Confused about down rezzing

[MJK1250]

Please forgive what is probably a basic question but I'm new to the world of video editing and am confused about down rezzing photos for use in a slide show. In Chapter four of Steve's book it is recommended that all photos be resized to no larger than 1000X750. Then in a few posts, I've read that all photos should be sized at 1000 for the width but this is for 4:3 Standard Def. I also read somewhere (not on this site) that if I want my photos to be viewed on a widescreen TV at full size (edge to edge) then I should size them at 1080 for the width which will work fine for all horizontal photos and the vertical photos will simply fall as they may with black borders on the sides - but that of course violates Steve's recommendation.

I actually made a small slide show (about 30 photos) in Windows Movie Maker after sizing all my photos at 1080 width in Photoshop 9 and it came out okay but now I want to do a bigger project in PE11 and want to get everything correct before I import the photos into PE11. Don't know if Movie Maker or PE11 has some kind of algorithm or program that automatically resizes photos to fit widescreen. I also plan to do some pan and zoom on the photos once I import them into PE11 and I think I read that I need to leave some room for that in the resizing.

Lastly, one of the answers to a post mentioned unchecking Scale to Frame Size but when I go to Edit/Preferences in Photoshop 9 there is no button on the drop down menu for Scale to Frame Size. I'm also confused about the Constrain Proportions box and if it should be checked or unchecked? And where do I even find it in Photoshop?

Essentially, I just want to take all my photos (jpegs) and size them correctly so they will appear on a widescreen TV at the proper size when I produce a slide show in PE11 and I'd be very grateful for any help you can offer.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

Welcome to our community, MJK!

The first question you have to consider is this: How do you plan to deliver your video to your TV? A DVD or a BluRay disc? That answer kind of determines the others.

That said, remember that most photos are 4:3. So if you plan to use them in a 16:9 widescreen project, you've got a decision to make. Do you want to see the entire photo, in which case you'll not fill the video screen side-to-side; or do you want to fill the 16:9 video frame, in which case you're going to have to cut some off the top and/or bottom of the photo?

[MJK1250]

Steve - thanks so much for the quick reply. I plan to make DVD's for my project not BluRay discs. And, unless you advise differently I was hoping to use my photos in the 16:9 widescreen format. I guess I want to show as much of each photo as possible in the final product (when the finished DVD is viewed on a widescreen TV). If that means that I have to crop my photos top and bottom then so be it but not sure how to determine how much cropping is necessary. When I originally edited my photos in Photoshop 9, I set the Aspect Ratio to 8 X 10 and then the pixels to 1080 for the width. These photos them came out pretty good when I processed them in Movie Maker and burned them to a disc and viewed them on my widescreen TV.
Not sure if that helps any but am grateful for any advice you can offer.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

Do you plan to do any panning and zooming around your photos or do you just plan to have them each appear as a slide?

I'm not sure where you got that number, but there is no point in making your photo width 1080 pixels. (High definition video is 1920x1080 but, in that case, 1080 is the HEIGHT, not the width. On the other hand, you're producing a DVD, not a high-def project.)

For DVDs, I'd first resize each photo to 1000x750 pixels in size and then, so that they'll fill a 16:9 frame, I'd crop each photo to 563 pixels tall so that each photo's final size is 1000x563 px. I recommend that you crop the photos yourself in Photoshop Elements because this gives you more control. It allows you to choose what you're going to trim off the tops and/or bottoms of each photo.

I know this is a lot of prep work, but it will save you a lot of work later, if you plan for your 4:3 photos to fit in a 16:9 video frame.

[Chuck Engels]

Steve also has many books on the subject
The Muvipix Store - Steve's Books

[Dave McElderry]

As an aside, I'll also mention that with my system specs below and Premiere Elements 11, I often don't do any prep resizing at all. I just bring my 8 MP photos straight into the project and resize them on the fly as I need. V11 is very forgiving of that, even into several hundred photos. I know it's not recommended procedure, but I guarantee that it can be legitimate. It might not work so well with higher MP photos.

[Steve Grisetti]

And as we always say, your mileage may vary. Especially if you're not, like Dave, running a 2.93 ghz i7 with 24 gigs of RAM.

[MJK1250]

Guys - you are all terrific! I feel so guilty about all the free information you're passing along that I've decided to take out a one year subscription right after I complete this post. Plus, I fear the learning curve is so steep that I'll need every bit of the year to learn how to do things right. I'm sure you'll all get tired of my dumb questions but at least I won't have the guilt.

Now, to answer Steve's questions. Yes, I do want to pan and zoom on the photos I want to use in my slide show and apologies for my mistaken 1080 size (you're correct that it should have been for the height). It doesn't matter now since as you pointed out, my project won't be High Def.

Chuck - I've already purchased Steve's Guide to Adobe Premiere Elements 11 and have read it once for a quick overview but realize I need to spend much more time with it. So far, it's been much better than the Adobe Classroom in a Book so kudos to Steve on his comprehensive work.

