Resolution

[PistolPete]

What image resolution should be used with the suggested still photo size of 1000x750p for standard definition and 2000x1500p for HD?

[Steve Grisetti]

Technically it doesn't matter, since on-screen viewing (including video) only cares about the measurement of the image in pixels.

But, to keep it simple, 72 ppi is the traditional setting.

[Chuck Engels]

I think your numbers are good for SD and HD, they leave a little room for pan and zoom

[PistolPete]

Thanks for the quick reply but I also have the following concerns:

Will a HD-720 video containing several 100x750p photos look good when projected in an auditorium with a 20 x20 foot screen?

Another way of saying this is what format and what size photos would be best for this type of presentation contains both photos and videos?

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm sure it will look fine -- assuming nobody sits right up on the screen. 1280x720 is higher resolution than a DVD and so is 1000x750, and DVDs look just fine when projected.

[Chuck Engels]

What is the original size of the photos? When you add them to a HD 720 project they should automatically be resized to fill the screen. If the images are a lot smaller than 1280 x 720 then they will look pretty bad being made larger, but if they are already that size or larger they should look fine.

[Bob]

...what format and what size photos would be best for this type of presentation contains both photos and videos?

The basic guideline is bigger is better. But, you have constraints that you have to work within. You can't make the video larger than what the projector can handle, for example. Some HD projectors can display 1920x1080, others can only display 1280x720. Your project is 1280x720 -- is that because of the projector limitation? Another limitation is the source material itself. You don't want to scale the media to be larger than the original size. If your source video is 1280x720, scaling it to fill a 1920x1080 project will degrade the image quality. The same goes for still photos. If you scanned a photo to 1000x750, you don't want to scale it up to fill a 1920x1080 frame.

Incidentally, 1000x750 won't fill your 1280x720 project frame. That size is fine for Standard Definition video as it is larger than the SD 720x480 frame size and allows you to zoom and pan. With your HD 720 project, you won't fill the entire width of the frame. If you scale it up in Premiere Elements to fill the width, you will be scaling greater than 100% which will degrade the image and you will also be cropping off some of the height. If possible, you want your stills to be at least the size of your video project if you are going to display them full frame.