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Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Specific to Premiere Elements version 13

Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby StevenG » Tue Feb 10, 2015 4:33 pm

Hi,
As I get a little further into PrE 13, more questions arise. You guys have been so helpful recently, I thought I would try a few more questions.
1. When I click on RENDER after applying an effect (i.e. pan/zoom) I don't get a "pop up" box showing progress. Is rendering happening behind the scenes?

2. When I add a narration, the voice is thin and soft. I am using my computer's built in mike. Under Preferences>General>Audio Hardware>Default Device, I get the following options and
have tried all:
System Default Input/Output
Built in Output
Built in Input/Built in Output
Built in Microphone/Built in Output
Buffer size is set to 512 by default, but can be changed.

3. When I bring in a still photo captured in 2x3 format, I have been cropping it in LR5 to 16x9 (the size of my HD video). I see there is another way: turn off "scale to fit frame size". Which is the best alternative? (The 16x9 method seems to work. I tried a pan/zoom, and it seemed to look ok).
Thanks.
Steve
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby Bob » Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:45 pm

When I add a narration, the voice is thin and soft. I am using my computer's built in mike.


Built-in microphones seldom have good tonal quality. You'll generally get better quality from an external mike. As for loudness, there are two mike volume controls -- one in the OS and one in Premiere Elements. Adjust the system setting first. In System Preferences select Sound. Then select the Input Tab. Select the mike you will be using and adjust the input volume slider. In Premiere Elements, there will be a volume control and levels meter in the record narration dialog.

When I bring in a still photo captured in 2x3 format, I have been cropping it in LR5 to 16x9 (the size of my HD video). I see there is another way: turn off "scale to fit frame size". Which is the best alternative?


If you are going to be panning or zooming, do not use Scale to Frame Size. Scale to Frame Size is fine if all you want to do is have the photo fit within the video frame. But, it will degrade the image if you subsequently scale it up as would happen in a pan or zoom.

Photos from a digital camera are large compared to a video frame. While Premiere Elements can scale these down, using full size photos increases memory requirements and can affect rendering times. Whether you will see any impact will depend, of course, on your system resources and compute power. Generally, it's considered a good practice to scale down photos to a reasonable working size before importing them into Premiere Elements.

In determining a size to use, consider the size of the video frame and the amount that you want to pan or zoom. The basic principle is that you don't want the scaling percentage to go over 100%. Steve's book recommends that photos be no larger than 1000 x 750 pixels for standard definition video or 2000 x 1500 for high definition video. This is just a guideline and you can certainly go larger if you need to zoom or pan further.

Lightroom can resize the photos as you export using the Image Size settings in the export module. If you want the photo to have the same proportions as the video frame, you can crop it to 16/9 in LightRoom as you have been doing.

When I click on RENDER after applying an effect (i.e. pan/zoom) I don't get a "pop up" box showing progress. Is rendering happening behind the scenes?


Is there a red line above the timeline? Generally, you will only see the render progress dialog if PRE actually needs to render. If the Line is green, no render is necessary.
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby StevenG » Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:44 pm

Thanks, Bob.
I have been playing with the volume settings. The settings in PrE, if too high, seem to create a high pitch sound.
I think I have found the right combination. However, you say "You'll generally get better quality from an external mike."
Any suggestions for a decent quality mike at a reasonable cost?
Thanks.
Steve
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby Bob » Tue Feb 10, 2015 11:15 pm

Here's a decent reasonably priced condenser USB microphone. I don't know if Steve Grisetti is still using this one, but he has used it to make his tutorials. I also have this same mike.

http://www.amazon.com/CAD-U37-Condenser-Recording-Microphone/dp/B001AIQGUO/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CAD-U37-Condenser-Recording-Microphone/dp/B001AIQGUO/
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby Steve Grisetti » Wed Feb 11, 2015 8:21 am

LOVE my CAD U37, Bob! Awesome sound at a great price!
HP Envy with 2.9/4.4 ghz i7-10700 and 16 gig of RAM running Windows 11 Pro
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:17 pm

I use a Logitech wireless and love it, just another option :)

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless ... ss+headset
1. Thinkpad W530 Laptop, Core i7-3820QM Processor 8M Cache 3.70 GHz, 16 GB DDR3, NVIDIA Quadro K1000M 2GB Memory.

2. Cybertron PC - Liquid Cooled AMD FX6300, 6 cores, 3.50ghz - 32GB DDR3 - MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 4G, 4GB Video Ram, 1024 Cuda Cores.
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Re: Rendering; Narration; Cropping Stills

Postby StevenG » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:53 am

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the information on external mics. I have already started to check these out. I am away for the week, but will order one when I get home.
Steve
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