreciate any insight & help..
thanks

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. When you set the end or start point where you want the full image to show be sure to move the slider at the bottom to the far left. I noticed it usually defaults to slightly less than full screen.

IMovie HD 6 import iPhoto 08 ken burns stretches photos

When I import photos from iPhoto 08 into iMovie HD 6 (HD-1080i-30) and use the Ken Burns effect, the rendered clip is stretched horizontally. If Ken Burns is not used, the photos remain in their original aspect ratio. Any ideas as how to use the Ken Burns effect without changing the aspect ratio?

I am delighted to read that I am not the only one who gets burned by Ken in iMovie HD 6. I have spent hours on this problem and came to the same conclusion, that this is due to a glitch in OSX Leopard. The origin, mode of import or file format of the still doesn't matter. Interestingly, I seem to be the only one with the KB being stretched vertically (i.e. my fat nephew Ralf looks pretty slim). There are additional problems with the rendition of video effects. Several of the Quartz Composer effects (e.g. bump distortion, circle splash distortion) render bright and washed out.
I also discovered that iMovie HD v.5 (five) in Leopard still renders the KB effect without a flaw. I am lucky to still have the old 5 version in the box. So I work in iM 6 (iMovie 7 is the biggest software insult Apple has ever launched against their loyal fans) and when I need to bring in a KB effect I save and reopen in iM v.5, do the KB and reopen in iM 6 with the KB effect still perfectly rendered and ready for additional editing (titles, transitions). By doing most of the still imports and KB's at one time, it is not that inconvenient or time consuming. It certainly beats altering the aspect ratio of each still. Try to get hour hands on a iM 5 version until Apple fixes the bug (hopefully soon), although my fat nephew Ralf prefers the stretch version. I checked Apple's downloads, they don't offer iM 5. Check for iLife 5 on eBay. Good luck!

Does FCP Reduce Photo Resolution?

When I import an image into FCPX, the inspector shows its scale to be 100%, but the image fits in the window. If I want the image to be a little larger so I can use a Ken Burns effect, am I getting what I ask for? Also, I'm thinking of importing a 4K resolution video file (DSLR timelapse) and using the same effect on it (and so have the same question regarding video files).
Thanks,
Lawrence

Thanks Tom,
As always, you are the man in "the know." Unchecking spatial conform does show that the image is indeed larger than the screen. I appreciate your time!
Lawrence

Can you recommend any ken burns type photo plug in for fce?

Hi,
I have a big slide show to produce which I would like to do with FCE since I will be incorporating video also. One thing I love about iphoto is the ken burns effect, and was wondering if there are any ken burns type plug ins for FCE? I know you can do this with keyframes, but was hoping that I could a find a plugin that would be easier and faster to use.
I have read older posts on this, but was wondering if there are any current plugins out there that people would recommend.
Thanks!

You could also try Piero's free Auto Pan Zoom plugin.
You simply drop it on your timeline and all your slides will have a Ken Burns effect added instantly.
You cannot control the effect very much, but as long as you are not particularly fussy it could be the answer to your problem.
http://web.mac.com/piero.fiorani/PieroFFCE_Effect/Auto_PanZoom.html

Reducing Photo Resolution in Mail

On my Mac, when I select a set of photos to email I'm given a choice of resolutions: small, medium, large, actual. I can't find anything similar on the iPad.
It's completely impractical to send full resolution photos in email. The Photos app won't let me select more than 5 photos to email because it knows that the email will be HUGE!
Any hints on how to deal with this problem?

Posts in the online help wind up in the forums as well. I answered the first one, so I'll lock this one.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5050168

Getting what looks like a jump cut with some of my Ken Burns esq photos

I thought the problem might be eliminated once I exported out to Quicktime but it didn't work. Really anoying and I've had it happen alot. I'm new to Final Cut Pro, and I'm working on a paying job do out tomorrow. Thanks for the help.
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 2.0 GHz, 400Gb Hard Drive, 2Gb Ram, 250Gb External

Okay here you go,
I would import photos into my photos bin. Drag the photo I wanted to use into the timeline, and send it to Motion. Inside of Motion I would add one or both of the grow/shrink and throw behaviors. I then saved it and went back to Final Cut. And as one would expect I now had a moving picture, that looked perfect.
As I continued to work on the project these pictures would develop jumps as they played. It was like I had cut out three or four frames from the middle of its movement and stuck the two ends together. Thanks guys.

