Scanning for theatrical film

[Emmanuelle Antolin]

Thank you Dave!

[Emmanuelle Antolin]

Dave,

I think based on your suggestion, I’ll scan at hi-res, create lo-res jpegs, and do an offline edit with lower res photos in FCP.

Once picture is locked, then have another editor create the “Ken Burns” effects in another program. Do you know how well Premiere holds up for this?

And may I ask: would a scanner that does 1200×2400 DPI be high quality enough?

Thanks!

Emmanuelle

[Misha Aranyshev]

What are your deliverables? Is it HD (1920×1080), UHD (3840×2160), DCP (1998×1080 or 3996×2160)? Scanning a photo at 1200 DPI means there are 1200 pixels in every inch of your image.

[Roger Poole]

Never save your scans as jpeg. That is a compressed format which FCP7 hates as it has to uncompress them on the fly to play them. Use Tiff, which is an uncompressed format, otherwise you will run into the FCP7 “out of memory” error.

Scanning resolution for video is a complex subject. In video we are used to pixels, or PPI whereas in print or scanning, DPI is the rule. However DPI and PPI, dots per inch – pixels per inch can be considered the same and are a form of measurement. TV screens have a resolution of 72 pixels per inch regardless of the screen size. The actual size of a 1920×1080 video image is 26.7 X 15 inches @ 72PPI. So, taking a photograph which was 13 X 7 inches you would have do double the 72 dpi scanning resolution to 144dpi achieve an image which would fill the 1920X1080 video frame, pixel for pixel. However, scanning at a higher resolution will give a better quality image and some wriggle room if you need to Pan & Scan. Things get even more complicated if the original is small and you want to display it bigger. Prior to scanning you need to have in mind how you wish to use that image. Bear in mind that 26.7X15 frame size and the size of your photograph. Get out your calculator and work out the scanning resolution required for that image.

Like I said, it’s complicated :o/

[Emmanuelle Antolin]

Thanks much for the insights.

[Emmanuelle Antolin]

Hi Misha,

It is Is it HD (1920×1080).

Thanks!

Emmanuelle

[Misha Aranyshev]

Well, every at 100% 1.5″ of your photo will fill the width of your frame.

[Misha Aranyshev]

What I meant is every 1.5″ of your photo will fill the width of your frame at 100% zoom.

[Roger Poole]

Pixels have a fixed size of 72ppi on screen. Taking a 35mm film frame, it has a width of 36mm, or 1.41 inches. So a scanning resolution of 1327ppi would be required to fit 1920 @ 72ppi. That’s the theory but in practice you would double the scanning resolution to capture greater detail in each 8 bits per channel 24 bit pixel. Then resize – 50% post scan to display at 1 to 1.

Scanning for print is different because pixels can be made smaller to achieve photographic like prints.

[Roger Poole]

Like I said, the native size of 1920 is 26 inches at 72ppi. On a 60 inch screen the pixels are just enlarged, which is why the picture looks sharper on a smaller screen when viewed close up.