Still Frame altered in Photoshop resizes in iMovie

Hello,
When I export a still frame as a pict file from iMovie and then edit that still frame in photoshop (resaved as a pict file), the file imports back into iMovie resized. It enlarges a bit more than the previous still frame. Does anyone know how to avoid this resize issue?
Thanks for any help

I am not at home now to verify or play with it first hand, but if I was to take a guess it would probably be because of the 640 vs. 720 conversion iMovie does behind the scenes with the horizontal pixels. See TVs use rectangular pixels while computers use square pixels. TV pixels are slightly taller than wide or put another way, the pixels are thinner than on a computer. So 720 thin TV pixels equal about 640 square computer pixels. What iMovie does is it will show you everything on your screen as 640 horizontal pixels so everything looks correct (height to width ratio looks right and nothing is stretched or squished), but really everything in iMovie is 720 pixels wide because that is the format needed for standard TV sets.
So because of this, and since Apple wants everything very simple for this application, when you import still images, it expects 640x480 (for North American TV; PAL has a different vertical size), which it then will (behind the scenes) convert to 720 thin/TV pixels. If you import something other than that, iMovie will resize accordingly.
OK so here is what I am not sure of but am speculating might be going on but can not check at the moment. When you select a frame and export that frame as a still image, I am guessing you really are getting a 720x480 image. This would be noticeable when opened in your image editor in that the image should now look a bit stretched out horizontally (yes, the camera really does add 10 lbs!). Now you do your edits, save the image which is still 720x480. When you import this image back to iMovie, it sees 720, is expecting 640 and resizes accordingly, so your image ends up pinched in (gets thinner). So on the screen it will tend to look like it got taller, when in fact it instead got pinched from the sides. Is that what you are seeing?
Again I am only guessing here and maybe saving a still out of iMovie gives you a 640x480, in which case none of what I said above applies.
However if it all sounds correct above, then the solution is after you open the file in Photoshop, resize it and this is one of those rare times where you actually want to UNCHECK the box that keeps the ratio of the photo the same. So now you tell it to resize from 720 to 640 but not to change the 480 dimension. Your photo should now look normal (not stretched out) and after editing, saving, and re-importing to iMovie should look correct.
Patrick

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Have a look at this thread:
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It's from the end of a clip I have. I know I could just use grab and take a screen capture but the quality would be awful.
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https://discussions.apple.com/message/15808352#15808352
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Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. 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 below at your own discretion.
Are you working in iMovie and realize that certain frames in the movie would be perfect as photographs? Here is how to extract them...
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Note: If you do not have a right mouse button, then control-click will work instead of right-click.
This is the 1st version of this tip. It was submitted on Dec 5, 2009 by AppleMan1958.
Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.

First, click iMovie/About and see which version you have.
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Message was edited by: Manny Figueroa
Message was edited by: Manny Figueroa

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Open MPEG Streamclip.
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