Still photo layers

If I am working with still photos and I want to cut out a figure in the middle of the pic. Is there any way to do it in FCP. I don't want a box around it I need to do points to actually pull the figure itself out.
thx

You could do it in FCP with a 50 point garbage matte (you can get free here).
http://mac.sofotex.com/download-126085.html
but you would be better off doing it in Photoshop...
Message was edited by: (Steve G)

Similar Messages

The editable rectangles of my still photos in the composition panel suddenly stopped showing up.

Hi There, Adobe Community!
I am relatively new to After Effects CC and am using it to create a stop motion film with a large amount of photos.
Usually, when importing the individual images into my composition panel, a sequence of editable rectangles appears in the compostition panel allowing me to edit the frame length of the still photos.
After around 950 imported images, the little rectangles suddenly stopped showing up. But when looking at a preview of the project, it's as if the photos are in there, in the sequence they should be. I'm just unable to edit them like the previous ones with recangles showing.
I probably am not describing this too well, so here is a screen shot which hopefully makes my problem somewhat more clear. The area of issue is where you see the descending sequence of boxes in the comp panel. The red tracking bar is there to show that there are still photos continuing the sequence, I just can't see the boxes for em..
thank you so much for any help in the matter!

So I guess you are talking about the layers in the timeline go missing, not the handles in the Comp Window.
I think you have run into a display bug. Try selecting the top hundred or so layers and pre-compose them. If the missing layers appear then that's the problem. I have had it happen a couple of times before in previous versions of AE..
Here's a workflow hint for you, break your comps up into short sequences instead of trying to do a 4 or 5 minute piece with 900 layers in a single comp. You'll find editing and changing a lot easier.
I would also pre-mix your music. AE is a really terrible music mixer....

Quadro or GeForce for still-photo editing?

Hello!
I am an IT consultant who has one professional photographer as a client, and she needs a new workstation for still-photo editing using Photoshop CC. I asked her to ask her professional community about the best video card to use, and I got back "I need a video card with mercury graphics engine, over 1 gig. of ram (the more the better)." I have read about Quadro cards until my eyes bled, and I think they may not be the best suited for still-photo editing, at least from the perspective of performance vs. cost.
Her current workstation has a 1GB ATI FirePro V5800 card, 6GB memory, a three-drive RAID 5 array that is split into her C: and data partitions, and a single Xeon CPU. It is a pig.
New computer build (so far):
ASUS Z97-A LGA1150 motherboard
Windows 8.1 Pro (with Start8 start menu replacement)
Intel Core i7-4790 CPU
32GB memory
480GB SSD boot drive (current boot drive has 201GB used)
240GB SSD "active projects" drive (only $44 more than a 120GB SSD)
4TB SATA 7200RPM data drive for finished projects
Multiple 3TB drives for onsite and offsite backups
The only piece missing (?) is which video card to get. I deal almost exclusively with business workstations, not specialized markets like photography editing, so I bow to your knowledge in helping me decide between Quadro vs. GeForce vs. ???
Thank you for your time!
Gregg Hill

