Working with still images in FCP X

Is there a easy way to work with pictures in FCP X? Yes, I know it's built for editing video, but I use to rack up hundreds of pictures in FCP 7 to create DVD and CD-ROM slideshows for my job and it worked great. I could overlay custom titles and graphics that I built in Motion and had great success. However, X takes forever to process images and is so slow. Any advice??

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Have discovered how to split visual and audio tracks. However the cut away only seems to work with still images from iPhoto!

trying to cut away from one video clip to a second one, while keeping the original sound track, works with still images imported from iPhoto, but cant get the video to drag/drop. please help thanks

simonjacobson wrote:
Drag clip over target, green plus sign appears.........clip appears at front of video, no menu option appears,
OK that sounds correct. Just to clarify, when the sign appears, as you release the mouse button (or whatever you are using), no menu pops up but the clip immediately positions itself:
at the front of the target clip, OR
at the very beginning of your project
Not sure where I'm heading here, just trying to get the complete picture.
I di it once, but not again, do i need to double click/right click or something?
No, there is no double-click or right-click involved at all. Just drag and drop, then select from the pop-up menu. You should be able to repeat this with no issues. I've also tested dropping video onto a still picture - the cutaway works on that as well.
Something is definitely not working correctly - strange! Quit iMovie, then try deleting the preference file as I described in my last post. Quitting and relaunching iMovie might even fix it. Also, try restarting your Mac - that sometimes helps.
John

How to Work With Still Images in Premiere Elements 10

I am struggling with the still images in my Titles for my video project, and would really appreciate some help. I have done a lot of googling on this and searched this forum, but can't seem to find the answer I need, maybe not searching the right questions or just "not getting it". Not even PE Adobe tips or Adobe TV cover this, although it seems important to know. I am not clear how PE10 will handle the resolution of an imported still image or graphic art from Photoshop. Perhaps this topic will also help others as well.
I am working on a video project for my job, editing an old training video. Created new Title graphics in Photoshop, inserted the Title images and integrated with video clips, then exported the video segments as MPEG files. I burned the whole video to DVD.
When the final DVD plays on a computer or TV screen, the photo images in the titles are fuzzy even though they were clear 300 dpi images. (I know dpi doesn't matter in video). The title text is also a bit fuzzy and the title text that has animation applied to it is even more fuzzy. Yet the old MPEG video clips look fine - it's just my title graphics and text that look bad (embarrasing).
So I need to know how to improve the quality of the still images/graphics for a video??
Project settings:
- Hard Disk, Standard 48kHz
- Editing Mode: DV NTSC
- Frame: 720 x 480 (0.9091)
- Frame rate: 29.97fps
- with "Optimize Stills" box checked
Using these settings because I am working with MPEG files from an old training video CD.
File Export: MPEG, NTSC DVD Standard
I export the video clips as MPEGS because they will be burned to a CD or DVD for distribution to our staff offices.
Work Details:
In Photoshop, I created still image graphics for each Title sized at 720 x480 with high resolution photos and company logo (300 dpi), and save them as a bitmap to import into PE10. In the Timeline, I insert the still image in "Video 1" track, then in Video 2 track create a Title over it for text (some animated, some still). Sometimes I stack 2 or three titles with text in separate video tracks over one still title image. Yes, there is a red line across the top in the Timeline because I didn't render the still images.
Questions:
• What is the best resolution for images imported into PE10 from Photoshop?
• Should I be creating title graphics/images at 720 x 480 or a larger ratio like 1920 x 1080 so it will display better when seen on a computer or TV?
• Do I need to render each title image in the timeline so that it will eventually display better in the MPEG?
• Is it better to create a title and then insert the still image into the title so they are integrated, rather than layered on separate video tracks?
I would greatly appreciate any assistance.

