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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Trying to get pictures ready for TV

  • Trying to get pictures ready for TV

    Posted by Mcvideo on October 6, 2005 at 8:19 pm

    Hello

    This post is a continuation to a post i posted 9/19/05 that i got great feedback on. I need help finalizing this. Can you guys please help??

    Link to 9/19/05 post. See Kevens last response.
    https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?univpostid=864630&forumid=8&postid=864630&pview=t

    My questions now are:

    I have a few more questions to really understand this- Such as:

    (I get the best format is pict or tiff. Not jpeg)

    Your explanation of 2x or 3x the frame size (norm is 720*480) for zooming in etc paragraph..(below) .. My question: is there a all time size best to have all pictures scanned in the event I end up changing my mind on how I will use the pictures in the video. This way I won’t need to go back to my client and ask to re-scan, etc. I prefer to have clients send me the 3x frame size @ DPI? (300 or 72??) then I will resize to fit (using photo shop cs 8.0) according to how I’m going to use it in the video. Can you help me with this? If I understand the 3x frame size, the normal frame size for TV is 720*480. So, 2x would be 720×2 & 480×2? Same for 3x? Do I have this right? Again, I rather have all pictures scanned at 3x with the highest DPI. I will resize it myself to fit the usage of photos in the video. So, 3x = what, and at what dpi?

    Second question.

    When I decide to resize, is there a rule on what dpi should follow? I understand that normal TV with no panning/moving etc is 720*480 @ 72dpi.. For each frame size I change what it the best dpi for each frame size? The lower the dpi- the better resolution/pixilation? I thought dpi was important for printing only? So based on what I will request as my norm- for all pictures (3x and keeping in mind that I will do the resizing myself to fit the video,)
    my instructions would be to the customer?:

    Format pict or tiff
    Scanned @

    Mcvideo replied 20 years, 7 months ago 5 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • Chris Poisson

    October 6, 2005 at 9:14 pm

    MC,

    Kevin told you step-by-step how to do this. It’s really simple. No zoom or pan on a shot, 72×480 at 72 dpi. If you want to zoom or pan, 2x or 3x as big, 1440 wide or 2160 wide.

    Your original scans can be much bigger, but you optimize them in Photoshop to the above sizes. That’s it.

    Second question, just do everything in video at 72 dpi. Period.

    If you want really smooth moves with no keyframes, I highly recommend PanZoomPro at lyric.com

  • Ed Dooley

    October 6, 2005 at 9:28 pm

    We scan our own stuff, so setting a standard size hasn’t been much of a concern to us. But one thing we always
    do is scan at 300dpi. Video, of course, doesn’t work with DPI, but with PPI. Having a scan at 300DPI gives us
    the option of using it for cover or advertising art, so scan once, use many ways. As for the size, it’s hard to say.
    It really depends on how much panning and zooming you (and Ken Burns) are doing. I like to move around in
    a still whenever possible, but sometimes it’s only a slight push and pan to match the movement of the previous
    or next video clip, or simply to make it interesting. Other times there is so much information in the image that you may want to push into
    a face from a crowd. If you only get one shot at scanning, I’d make it 720×3 by 547 (or 540 for DV)x3 for the square to non-square
    translation.
    Ed

  • Chris Poisson

    October 6, 2005 at 9:50 pm

    Ed,

    In my experience, and detailed in Kevin’s answer in the other thread, size of the images matters a lot. Awful artifacts and flickering can be aggrivated by oversized images, as a rule of thumb I never make them any larger (at 72 dpi) than they absolutely have to be. Usuall no bigger that 1440 wide.

  • Ed Dooley

    October 6, 2005 at 10:06 pm

    Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I agree with what Kevin said. I never scan bigger than needed and everything scanned
    goes through the Photoshop wringer before it goes into FCP. My scanning at 300DPI suggestion was to have the one master he may get
    from his client, that he can optimize for many uses in Photoshop.
    Ed

    [Chris Poisson] “Ed,
    In my experience, and detailed in Kevin’s answer in the other thread, size of the images matters a lot. Awful artifacts and flickering can be aggrivated by oversized images, as a rule of thumb I never make them any larger (at 72 dpi) than they absolutely have to be. Usuall no bigger that 1440 wide.”

  • Bret Williams

    October 6, 2005 at 10:14 pm

    And FCP will ignore the DPI. All it cares about is pixels.

  • Dean Sensui

    October 6, 2005 at 10:59 pm

    Have your client give them to you at 2000 to 2500 pixels across. PPI doesn’t matter until you actually output to a printer and at that point you will need to know what type of press or printer and its specific resolution requirements (I was a prepress expert for a publication in my former life).

    Best file format for source scans is TIFF with LZW compression. Set up Photoshop with Adobe RGB as its working color space to help ensure the image can be applied toward broad range of potential applications.

    Always work on copies of your originals. Preserve your originals just in case you need to go back to them or need to repurpose the images for posters, postcards, DVD case graphics, etc.

    Resize in Photoshop to about 1400 pixels across. That should handle almost any moves in FCP. Too big and you’ll just tax your system unnecessarily.

    Do all your major color corrections, screen removal and retouching in Photoshop.

    Use PICT format for export to FCP.

    Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com

  • Mcvideo

    October 10, 2005 at 2:13 pm

    Dean / Bret/ Ed /Chris

    Thanks for the support and help.

    Can you tell I

  • Dean Sensui

    October 10, 2005 at 7:42 pm

    [mcvideo] “I understand the 1400′ width (is what matters) but what about its height?”

    You can just let the height change automatically in proportion to the width.

    Be aware, however, that if you have a vertical picture that height might end up being quite large.

    Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com

  • Mcvideo

    October 19, 2005 at 3:13 pm

    Thanks for the response. I have been playing with this and have been doing what you said, leaving the height to what ever it changes to automatically. I still have to play with this to get it right. Thanks to all for the continuous help/support. I have a photo montage coming up next month and i need to get this down quick.

    Thanks again.

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