I'm no expert, but I built a PC about a year ago and did a lot of research into this. I found a lot of conflicting opinions on it, but most of the actual data I looked at suggested that I wasn't going to see a significant boost in performance, for still photography, by adding a GPU (over a good Intel chip). The integrated graphics performed surprisingly well in the benchmarks versus all but the top of the line GPUs. So I concluded that unless I was prepared to spend $500 on a GPU I'd stick with the integrated, and I could always upgrade later. Never felt the need to upgrade. Everyone uses Photoshop differently, and your client may have use for it. But I think a lot of people buy the most expensive machine they can afford even when it's overkill. I'd consider myself a moderately heavy PS user; I like to do big composites (60+ layers) and I do architectural work that sometimes has dozens of frames from a full frame camera. I don't do video, nor use the niche filters like oil that were heavy on GPUs. But I use a lot of layers, and am somewhat heavy with actions and batching. YMMV.
But, a caveat: I use CS6, which doesn't have many GPU accelerated features that I use. It looks like that is changing with CC, and hopefully more so in the future. So perhaps it would be prudent for you to put one in. Truthfully I don't think there's much a difference between brands so long as they're on the compatibility list.
I also did a lot of research into RAM, because Windows 7 caps at 16 gb for the basic version. At the end of the day I convinced myself that 16 would be sufficient, and I've kept an eye on my useage in photoshop and found that it has. I don't do video work, but my projects are usually pretty large (2 gb+). Everybody has different uses
Sorry to drone on: But I also looked into the traditional 4 disc setup recommend for image processors. I couldn't get a concrete answer on whether this setup still makes a significant performance increase when using SSDs. I ended up just getting an SSD for programs, OS, and working files. Then a huge slow HDD (5600 RPM) for storage. Plus backups. I since upgraded the hard drive and used my old one for scratch - really just to take the "wear and tear" off my main drive.

I need to add text over a still photo in iMovie. Following directions that always worked before but not this time.

I am running OS 10.6.8, an upgrade that I did after Christmas. A couple of times a year, I need to make a video of my students' performances, and have always been able to add text over the still photos before, using the directions in iMovie "help." However, this time, I am not able to choose a title style; no amount of clicking makes anything show up on the selected still photo. And no amount of trying to choose the font style makes anything show up either.
This is iMovie 09; is it possible that it is not compatible with my OS upgrade?
I've been able to insert still photos into the video footage, but can't add any titles or acknowledgements. Thank you so much for your help! Since I only do this a couple of times a year, it always takes me forever to accomplish, which is why I printed off the Help directions to follow.

just to make thing clear (sorry for sounding impudent!)
you do .... :
create a New Project
make a selection of an Event and add it to the Project
select a title and drag it onto the clip?
iM does work with your OS ...

How can I make a still photo from imovie

How can I make a still photo from imovie?

Let's assume you have iMovie 11 (Version 9). (If you have a different version, let me know. The instructions will be different.)
First, get an app called MPEG Streamclip, which is free. (google MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5)
Open MPEG Streamclip.
In iMovie, select the clip you need. Then, right-click/Reveal in Finder.
Drag this clip into MPEG Streamclip
In MPEG Streamclip, move the playhead to the frame you want.
In MPEG Streamclip, click FILE/EXPORT FRAME.
Choose JPEG, TIFF, or PNG and give it a name.
You can then drag this photo into iPhoto.
I have created a short video Tutorial on how to do this. There is one error in the Tutorial, where it says that Command-click is the same as right-click. I should have said Control-click instead.

Problem exporting Premiere Pro CS5.5 projects with still photos and h264 video

I'm a longtime Final Cut Pro user and evaluating Premiere Pro for my workplace before making the switch. I have been running into several problems when I try to export raw h264 video from a Canon 5D combined with still images on a Macbook Pro. Either I receive an error in Premiere Pro saying, "Error compiling movie. Unknown error." or Adobe Media Encoder appears to continue exporting (the time elapsed bar continues to move) even though the time remaining stays frozen once it hits a photo it doesn't like. It's not always the same photo.
I've spent several days trying to troubleshoot the issue, including batch resizing all photos to 1920 wide (to match the video settings), and it hasn't work. The sequence is currently set to render in ProRes 422. I've also tried HDV 1080p30 and MPEG-4. I cannot find any consistency with the errors. Occasionally an export will work, but every couple still photos will look like green static. I've also tried batch converting the photos in Photoshop to PNG and GIF without any luck. I'd include my default export settings but I've pretty much tried it all. I'm just trying to figure out what's causing the error since the message is very vague.
Couple other notes:
There's plenty hard drive space available for export
I can export the DSLR video (h264, 1080p30) without still photos no problem
I can edit the same still photos and video in Final Cut with no problem
I have the same problem with auto-save on and off
I tried re-installing production premium, deleting the preference files and cleaning the media cache - no luck. I also tried exporting under a different user account and it wouldn't work.
This is driving absolutely crazy. I'm affraid to use PP on deadline because I don't see any issues until it's time to export. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
- McKenna