When the final DVD plays on a computer or TV screen, the photo images in the titles are fuzzy even though they were clear 300 dpi images. (I know dpi doesn't matter in video). The title text is also a bit fuzzy and the title text that has animation applied to it is even more fuzzy. Yet the old MPEG video clips look fine - it's just my title graphics and text that look bad (embarrasing).
Remember that DVD-Video was designed for CRT TV sets, and was a major step up from VHS tape. However, when viewed on an HD computer monitor, or HD TV *, it is still ONLY 720 x 480, with is about 1/4 of the resolution as 1920 x 1080, which is about what we are used to seeing on those display devices. That is but only 25% of the quality. It can never look as good as HD material.
Good luck, and if I missed something, please point that out to me.
Hunt
* With the advent of BD players, and up-rezzing DVD players, things HAVE improved, when viewing a DVD-Video on an HD TV. The newer players have up-rezzing chips, that do a very good job of "improving" the viewed material's quality. However, even with those amazing chips, DVD-Video will NEVER be as good as a full-HD source. Also, computers do not have those up-rezzing chips, so when one views a DVD-Video on a high-rez computer monitor, it will still look pretty bad. There ARE a couple of new DVD software players, that improve the quality of DVD-Video played on a high-rez computer monitor, and a few look fairly promising. I speculate that we will see some more development in the DVD-Video area, especially as BD is not proving to be the big seller, that many promised. Even 3D is not helping BD realize its promise.

Working with Still Images in a Video

Let's say I'd like to use a RAW still Image from my 40D Canon, which is 3888 x 2592, a 3:2 aspect ratio. I'm inserting it into a HD video, 720p, at a 16:9 ratio (1.0). I'd like to keep it large initially so I can pan or zoom in or out as desired. What's my workflow?: If I "Scale to Frame" it fits top to bottom but not laterally. If I show it in the monitor at 100%, it's much too large (but good for panning etc). How do you folks handle this, to work with the Ken Burns effects, keeping the frame aspect ratio correct, and keeping image quality good?
kdoc

That helps to a great extent: thanks Bill and everyone. A few thoughts and questions in follow up. I don't see under preferences anything about Scale to Frame Size (where is it in PrP/CS5?), but it does seem to come in by default not scaled. By right clicking the clip on the timeline on a PC I get the option to check or uncheck that possibility.
I also don't see Effects/Motion/Scale: where is that?
If I want to show my entire photo, as I originally worked it in Photoshop, I guess I need to then check Scale to Frame Size. And of course it doesn't fill the 16:9 aspect ratio laterally, even in landscape orientation, certainly not in portrait orientation. Do you leave it as is, with black margins, and/or do you crop to 16:9 in Photoshop before bringing it in the PrP to eliminate the black margins? (Bill has addressed this in his previous post). I'm gathering that if you don't want any black to show, a 3:2 DSLR Image within on a High Def (say 1280x720) video requires cropping. Do you folks crop in PS when resizing--you can't batch that. I see that Bill sometimes puts a new background behind, to eliminate the black margins.
Where in PS do you set pixel aspect ratio: I can't find it, though I only looked in PSx64, and not in PS x32? Actually I don't think one needs to answer this in PrP CS5: the image seems to come into PrP with the correct aspect ratio--for my Canon 40D RAW images it comes in at 3888x2592 (1.0) if I'm editing for a 1280x720 HD DSLR. I can convert my image to a PSD file in PS as Bill suggests (TIFF will work too).
I'm thinking that the new CS5 with Mercury Playback and 64 bits may handle these larger RAW images fine--but time will tell.
I don't quite get what Scale to Frame Size does (it seems to keep the height at full frame, and the frame aspect ratio constrained). or (in the dropdown) Fit vs. 50% or 100% does? Is it changing the actual image dimensions or just those which show up on screen? For example, I made an image in PS exactly 1280 x720 and brought it into a PrP video project which was also 1280x720, but the image overlapped at 100%. It fit the frame perfectly at "Fit" (from the dropdown).???
Remember that in PS, you can handle both portrait and landscape images for resizing with File--Automate--Fit Image. Just use the largest of the two pixel dimensions for both height and width. Or use Image Processor.
Thanks all
kdoc

Working with still images SOOO slow in Motion 3! Any advice?