Pictures resolution and ken burns

I'm very unhappy of how the pictures look when I make a DVD. When I do some slideshow either with i photo or i movie or final cut the resolution is good on the Mac, but when I do a DVD (either with idvd or dvd pro) the resolution on TV is very bad. When I use a ken burns effect the resolution is much worse because a lot of "striping waves" appear on TV reproduction.
Have I to change the resolution of the pictures or I have to change some preference in idvd ?

Try this: Go into "Preferences" in iDVD, under the "Projects" tab, chose encoding "Professional Quality". You will have to restart the program to make it work.

I get a "shimmer" on some photos after applying & rendering Ken Burns

In a slideshow I'm attempting to make in iMovie, I'm getting a "shimmering" effect after applying the Ken Burns effect to photos I've imported from iPhoto. The shimmer appears most noticeable in shots of scenary, where there is a lot of detail like tree leaves or grass. (In addition, as many others also have noted and complained about, the resolution, and even the color, in iMovie is really a disappointment. This is especially distressing because the original digital photos I took are incredibly crisp and clear, with beautiful color, and the slideshows I made in iPhoto and played on my iMac are gorgeous!). The Ken Burns' "shimmer" & poor resolution in iMovie and burning slideshows onto a DVD seem hardly worth all the time & effort. This is a real shortcoming in the Apple software it seems to me. Apple needs to fix it in future updates to the Tiger operating system or in the forthcoming Leopard.

MagneticMike,
what you see is usually referred to as a 'Moire' pattern that is caused by high-contrast in your source material. This means that exactly the 'incredibly crisp and clear' advantage of your photo is ruining your clip. In photographs, moire problems are usually overcome by slightly softening (e.g gauss blurring) the offending areas before the final render pass. This you can apply to your source image as well, and then import it into iMovie.
Interestingly, a different approach is possible with moving media. Since moire patterns are artificial noise introduced into your clip, people have found that our 'noise filter (combine)' plug-in can get rid of this. Perhaps you can download the plug-in and try if it helps with your problem.
(please try this link: http://imovieplugins.com/plugs/noisefiltercombi.html )
Hope this helps
-ch
Please Note:
I work for cf/x, and may profit from posting here.

Photo montage Ken Burns effect w/ variable intervals synced to music cues

I was thinking of buying Final Cut Pro to create a photo montage because iMovie does not let you define the specific timings for each photo montage. For example, I need one photo to show for 3 seconds and transition to another photo that lasts 5 seconds because of the way the music flows.
I start with music and I'm adding photos to specific points of music changes.
My question: the tutorials I've found on google all use Final Cut Pro. Can I accomplish the same task with the cheaper Express version?
Here are the tutorials that show what I want to do:
http://www.geniusdv.com/newsandtutorials/2008/08/photo-montage-to-the-music-with-final-cut-pro.php
http://www.geniusdv.com/newsandtutorials/2008/05/ken-burns-effect-photo-montage-in-final-cut-pro.php
Can I use the techniques described in those 2 links in Final Cut EXPRESS?
Thanks for the info.

Tom Wolsky wrote:
This information is probably obsolete. FCE supports 1920x1080.
Now I'm confused about FCE max resolution. I found this soundbite on the web... a user says:
"There is also the consideration that FCE 4.0x won't natively export 1920x1080, which I think is very disappointing -- the software engine is limited to 1440x1080. FCP does true HD from what I understand."
I'm not sure if he's saying the FCE "engine" doesn't support 1920x1080 or if AIC doesn't support 1920x1080 or something else.

How do I get Ken Burns effect to pan entire photo?

I created a new project and put several photos into it. I am trying to use the Ken Burns effect to pan left to right, and have made the starting box (green) fairly small, and the ending box (red) larger. It is doing what I want, but does not ever quite get to the end that I desire. It spends most of the time on the beginning part, and never shows the very far right corner of the photo. Is there a way to adjust it so I get the entire photo showing on the right side, and spend more time on that part?