Thanks Todd. Your questions were actually very helpful. I'm using a Macbook Pro with an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics card. I'm running OS 10.6.8 and have the latest updates installed.
When I disabled the GPU acceleration, I was able to render and export without a problem. The problem only occured when using the GPU acceleration and mixing h264 with still photos. It also affected both rendered previews and the final export. I'm assuming its a support issue with the graphics cards, but it would be great if you had any other ideas. I appreciate your help.

Still photos in PRE 12 and output to HD DVD for TV

Hi,
I was using Final Cut Express 4 HD on my old iMac but bought a new late 2013 iMac and learned that FCE will not run on Mavericks (and if you install it you will destroy your OS X plugin manager without any chance to repair it)!
Ok FC Pro X is far way to expensive for me right now, as I just use the app to build nicer photo slide shows. iMove has just a single track and therefore I'm already on the limits. Ok this is where PRE 12 comes into the game and so far I love what I see in the editor. But when it comes to exporting and sharing my work for Full HD TV I'm more than disappointed.
Here is what I use. I exported all my images with 1920x1080 pixels as JPG, max quality with 72dpi and they are looking great on my iMac.
When I import the stills into PRE they are OK when I see them in the editor. I switched off the still optimization feature and set the highest quality to render the preview.
When looking at the clip on my iMac in the editor is ok so far, but at full screen the images are unsharp, blurry and have ghosting and artefacts. Well I could live with that when it would only be the preview but exporting the video a DVD with Full HD the result is as the preview, images are unsharp, blurry showing artefacts and ghosting. And I can't make it better by manipulating the settiings in the DVD dialog. Maybe I'm doing it wrong!?
The only way to make my photos in the video looking tack sharp and brilliant as they are is when I use MPEG format with Full HD settings and look at the video with quick time.
Why don't I get the same result when burning the video on DVD? Any hints?
In regards to the DVD quality I had no problems with FCE 4 HD! And the images (still photos) are the same footage I used to compare the output!
Secondly I just use the PRE 12 trial version, hope that this is not the reason? The annoying "always on" banner saying that it is a trial version is already something I dislike, but what I experience and makes it even worse is that PRE 12 is crashing again and again on different steps I take, sometimes when I change a setting, sometimes when I scrub, sometimes when selecting a fade, sometimes when importing footage and other step....
With all this the disappointing quality on DVD's and the many crashes I can't find a lot of arguments right now to make the trial a full version?!
Cheers and many thanks for help!
Happy New Year!
Yogie

Yogi
First, I want you to assure that you are not bothered by pile ups of preview files, conformed audio, and conformed video files. If these files are in the default location, please check wherever they may be in Premiere Elements 12 Mac (I am strictly an Elements Windows user)....
Adobe Premiere Elements Preview Files Folder....preview files
Media Cache Folder (cfa and pek files)....conformed audio
Media Cache (.mcdb files)....conformed video
Check Edit Menu/Preferences/Scratch Disks to assure that all the scratch disk categories are directed to a hard drive save location with adequate free space to accept them.
Now for the project itself...set the Premiere Elements 12 project preset manually, using
File Menu/New/Project
PAL
DSLR
1080p
DSLR 1080p25
Before you close out of there, make sure that you have a check mark next to "Force Selected Project Setting on This Project". Then, when you enter the Premiere Elements workspace, import your source media into the project with Add Media/Files and Folders/Project Assets.
Render the Timeline and then decide if the image quality is impoved. You might explore applying a very small Sharpen effect to the images. Have the others taken you through the drill of evaluating your computer video card and its driver version?
ATR
Let us determine what we have at this stage and then we can decide if any improvement on the path to PAL DVD-VIDEO Widescreen on DVD disc.
Thank you.
ATR

How can i change an ipad2 video to a still photo?