Hi Everyone,
I am fairly new to Motion, so please bear with any n00bness I bring. I've hunted the forums for a good half hour now but still not found a sufficient solution.
I am editing a Standard Def project for a client, and for the intro to the piece, they want there to be a bunch of still images flying onto the screen to create a mosaic of about 70 or so pictures. The idea is to start zoomed in on one picture (the pictures are all portraits of people) so that it fills the screen, and then to have the image recede and grow smaller. As the picture grows smaller, another fills the screen and also grows smaller. This continue with all 70 pics until they've all grown small and joined the mosaic.
I've played with some effects and found the "Light Rays" glow effect to be the feel I am looking for, and would like each photo to come onto the screen using this effect at the beginning as it fills the screen.
My problem, though, is that I'm only on my 2nd picture, and it's already SO slow. I tried lowering render resolution to draft and image to half, third, or even quarter. But the problem is that when I lower resolution, it doesn't merely degrade the image quality. It actually crops my 2nd image, and so even though it plays more smoothly, I only see a tiny portion of the image, and I can't properly time the effects or fly ins. It doesn't crop my first image, though, and for some reason, even if I solo this 2nd picture, it's still incredibly slow. I have to remove all effects from it for even the simple resize effect to play smoothly. The file is only 276kb and 842x1080. Does this sound right? Is there anything I can do so that Motion doesn't crop the photo when I lower resolution to improve playback?
Also, Motion tends to freeze after a while to my commands. It'll keep playing back the project (albeit in a very stuttery way) but it'll take 10-20 secs for it to respond to my hitting the stop or pause button. Is there any way I can remedy this?
Thanks SO much in advance!!!!
Message was edited by: SuperMonk7

hi,
the first thing you can do is to pre-flight your images. make them as big as you need them in your final compostion, so if the biggest you're seeing them is full screen, make them that size. I use native photoshop files or PNGs, rather than tiffs or jpegs, they just seem to work better for me.
As you work, especially if you are using something like light rays, you;re going to have to render the sequence to watch it in real time. so do a RAM render to watch anything.
Once you have the rays working as you'd like, turn them off to work on the animation aspect. Then turn it on for the render and export.
not sure why the image is being cropped, but try the other stuff first and put the render quality back up to normal
hth
adam

Working with Still Images

When importing images into FCP:
1. Tiff or .PSD?
2. For NTSC SD DV should it be 720 x 480?
3. If I want to zoom in on it, should it be 1440 X 1080 or 1440 x 960, I have read conflicting info on this one.
3. The actual DPI/PPI settings in Photoshop could be completely ignored? Or should they be set to 72DPI?
Thanks!

1. I personally prefer TIFFs because FCP's PSD support is a little shaky, as you can see here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93707
2. Nope, NTSC uses non-square pixels so you have to make it a little bigger when you create it in your imaging program (which uses square pixels). The size you should be using is 720x540. This might be useful:
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/pixel_calc.htm
3. That all depends on how far in you want to zoom. Just take each value and multiply it by the amount you wish to zoom in. For example, if you wanted to zoom in 2x, you'd make it 1440 x 1080. The reason why people were suggesting 1440 x 960 is because they were not taking the pixel aspect ratio (see #2 above) into account, so it is incorrect.
4. This one was already answered above.

Working with still images only in FCP

Hello:
I am an editor/musician working on a very cool project will a wonderful illustrator.
The illustrations will be scanned and then imported into FCP for manipultion (panning, zooming, etc.) then adding narration and music.
Can somebody suggest the best timeline setting/pixel shape for doing this?
The images have been scanned at 150 dpi and have a size of 1920 x 1080
As I mentioned the images are still and I manipulate/move on them by using the size/motion tools in FCP
Thanks for any advice.
RIP Steve J
A.S.

The images have been scanned at 150 dpi and have a size of 1920 x 1080
150 dpi doesn't really apply here (that's a print thang, directly related to inches), since you gave us the dimensions of 1920 x 1080, that's all we need. (technically you could have a file of 72 dpi be at 1920 x 1080, and it would still be the same save size in terms of pixels, though not in terms of inches)....
You mention zooming... what is the end use of the video? Strictly Internet? or Blu Ray? SD DVD? because as you probably know, HD video is 1920 x 1080, so zooming there may not be a good idea since you would start to show pixelation. So if you plan to have an HD sequence, your images should be scanned in a tad bit bigger (as much as you are zooming in, but not any bigger than FCP can actually handle).
And talking about panning/zooming, you'll end up with better results if you use Motion.
If you are doing something which is not meant for Broadcast, choose the Pro Res LT 1920 x 1080 30p preset. In the sequence settings you can change the fps to 30 exactly.
HTH...

Crash with still images and keyframes?