Hi Joe
Think of iMovie and iDvd (both apps) as one candy bar ....the same candy bar. i-movie is like the candy bar itself whereas iDvd is just the outside paper wrapping. That's what apple means when it describes iDvd'08 and DVDSP as Apple's DVD Authoring tools (meaning we don't normally use DVD software to edit video per se; since the former is normally performed in the video editing app itself like iMovie or FCP/FCE). With this in mind....
If you don't like my candy bar analogy, then take a look at OT's comments here in the following post to get an idea of what I'm talking about:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7101419&#7101419
Adding Ken Burns effects essentially transforms a slideshow into a QT movie. Furthermore KB effects are normally added within iPhoto (or another 3rd party app like Photo to Movie) which then makes a QT file /movie that can be used within iDvd.
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
If you opt to use the slideshow features within iDvd; then it won't include KB effects also (to the best of my knowledge unless one adds video to the slideshow as well; a new option w/in iDvd'08).... however you can add transitions to those sides within iDvd's slideshow option, if this is what you wish to do.
You might also want to consider this app as well:
http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/
the quality is excellent and it comes highly recommended on this iDvd forum.
Hope the above is helpful but if not just come on back.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.

Ken Burns effect locked?

I have imported images from iphoto to idvd to make a movie.
I have been re-arranging images within idvd to my satisfaction and added music.
All images have the Ken Burns effect which I am trying to remove, but my efforts so far have proved unsuccessful.
I would like to have KB on certain selected images, not on all.
Apple support was unable to help saying that the file could be corrupted.
When I start a new test project, all is well, ie: I have control of adding KB or removing it.
I do not want to start the project again from scratch,so my question is...Can KB be locked?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
imac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Welcome to the discussion!
Can you clarify a couple things for us, Everton, for it's not exactly clear what you're trying to do, and in which application...
I get the feeling that although you've posted in the iMovie forum, you're not creating an iMovie slideshow, right? You're creating a slideshow in either iDVD or iPhoto, I suspect.
You said you imported photos to iDVD and have re-arranged them there. That can be done in iDVD. It's possible to import photos and create your slideshow there.
But then you said you're trying to remove the Ken Burns Effect from select slides. Trouble is, I don't know of any way to add (or remove) the Ken Burns Effect in a slideshow created in iDVD, and that's where I get confused. The Ken Burns Effect feature isn't part of iDVD. (I may have missed it. If so, please point me in the right direction.)
The slideshows we create in iPhoto, on the other hand, do let us add the Ken Burns Effect to ALL the slides randomly, or add it to individual slides, or a combination of both. (The Settings button of the iPhoto slideshow lets us include it to all the slides.)
After we configure a iPhoto slideshow we can send it to iDVD, where it arrives as a movie. But we can't re-arrange the slides nor edit any features in iDVD — it's not that kind of slideshow. It's a movie.
So, it may be that you're trying to do something in iDVD that just can't be done — edit the Ken Burns Effect configured in an iPhoto slideshow. It may be that your editing should be done in iPhoto BEFORE sending the iPhoto slideshow to iDVD.
It's also possible you've created two different kinds of slideshows in your iDVD project, one created by dragging photos to iDVD, the other created by iPhoto. In that case, the iPhoto slideshow may include the Ken Burns Effect but the iDVD slideshow would not. To modify the Ken Burns Effect features, you have to edit the slideshow in iPhoto and re-import it to iDVD.
When it comes to making slideshows, we have an abundance of riches. iLife perhaps offers us too many ways to make them, which can lead to some confusion.
Karl

Cannot transition into "Ken Burns" effect

Simple.
I have a Ken Burns zoom on a photo. I want to fade in from black onto the photo.
At the point where the fade-in ends, there is a jump in the photo instead of a smooth transition.
This must be a software glitch in this version.

Hi Mary
Don't know of the problem but I can suggest how I would solve it.
I would - before applying fade in or out - export out the Ken-Burns zoomed
photos to a new miniDV tape and then import this part again and try to apply
the Fade effect on this one.
alt. Save clips as a full quality QT (DV-stream) clip and re-import this.
It should work even if it is a rather crude way of doing it.
Yours Bengt W

Ken Burns reduces photo resolution in slideshows?

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