Hos can I change a ipad video to a still photo?

If they are videos that you've taken with the iPad then there are some apps that claim to be able to do it e.g Video 2 Photo appear to have decent reviews/ratings.

Why can't I split a still photo clip?

Hello...
I am working on a photo montage using imovie. There are also video clips added into the project as well.
I can split a video clip. No problem.
But when I go to split a still photo in the project that is from iphoto, instead of splitting the clip, it DUPLICATES the entire clip and adds it after the clip that I was trying to split.
It is necessary that I be able to split clips to the beat of the music. And for some reason I can't split still photos.
What am I doing wrong?

Have you considered using the Beat Marker feature? It is much faster.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/imovie_09_stone.html#markers
Here is a good example.

Still Photo Aspect Ratio Confusion

Apologize for asking a question on this topic as I have been through the forum and realize the topic of aspect ratio comes up often. I have not however seen this question answered. Quick background:
-Working with HD Video footage imported as SD as I am burning non-HD dvd's and I have heard the conversion in IDVD and Toast from HD is not great;
-Using photos imported from Aperture in FCE;
-Sequence is NTSC anamorphic as I want 16:9 but without HD;
My question is about the aspect ratio of still photos when I bring them into the timeline. I have experimented with saving photos in different aspect ratios: 853x480 and 720x480. When I import into FCE the 853 shows a square pixel and the 720 shows a NTSC pixel. From what I have read this is due to the way FCE interprets the aspect ratio and assigns an pixel aspect. When I view each in the viewer they both look correct when I click the corresponding pixel aspect from the top of the viewer. It is when I move these to the timeline that I get confused. The 853 gets an adjustment of 18.52 and the 720 gets an adjustment of 33.33. What do these adjustments actually represent? Is it a percentage, a number of pixels, something else? When I read about it in the Manual it seems to state that FCE adjusts for the difference between the still and sequence, but then why does it adjust the 720 since it has the same pixel aspect as the sequence? I then tried changing the Pixel aspect of the 853 in the browser to NTSC and moving it to the timeline. I get the same 33.33 adjustment. The 33.33 does not look correct in either of them, but when I change it to 18.52 it looks correct (with the pixel aspect at square, with it not checked it looks "skinny" or squished).
Only thing I can think is that it has something to do with the anamorphic adjustment and the squeezing that goes on with it as 18.52 as 853 (widescreen) is 18.47 percent wider the 720.
At this point I am really not sure how these will display when I make a dvd and display on a widescreen tv. I would prefer not to do this by guessing or looking at the picture, but instead by understanding what FCE is doing and making sure I have the settings and adjustments correct.
Sorry for the long message, but would really appreciate any advice