I spent some Photoshop time on a few photos this morning to try to follow Steve's recommendation to resize all my photos to 1000X750 and naturally I encounter problems so I've got a few more questions. If I understood the recommendation, I need to open a jpeg in PS, go to Image/resize (first question is should I use Image Size or Canvas Size?) and then put in 1000 for the width (second question is should I check or uncheck Constrain Proportions and Resample Image?). Then I save the image at the new dimensions and reopen it to use the crop tool in order to get the final dimensions of 1000X653. I tried to do this but when I attempted to crop at the top of a photo I had to guess at the crop location since nothing showed me how much the crop would reduce the height (wanted to get it down to 653). After guessing at a crop location the final dimension came out at 1000X657 but it seems like a pretty hit or miss proposition. I suspect the easiest way would be for me to just plug in 1000X750 for all my photos and hope everything comes out okay. And, please understand that I'm not trying to produce some Cecil B. DeMille epic here but I would like my final product to look a little polished and I don't mind putting in the time to do the prep work if it will ensure a better outcome and smoother operation of Premiere Elements.

As for my system specs, there are nowhere near what Dave is running (Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Pentium Dual Core CPU E6300 @ 2.80Ghz, 4.00 GB RAM) but I'm hoping they will be enough to do my video editing and movie making since the one "Computer Guy" in my town seems to think we have joint checking and it costs me more than my first car every time he touches my computer. If I need any kind of upgrade I fear it will cost more than my children's college tuition.

As always thanks for any suggestions.

MJK

[Peru]

Just a suggestion, not an answer to your questions:

Save your photos as PSDs before doing any resizing and/or cropping. Use the modified PSDs in your project instead of the jpegs for two reasons. Firstly, you will still have the originals. I have also found that Premiere Elements and Premiere Pro can at times be "happier" with PSDs than jpegs.

As far as cropping, I prefer to have my photos slightly oversized and adjust the position of them using the Motion Properties in the Effects Panel in Premiere Elements rather than cropping them in Photoshop Elements. It gives me more control, as I can make adjustments "on the fly" without having to redo each photo if I want to change how appears.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereele ... -7db0.html

[Steve Grisetti]

To resize a photo, use Image/Resize/Image Size. Make sure that Scale Styles, Constrain Proportions and Resample Image are all checked. Set your Resolution to 72 ppi and set your Width to 1000. And then, under the Resample Image menu at the bottom of the box, select Bicubic Sharper and click OK. This will give you the best-looking reduced size photo.

To crop your photo down 16:9, go to Image/Resize/Canvas Size. Set the New Size from Inches to Pixels and change your Height to 563. If you'd like, you can set the Anchor Settings to crop from the top down, the bottom up or just cut off the top and bottom of your photo evenly.

Then, before you bring your photos into your Premiere Elements project, go to the Edit menu, select Preferences and make sure Scale Still Photos to Frame Size is UNCHECKED.

When you bring your photos into your project, they'll be slightly larger than your video frame (about 30% larger). This is fine because that gives you the little extra resolution you need to do your panning and zooming. Then use the Pan & Zoom tool to create your motion paths.

If that all sounds too complicated, there are some short cuts and more automatic ways to do some of these things. It just depends on how much control you want to have over the process.

Hope we're not scaring you the details! And thanks so much for supporting the site!

[MJK1250]

Steve

Now that's what I call an answer! Hooray. This succinct, detailed outline ought to be included in your next book or somewhere on the site just exactly as you've posted it here. I've copied and pasted it to a word doc and printed it out so I won't ever lose it. Even a rank beginner like myself can actually understand it. This one tip alone is worth the subscription price. Muchas Muchas Gras.

Peru - thanks much for the suggestion on saving photos as PSD's. I tried one that way but after saving it to my desktop and right clicking to view the dimensions at the details tab (like I can with a jpeg) It doesn't show my height & width dimensions. I'd be happy to save all my photos as PSD's if it will make things "happier" in PRE 11 but would sure love to be able recheck my sizes before I import anything to PRE.

Any thoughts?

MJK

[Bob]

An alternate way to do this combines the cropping and resizing. You may find this easier. Select the crop tool. In the menu bar, set the width and height to the desired values in pixels. For example: 1000 px and 750 px (type the "px" into the field along with the number). Now, click and drag the crop tool on the image to define how you want it cropped. When you commit the crop, the image will be resized to those pixel dimensions.

[Steve Grisetti]

In fact, if you use Bob's suggestion and constrain the crop to 1000x563 px, you can save a step. you'll resize and trim the photos to 16:9 in a single step!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I'm sure you'll all get tired of my dumb questions but at least I won't have the guilt.

There is no such thing as a dumb question on Muvipix.

[MJK1250]

Steve & Bob - great suggestions. I tried both ways this morning and both work but I do have a question. In Bob's method, I seem to have a bit more flexibility in the cropping as opposed to resizing the canvas size and using anchor points, which is a good thing. However, when I use Bob's method without putting anything in the resolution field on the menu bar then my resized photo maintains the original resolution dimensions (usually 240dpi) - not sure if this is good or bad but Steve's comment about having the little bit of extra resolution needed to pan & zoom in PRE 11 makes me wonder. Of course I can put in 72 in the resolution field on the menu bar when using Bob's method but then there is no option to select Bicubic Sharpener (as there is when I use Steve's method and change the canvas size) and I don't know how important that might be.

I'm really not trying to be picky - just want to use the best system to get the highest quality results. It seems like I'm really close to having this solved and am excited to spend the rest of the day resizing photos and moving forward on my project.

As always, many thanks.

MJK