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resizing photos for NTSC video monitor
Can anyone tell me how best to deal with resizing photos for FCP so they look right on an NTSC video monitor?
1. Does this work?: I right-clicked on the photo in the FCP browser and clicked on >item properties followed by >format. In the window that came up I found “pixel aspect” and I right-clicked on >square and then chose >NTSC-CCIR 601. Is this an accurate method of changing square pixels to the correct dimensions for video monitors?
2. If the above is not a good method, what is the best way to resize in photoshop? I need to take into account a)resizing photos of different shapes b)resizing a photo to allow zooming in without loss of quality in FCP
Note, I’ve looked up “preparing a Photoshop file for use in FCP” in my Peachpit guide but it doesn’t seem to give instructions appropriate for using preexisting images, ie photos.
If anyone can help me with this, I’d appreciate it!
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2 Replies
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I have produced many high-quality TV spots with scanned (panned and zoomed) images.
Here’s a great tutorial:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_ps.html
It is ESSENTIAL to monitor the QUALITY of images in FCP that you use an external NTSC (or PAL, if that’s where you are).
The Canvas is NEVER high-quality (by design) and should NOT be used to make determinations of image quality of clips or graphics.I have had SPECTACULAR high-quality results zooming in by up to 200%-300% using just the “standard” size 720 x 534 (480). (the FCP anti-aliasing is amazing.)
But if I want to make VERY TIGHT zooms, I just double ALL those numbers, and can zoom in at least 500% and “move around” with no “jaggies.”
So if you need to zoom or pan to a greater extent (extra-wide pan-across or extra-tight zoom-in) then scan the images at a much higher number of pixels WIDE and TALL (i.e. Double size 1440 x 1068 or Quad size 2880 x 2136) If you have an “odd shaped” image (very wide or very tall) just make sure you scan it at a large size.You’ll note I have not talked about “DPI” as it is totally unimportant in FCP imports…
just make sure your horizontal and vertical sizes are substantially higher than the minimum (of 740 x 534).Sometimes when panning an image at a certain size, some pixels will “dance”
or exhibit a moire patten… to “filter” this, just apply a tiny amount (1%-2% or less… say .75%) of “Gaussian Blur” filter until the moire disappears. -
Thanks for helpful info!
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