My 1st project - need help with chosing preset and photo res

[Mr_tin]

This will be my first PRE project...have picked up Steve's book on PRE 9, it's really nicely laid out compared to all the PSE 9 books I have been reading lately.

Have a question on using PSE9 to resize photos for PRE...i'm going to use the Process Mulitple Photos manager and in the image size box after I change pixel size to 1000 by 750, should resolution remain at the default 150 dpi or be changed to something else?

In my PRE project I will be using 75% digital photos saved in .PSD format and 25% Quicktime .mov clips. All were taken on a digital camera (Panasonic TZ5), the movie clips are 30fps and the manual says they are 1080i. This project will be going onto DVD for watching on 46" HD LCD screen. In the PRE Project Change Settings screen, which preset would be my best choice?

Thanks for any help.

Martin
PS - sorry if this was already covered somewhere else in the forum.

[Steve Grisetti]

Welcome to Muvipix, Mr. Tin! And thanks for supporting the book!

You've got a couple of things going on there, and it's likely the video will give you more challenges than the photos (which you seem to have prepared nicely). (BTW, for the photos, you can use 72 ppi -- although technically it doesn't matter since only the overall measurement in pixels counts in video.)

The camcorder shoots video in a couple of modes. But to be honest, this isn't a DSLR, so I'm not sure how well Premiere Elements will support them.

For hi-def, the camcorder shoots in 1280x720 at 30 fps, according to the online specs. (I don't see any online specs that say the cam shoots in 1920x1080 -- but I could be wrong.) So choose the appropriate 1280x720 preset from the DSLR set. Otherwise, you can try shooting in 640x480 and selecting the appropriate preset from the DSLR category for that frame size.

Before you start building a project or even adding photos, do some test runs with those formats and project settings. Add them to the timeline and use Share/Computer to output them as, say, MOVs and see what you think of the results. Even better, use Share/Disc to output a DVD and make sure you like the results. e

Once you're sure your video will work, adding the photos to the project should be a piece of cake!