Has anyone experienced a HARD crash on Premiere Pro CS6 (v6.0.2) mac when working with still images on the timeline & adding keyframes to add slight movement to those images?
without adding keyframes, the images seem to sit happily in my sequence but as soon as I add keyframes, it crashes so hard I can't switch to another application, force quit, or anything except a hard restart.
Premiere has been pretty damn solid for me since the latest update and since I went to 16GB RAM so this is surprising and frustrating.
any advice will be appreciated.
I'm on
OS X 10.8.2
MBP 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
16GB RAM
graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024MB
thanks
\d

Photo Scaling for Video http://forums.adobe.com/thread/450798
-Too Large May = Crash http://forums.adobe.com/thread/879967
-And another crash report http://forums.adobe.com/thread/973935

FCP still image size limits? Working with still panoramics.....

Hi all,
I am working on a project with panoramic stills. Usually I make panos with more than 1 picture hight, lets say something like an array of 3x4 pictures, that ends in a typical resolution of something like 15.000 x 5.000. I like to make some motion with the pictures inside FCP since they are great situations to show entirely. Those pictures goes into FCP without problem, but when I tried to render them (in order to show them) get a "General Error" window......
I tried later to test different heights in order to find if there was a limit. Initially I made them smaller and limited them up to 1080 pixels (since I am working at full HD) and they work without a problem with motion TAB inside FCP. Later I tried to make them bigger and up to 2000, 1500 and 1200 pixels height and they NOT worked, but with a test up to 1150 they worked and FCP could render them.
Somebody knows this issue or limit?
Is there other way to work with moving panos at FCP?
Thanks!!

I did several tests with different height and wide pixels and found that for wide it up to 15.000 pixels the pictures can be motioned as panos in FCP without problems.
However, no more than 1.100 pixels wide is possible since that anoying window error just saying "General Error", as you get usually at windows OS systems.
So the 4.000 x 4.000, from my "on field" experiencie, it is not a limit, moreover the height on those kind of pictures indeed put a limit in my panos.
Any advice or tip?
Appreciate!!

How to export a short film made with still images without loosing quality?

Hi,
I have been trying everything to make a short film, which is made with still images, to look decent once exported however it is a real challenge. Here are the steps I have undertaken:
1- I prepare the photographs and give them the aspect ration of 720p and whatever height as I try not to crop them too much at 300dpi. They look great in photoshop or capture one. I then save them as.tiff. All the images are RGB.
2- I start a new project in premiere pro cs4 and make it DV Pal 25fps.
3-I import the images and place them on the timeline. If they are a bit too big I rescale them. The images seem to look ok on the timeline although I seem to have lost the deepness of the colours.
4-I render the work area
5-I export it as quicktime, dv pal, quality 100.
My dilemna is that although exporting with quicktime, dv pal, quality 100 seems to give me the best quality compared to using quicktime animation, mpeg2, cinemak, avi..., the images are still not as sharp as in Photoshop and the colours look a lot paler and washed out. Also, when looking close to the screens you can see tiny squares on the images although from distance it's not too bad. When I view it from the exported file using Nero it's not too bad although definitely not perfect, as soon as I try to make a DVD and import it in Adobe Encore CS4 or send it by Dynamic Link, the quality looks horrible with images that look soft if not blurred and completely washed out.
I have now tried about t bu15 versions to see what 's the best I still have not reached the optimum quality and since these will be shown on big tvs or projected onto screens I need to nail it.
Would anybody have any advice please please please?
Many Thanks

My overall advice is to do that kind of work in an application that is designed for that. Give Photodex Proshow Producer trial a crack at it. I do a lot of work with stills, and that IMO PSP is the best approach. If you are intermixing the odd still, Pr may get you by. If you plan on doing a lot of that, try proshow, where the workflow and extensive features are designed for making high quality videos from stills that can be output to a wide number of formats and destinations, including color management with many of them( including avi). And, no need to resize. I know this won't solve your present problem.
Obviously, your attempt in Pr has not worked out as you had hoped. Maybe a bit more info would help. How are you rescaling them in Pr? That might well account for some quality loss. What is the original format and size of the images? What color management are you using in PS? Are you using any color correction or effects in Pr? Is your project interlaced or progressive?
From your description, you are not even getting the quality you should be getting from Pr IMO, though as Jim says, it is video and it will never look as pristine as it does in PS, but it still seems to me that something you are doing has degraded the work more than normally would be expected.