Michael,
sorry to disagree, but for sure I was not clear, and the topic is quite complex. So I decided to provide an overview (as much as I can...) of the various combinations of clips inserted into various sequences with all settings - possibly on my web site (I'm afraid other posters are getting bored about all this math).
But since this is taking quite a bit of time, let me just tell you now where I disagree about your findings. When I'll have my overview completed I hope that will better explain what I mean.
_Your point 1_.
I'm pretty sure you (unwillingly) are importing your 16:9 square pixel NTSC clip into a +4:3 CCIR pixel NTSC sequence+ (not your original 16:9 anamorphic NTSC sequence). Please check your sequence settings by selecting the sequence in the browser in list view and reading the Frame Size, Pixel Aspect, and Anamorphic fields.
a. If your sequence is in fact +4:3 CCIR pixel NTSC sequence+, by applying the formulas you get:
- PARclip for +16:9 square pixel NTSC+ clip = 853/853 = 1 (as for any square pixel clip)
- but PARseq is not 1 (as you write) but 640/720 (square/actual pixels) = 0,8888
- Adjust = PARseq/PARclip = 0,8888/1 = 0,8888.
- Since Adjust is <1 Motion Aspect Ratio = - 100* (1/0,8888 -1) = -12,5 as you experienced on FCE. BTW this means that the imported clip has to be squeezed vertically by 12,5% (as opposite of horizontally).
b. If your sequence instead really is +16:9 anamorphic NTSC+ as you seem to imply, then 18,52 is correct as you confirm yourself with "Agree that in the four cases you list it agrees...": it is in fact the 2nd case in my 4 cases list.
_Your point 2_.
Here I suppose the sequence is +16:9 CCIR pixel NTSC+ which has PARseq = 853/720 = 1,1852.
But I'm not clear what you mean by "720/640 NTSC clip". My guess is that you mean a +4:3 CCIR pixel NTSC+ clip,
then PARclip = 640/720 (square/actual pixels) = 0,8888
then Adjust = PARseq/PARclip = 1,1852/0,8888 = 1,3333 and Motion Aspect Ratio = 100*(1,3333 - 1) = 33,33 as you experienced
_Adjust formula_.
I think this formula in your earlier message is incorrect: Aspect Ratio (in Motion/Distort) = - 100 * (1/Adjust-1) if Adjust ≤ 1; seems like the formula: Aspect Ratio (in Motion/Distort) = 100 * (Adjust-1) if Adjust ≥ 1 works at all times including <1 as follows 100*(.875-1)=-12.5.</div>
This not true (well it is true only for Adjust = 1...). As an example if Adjust = 0,8888 then 100*(0,5-1) = -11,12 (wrong value for this pixel adjustment), while -100*(1/0,8888-1) = -12,51 which is the correct vertical squeeze !!
Why 2 different formulas are needed ? because when Adjust is >1 a +horizontal squeeze+ by Adjust is necessary to fix the pixel aspect ratio misalignement, when Adjust is <1 a +vertical squeeze+ is necessary by 1/Adjust... (figures will help as soon as they are ready for... publishing).
I'm sorry these posts are so long, I try to make them as clear as possible, but the topic is a bit messy and, even if only fractions are involved in this math, their actual meaning is not always intuitive...I'd really appreciate any comment also by more experienced users of FCE/FCP...
Thanks
Piero

Photo layers in DW CS 4?

Have not used DW in many years. I want a simple page with small 80x80 thumbnails
on the left column, and a right section of photos layered. The thumbs will link to
the larger version on right side and make that photo appear when clicked. I think
DW4 does layers like this but I can't find info. ( 8 thumbs, 80x80, 8 larger 400x400)
thanks for any help.

Your subject line says CS4, but your post says DW4. Can I safely assume that it's the former?
The best way to do something like this is to use the SetText behavior to dynamically modify the HTML content of a container on the page in response to a click on each thumbnail. This modification would rewrite the image tag within that container so that it corresponds to the thumbnail clicked. That way, you don't encumber the page with the weight of all of the enlarged images before they are actually needed.
I believe that this thread will suffice to explain everything you need to know -
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1919078#1919078
(and there would be no need to use any positioning of any sort to achieve your final result)

In Photoshop Elements 11 attempting to blend two photos ( layering one on another) when I click on a brush, I get a smart brush which doesn't do what the instruction say it should do. Instead I can get the eraser to do what I need to do. Why the confusion

In Photoshop Elements 11 attempting to blend two photos (layering one on another) I click on brush and get a smart brush which doesn't do what the instructions say it will do. I can get the eraser to do what I want. Why the confusion???

I click on brush and get a smart brush which doesn't do what the instructions say it will do.
The Brush tool (Keyboard B) has several different brushes in the same slot. Right click on the brush icon and you will see them, or press B sequentially.
The Smart Brush tool (Keyboard F) has two items in the slot.
Since you did not provide reference to "the instructions", it is difficult to remedy the "confusion." that exists.
I suspect that the recipe calls for a mask, and painting with a black brush to mask out certain areas.
It would help if you post the instructions and what your goal is with more specificity.

