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I stumped the Cow!! Why is it so hard to get a clear response?
I posted a question a little while back about using stills in FCP. I was surprised at the lack of responses. The ones I did get were to look at a video tutorial (Which I can’t) and the other was to buy a book???
Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of the Creative Cow?
Here is the conversation so far.
I have been asked to create a slide show using some still photo’s(Jpegs). The photo’s have been edited in Photo shop. They have given a white border with black text explaining where they are from. They are 300 dpi but I am not sure what the canvas size is. When I put them together and export them as a QT file they look like crap. I tried using DVD Studio pro and creating a slide show but still they look no good. When I preview the stills they look great.
Does anyone on the Cow know how I can resolve this and create a sharp hi res slide show?
I am sure there is an answer in the Archives but I am on a super slow and expensive satellite internet connection in the middle of the south pacific.
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Greg Ondera Re: Using stills in FCP?
by Greg Ondera on Dec 13, 2011 at 4:56:01 amVideo is 72 dpi no matter what, including HD but HD has more lines to work with than SD. Also the difference between an interlaced format and progressive formats are significant here. You’ll get all kinds of difficulties with resolving small type in interlaced formats. So setting the timeline for a progressive format at a high HD resolution is the first step. Or what about just using PowerPoint to do your slide presentation?
Greg Ondera
https://www.Plexus.tv
https://www.SurgeonToday.orgReturn to posts index SOLUTION KUDOS
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Richard Harrington Re: Using stills in FCP?
by Richard Harrington on Dec 13, 2011 at 5:20:09 amThere is no such thing as DPI in video. Dots per inch is a print term.
Video is total pixel count. IE 1920 X 1080, 1280 x 720. Etc.
Using Photoshop stick to the preset menu. Watch the Cow’s Photoshop for Video podcast and/or pick up book of same name,
Richard M. Harrington, PMP
Author: From Still to Motion, Video Made on a Mac, Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Studio On the Spot and Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques
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Greg Ondera Re: Using stills in FCP?
by Greg Ondera on Dec 13, 2011 at 5:33:28 amRight on! I love your book, Richard!
Greg Ondera
https://www.Plexus.tv
https://www.SurgeonToday.orgI am in the middle of the south Pacific on a slow satellite connection I cannot view video or download anything due to the slow speed. If I were to order a book I would get it in about 1 month or more as I can only receive mail in certain ports.
The slide show goes onto a DVD. If I use Power point can I Export an HD video File? and am I not going to run into the same resolution problem.
What should I do to the stills to prep them for FCP?
Does any one have a proven work flow or some detailed instructions on how to handle this?
Funkin it up Old School
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8 Replies
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What are your SEQUENCE settings? DV will look like crap. ProRes is better.
Now…HD or SD? Will this be for the web? Playback from a computer onto a big screen (powerpoint?). Or a DVD? I see in your post that you mention DVD, and playback from a computer. If a DVD, then use ProRes SD…or DV50. Some setting with good compression settings. DV stinks. If HD for playback on a laptop…use ProRes 422, or ProRes LT, then compress to H.264 when done.
DPI is meaningless…as you have seen stated. The most important thing is Pixel Dimensions. The larger the dimensions, the better it will look when you do push in’s, moves.
And they should be either PNG or TIFF files. JPG is too compressed, and straight up PSD files are a bear to work with.
Moves on stills? I have a free web tutorial for that: Movement on Stills
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Have you experimented with iPhoto? You can build slide shows there and export as a QuickTime.
HTH
Gary
This is me – this is what I do – https://web.mac.com/garymmw
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Stumped because you are not providing technical details. We would need to now your project’s sequence settings – you’ll need to optimize your photos to work with the sequence. As mentioned, SD? 4:3? 16:9? HD? 720p? 1080p?
Use TIFF images (uncompressed). JPG’s are compressed, so don’t use them.
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My experience with jpegs and FCP is it prefers files not much larger than 4meg. Files about that size someitmes behave unpleasantly. Or did the 64bit FCPX fix that?
John Doggett-Williams
http://www.fineeyeproductions.com -
[Richard Pengelly] “I posted a question a little while back about using stills in FCP. I was surprised at the lack of responses. The ones I did get were to look at a video tutorial (Which I can’t) and the other was to buy a book???
Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of the Creative Cow?”
[Richard Pengelly] “I am sure there is an answer in the Archives but I am on a super slow and expensive satellite internet connection in the middle of the south pacific.”
Richard,
You haven’t got an answer because that question has been answered here one million times and people is bored of telling the same story again and again.
To be in the middle of the Pacific is not any excuse to try typing the word “stills” in the SEARCH window and hit ENTER. Or better, just scrolling down the page. You don’t need to go through any video to learn the three or four tips you need to know about working with stills.
I live in the middle of the hell with a connexion that can be as slow as yours and for me is a pain in the ass to try to watch videos from internet, but this hasn’t prevented me from reading and writing thousands of posts in the COW. In fact I know everything I know about digital video thanks to Internet because here there is not reliable post service to order any kind of book.
rafael -
It’s also possible, depending on your sequence settings, to have TOO MUCH resolution on your stills. If the stills are very high resolution, try reducing them down in PhotoShop to a size more in line with your sequence settings. If you don’t need to do moves on the stills, make them the closest size to your project settings. If they look all “crawly”, you can try adding a very slight blur to the stills to take the edge off of them.
E=MC2+/-2db
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[Richard Pengelly] “The slide show goes onto a DVD. If I use Power point can I Export an HD video File? and am I not going to run into the same resolution problem.
What should I do to the stills to prep them for FCP?
Does any one have a proven work flow or some detailed instructions on how to handle this?”
Again, have you experimented with iPhoto? You can build slide shows there and export as a QuickTime. Granted, iPhoto is not considered a “professional” tool, but I’ve done this on numerous occasions in the past and it works very well. Give it a try… you may be pleasantly surprised. More info?… tips?… just ask me.
Gary
This is me – this is what I do – https://web.mac.com/garymmw
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I would open all the slides in Preview and print to a PDF. Then view the PDF as a slideshow.
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