Still image import settings?

Adobe Premiere Pro

Still image import settings?

Posted by Kem Mach on March 3, 2009 at 5:30 am

I am looking for feedback on getting better quality upon playback for my imported still images to my movie that has both video and stills alternating throughout with and without transitions between them. The video segments are fine but the still images are “jagged edged” “blurred” “pixely” (not sure the word to use) upon playback. They are not sharp and clear like my original still image.

I use Adobe Premiere Pro v7.0 on a PC. I use a Cannon 1.3 mega pixel Mini DV camcorder for video and for stills I use a Nikon D1 w/80-200 lens. I set my project in Premiere Pro to 720×480 DV NTSC. The camcorder shoots at this size. My Nikon shoots stills at 2000×1312 pixels at 300 DPI. I import the video footage and stills into my project at these sizes. I use Adobe Photoshop to edit my still images.

I have tried importing the stills at 720×480 but they still do not play back sharp like the original.

I am self-taught with no formal training. Looking for feedback as soon as possible.

Thanks for any input.

Mike Velte replied 17 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Mike Velte
March 3, 2009 at 11:38 am

Are you judging quality with Premiere’s Program window? What are your export settings?
Kem Mach
March 4, 2009 at 1:45 am

Mike,

Export Movie Settings are:

General
Type: MSDV AVI
Range: Entire Sequence
Embedding Options: none

Video:
Compressor: DV NTSC
Color: Millions of colors Quality: 100(out of 100)
Size: 720h 480v 4:3
Frame Rate: 29.97
Rixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DVNTSC (0.9)

Data Rate:
Recompress (checked) Maintain Data Rate

Keyframe/Rendering:
Options:
Fields: Lower Fields First
Optimize Stills (checked)

These are the settings. Again, I have limited knowledge about this. I have created two different 30 minute movies with these settings. The video portions are fine. The stills come out “pixely”. I understand what you are saying about the program window. It is not as clear as the final product should be.

Do I need to resize my original still images from 2000×1312 to a smaller size? I think I read somewhere that Premiere Pro adjusts for that.

In the program “monitor” “sequence” window you can select “fit” 10%, 25%, 50%, etc. Currently I have that set at “fit”. Does this setting effect the export of the movie all?

Thanks for your expert advice.
Mike Velte
March 4, 2009 at 11:59 am

Why are you exporting as DV? DV is an acquisition format and not designed for local playback. Try H264 at about 3 mbps or export as Mpeg 2 DVD and judge on a TV.

“Fit” in the Program window is scrunching your photos for preview. Digitally re sized images are prone to artifacts and aberrations when viewed in Premiere or Photoshop and worse at anything other than 25,50 or 75%. At 100% (native resolution) you will only be able to see only a small fraction of your images but the preview will be accurate.

What are your images 2000×1312, have they been resized already using a lossy codec like Jpeg?

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