Acceptable File Size and Resolution for Still Photos in Keyframe Motion

Hello Hello
I know that FCE HD (as other Video Editors), will automatically fit a still photo's size to it's default capability of 720 x 480 Correct?
Well, in regard to making the best possible ZOOMS, and Pans from Still Photos, is it neccessary to re-size all your photos (from an external editor like photoshop), to a specfic size?
According to an older book for FCE, it sez that actually photos re-sized to 720x534 with a resolution of 72 are best. *The proper proportion for NTSC.
And I noticed that when I inserted larger JPG still sizes (like about a meg), on the FCE timline, and when applying Panning, or Zooms, some of the rendered images with motion didn't pan or zoom smoothly.
Is that because those file sizes were TOO large?
Well I have soooo many stills that need to be imported into this particular project that it would be a lot easier for me to just generally reduce these stills (by percentage).
And is the magic resolution amount supposed to be 72?
Because if that's the case I can re-size all my photos to 72, and try to keep the file sizes down to say 300 KB's or so.
Sound like a plan?

Thank you guys
"basically, you should try to make your images large enough so they never have to be scaled beyond 100% in the motion tab in fcp."
Actually as I mentioned some of these file sizes are very large. About 800-900 KB's - and what as a result, what I've noticed is that I actually had to DECREASE the viewing area in both the Browser Window, and the Canvas Winbow just to be able to see the whole image.
Ok - so the 72 DPI is not as important as the dimensions of the photo. But as I said I have soooooo many of these that it would take me forever to manually re-size them all not to mention the fact that re-sizing some of them (odd shapes),would throw the images out of balance.
So again I ask - if there is NO motion applied to the photo, file sizes of about 200 to 350 KB's appear just beautifully ....
BUT
If I need to PAN or ZOOM, is it ok to laod a 1 MEG sized JPG onto the timeline and start working with Keyframe?????
In fact in some cases I'm actually using these larger file JPS's (1 meg or more), so that they TOTALLLY fit the canvas window (cropping them by enlargment)
*With some clipping of the original image of course ...
Why do I do this?
So that you don't see the usual border with horizontal images, or vertical images - know what I mean?
Thanx

S-video Output work on Foreign Format TV (to View Still Photos)

Can I view still photos from 5th generation video iPod on an Australian or other foreign country TV using universal dock and S-video connection?
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 GB RAM
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 GB RAM

Found answer in manual, which had been lost.

My still photos look blurry on burned iDvds

I've been trying to make a DVD of still photos. My DVD from iDVD is blurry when viewed. It's blurry wether I look at it on a TV or the computer, so it's not a screen quality issue. My photos are nice and clear on iDVD when making the disc, but the disc quality is horrible. Looking at the forums it seems that I'm not the only one with this issue, but all the suggestions either don't make sense to me or I can't make them work. It seems as though some have had success making an iMovie and then making a .mov file in HD, then dragging it into iDVD. I can't drag the .mov file into iDVD. I also cannot burn the .mov file to disc. I'm starting to hate Apple for telling me how intuitive my computer is. If it was so intuitive a computer dummy like me could figure it out. Very frustrated...

Hi
I think that this have several reasons
• No DVD can do the same quality as Your Mac Screen - NON. DVD is as standard SD-video and can not be any better.
• Assemble SlideShows in iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 then Send to iDVD - will make things even worse
a. iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - can only deliver every second line to iDVD resulting in 50% loss
b. Share to iDVD - makes iMovie to render and so bad - Better is to Share to Media Browser and from iDVD import from it's Media Browser - iDVD renders so much better
So to get best quality DVD is not the way - Blu-Ray or photos on a memory stick can be so much better or even projected directly from the Mac - will give best quality possibly
To get an as good DVD as possibly
• Use a program that can do SlideShows and export them without any loss eg
◊ iMovie up to HD6 (previous versions)
◊ FinalCut any version
◊ FotoMagico™
are what I use.
I let iDVD do the rendering
I use Verbatim DVD-R disks
I set down burn speed to x4 (less burn errors and DVD works on more Players)
Yours Bengt W

Still photo layers

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