Crash While Working With an Image Sequence

So I am working with an image sequence in my timeline and every time I touch that clip (either to render it or move it) Premiere crashes.
I am working on an iMac with 32 GB of Ram with OS X 10.10.3 installed. I recently upgraded from Premiere Pro CS6 to CC and since
then I am unable to work with it.
Here is the error log I keep getting:
Process:               Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 [839]
Path:                  /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014
Identifier:            com.adobe.AdobePremierePro
Version:               8.2.0 (8.2.0)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 [839]
User ID:               501
Date/Time:             2015-04-18 16:36:11.311 -0700
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.10.3 (14D136)
Report Version:        11
Anonymous UUID:        06821F38-EC27-D4F0-775A-7CB2D2257EE6
Time Awake Since Boot: 3900 seconds
Crashed Thread:        24 Dispatch queue: opencl_runtime
Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000008

It seems to happen when I am not using any tools. When I have a photo open for any purpose.
It occurs with no input. I fix it by zooming back to where I was.
I am not working with a tablet. I am not working with a mouse.
I will need to look up these preferences. I did not know they existed.
Thanks.
Duane

Working with grey images

Hey guys, got a new question for you. I'm working with grey images from an old newspaper in the 40's in photoshop, originally the format was working gray - dot gain 20%. My question is since this is a gray image with no cmyk to be found, what would you suggest would be the ideal format so that when these images are sent to the printer they will come out looking good? Thanks in advance guys.
Jason

What I'm doing for JPEGs:
72 ppi at current size
144 ppi at half size
215 ppi at 1/3 size
288 ppi at 1/4 size
and even lower if I can get the images that small, but these are intended for a small brochure so I figure they will be okay at around 1 inch wide per placed image in indesign.

Issues with still images

Hi there,
I am having issues with still images in Adobe CS5.
The thumbnail preview in the Project window, the thumbnail preview in the timeline, the source monitor view and the project monitor do not always show the same picture. It seems like Premiere mistakes a picture with another one. I have tried to remove and re-import the files, but still having the same issue.
Let me explain it clearly: I use 2 pictures, say picture A and picture B.
The preview (project window), the source (source monitor) and the project monitor all show picture A when I select either Picture A or B. The thumbnail in the timeline shows picture B for both files...
Am I the only one with this issue ? I've tried to look for people with a similar experience, but I have not found anything...
Thanks for your help.
Nicolas.

Re: Showing The Wrong Footage
Re: Imports Wrong File
Re: Wrong images appearing in project window / timeline
Candidate for FAQ?

When working with aRGB images, what changes must be made when printing?

Working in the Adobe RGB color space requires that all components in the chain (camera, software, monitor, printer) be able to handle aRGB. When printing from Photoshop Elements, what changes (if any) need to be made at printing time?

Thanks Michel.
I knew about the "more options" dialog box and use it regularly to set
ICC profiles for my Canon Pro9500 Mark II printer, ensuring also that
"Photoshop Elements manages colors". I could have asked the question
better perhaps: "When working with aRGB images, how can I set both an
ICC printer profile for a specific paper and ensure that printer uses
the aRGB color space?". As far as I can tell, you can set an aRGB
profile (either in Photoshop or at the level of the printer), but you
can't use both the aRGB profile and an ICC paper profile at the same
time. I am assuming that you can't set an ICC profile for the paper in
Photoshop Elements and at the same time use the printer's aRGB driver.
Is that right?
Craig.

Elements 10 canvas not working with tiff images; works fine with jpegs. What to do?

Elements 10 canvas not working with tiff images; works fine with jpegs. What to do? It does not allow me to add a colored canvas, only a blank canvas.

Perhaps some of the tiffs are already layers.
In other words, since jpegs don't support layers, they all ways open with one locked background layer, but the tiff format does
support layers so the tiffs don't have to have a locked background layer and can already be a regular layer that supports transparency.
For the tiffs you could add a new color fill layer below and use the color you want the enlarged canvas to be.
On pse 10 look at the bottom of the layers panel for the new adjustment of fill layer icon

Working with still images in FCP X

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