resizing files

[gail spiro]

Hi- I've been under the impression for quite a while that I have to reduce my digital photos to around 1000x750 to use them in Premiere Elelments 4 without creating havoc there. The way I've been going about this, for quite some time, is to change the size in my PE6 editor. I open image- file size, (shortcut- c/s I)and change the pixel dimensions. I know there is also a way to do this in batch processing, but I don't care about that, since I also correct each photo individually for blemishes, etc. The problem is, when I reduce the file size, I lose some sharpness and quality, and the photos get a bit grainy. Am I right that it is neccesary to reduce the size, and is there a better way to reduce the size so as to lose less quality? I feel so frustrated that I'm taking all these beautiful portraits, and then ruining the clarity for my slideshows!

[gail spiro]

oops- meant to say I use the shortcut ctr/alt I!

[Bobby]

Hi Gail.

When they refer to file size here in that context, they are referring to the number of pixels, not the file size. So you are doing the correct thing.

I have long had an issue with this. One is the fact that PRE just can't handle the larger sizes easily (fix this, Adobe) and the other is that if you want to pan or zoom around the photo in your video, you do need more pixels. So I generally do NOT reduce the size of my photos, and wait and see what happens in PRE. If the number of photos in the slideshow isn't too large, you can get away with it. If not, then reduce.

Unfortunate that we have to do this...

[gail spiro]

I agree! Adobe- are you listening?........

[Bob]

The older versions of Premiere Elements have the worst problems with large stills. The most recent couple of versions seem to be able to handle them much better. I'd guess that's a fallout from the work they had to do to support high def formats -- especially avchd. But, lots of full size stills can still be a problem.

Even if there were no problems accessing enough memory to handle wads of full size 14+ megapixel images, I'd still recommend resizing your images down anyway. Even if you are producing 1920x1080 high def video, the pixel dimensions of a full size image from most current digital camera is probably going to be at least double that. That's 4 times the number of pixels. If you don't scale it down, Premiere Elements will have to. And, quite frankly, the resizing algorithms used by PrE are not the most optimal. In my experience, you can get much better results by resizing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements using one of the newer algorithms (bicubic smoother, or bicubic sharper -- try both and see which gives better results on your photos). If you sharpen, that should be done after resizing too.

[EdBrenda]

I was wondering if it is a good idea to resize still photos by taking them into photo shop elements and cropping them with a 2000 by 1500 px crop and then using auto sharpen. I will then place them in my Adobe Premiere Timeline. These photos will be used at a funeral memorial on a bigger screen so I was wanting to used the most pixels that I can get away with. I usually work with stills and need to know the best way to handle them.

[Paul LS]

A warm welcome to muvipix.

The thing that will limit the number of pixels is your output format. So if you use standard definiion this is limited to 720 x 480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL (note the pixels are not square and so can give 4:3 or 16:9 dependant on the pixel aspect ratio). For full high definition you have 1920x1080 pixels.

So cropping to 2000 by 1500 is fine if you are exporting as a high definition slideshow/movie but overkill if you are exporting as standard definition.

[EdBrenda]

I get photos from people to place in slide shows either in digital format or to be scanned. The screen they will be viewed on is large but it is still standard DV formate. I will also be doing zoom ins and pans. Will that make any difference. What would be your steps for handling these photos. I quite often have to edit and crop so I could use some suggestions.

[Steve Grisetti]

The rule of thumb is all photos used in video should be no larger than 1000x750 pixels in size.

[EdBrenda]

I need to wrap my mind around this. What would you suggest I read.

[Paul LS]

As Steve says simply resize the photos to 1000x750, which is an ideal size to work in Premiere Elements. It also allows you to do some panning zooming around the photo without impacting the quality.

[Chuck Engels]

There isn't much to read about the subject, we don't even have any tutorials on resizing images.
It is a very simple process in Photoshop Elements, either batch resize a bunch or folder of images or one at a time. Standard definition video is only 720 x 480 so 1000 x 750 will leave plenty of room for zooming

[momoffduty]

Welcome EdBrenda to Muvipix!

The burned DVD for standard video for example is 720 pixels across & 480 pixels down. Even if you brought in a photo that is large 2000x1500 the editing monitor is still 720x480. And the output to DVD is only 720x480. Having a large photo will only help with pans & zooms and not better resolution.

I usually make widescreen slideshows and burn to DVD. The blue ray player does a nice job of upscaling for a large flat panel TV. The SD slideshows look good too.

If you wanted to go high def for your project and burn a blue ray disc there are others here that can help. But the high def pixel size will only be 1920x1080 max.

[EdBrenda]

What a team, I'm so glad I joined this site.
Let me see if I understand. Standard DV has a ratio of 4:3 and cropping photos at 1000 px x 750 px will give the perfect ratio and enough room of zooming and panning.
DV Wide screen ratio 16:9 and a good crop size is 1920 x 1080

HDV 1080 has a ration 16:9 and the best picture size is 1920 px x 1080 px
For HDV 720 p what would the crop be?

[Chuck Engels]

DV Widescreen is still 720 x 480 technically, but you are correct about 16:9
Still best for the still images to be around 1000 x 750.

720p is 1280 x 720, a good size for still images in a 720p project would be around 1920 x 1080

For a Full HD Project, 1920 x 1080 a good still image size would be around 2200 x 1400.