Photograph image resolution.
 

Hi - apologies if this is in the wrong thread but I couldn't find a suitable plot!

I have a requirement to insert high quality photographs into a short documentary I am soon to produce. The subject matter is a photographer, so obviously many of his photographs will feature within the film. I originally intended to film them lit on a wall (in the belief they would 'breathe' more than a static image) but soon threw this idea out. Titles/Subtitles will be added to these photographic images with the odd zoom in/out ken burns effect added when and if necessary.
Essentially I need to know if there is a maxiumum/minimum resolution for me to do this...I know the images he has for his work are huge and I want them to look their 'sunday best' within the film.
Bearing in mind they'll be view on 42" screens etc...if that makes any difference....might be a very basic question - the photographer himself isn't quite sure on this and he has a good understanind of image/resolution sizes.
I'll most likely be shooting in HDV 25p (though 25p SD at the very least) on the JVC HD100 and editing on a mac running FCP.
Many thanks.

Sorry to drag this from the depths of oblivion folks but I was reading a similar thread today on image sizing.
Basically I need to know:

* what type of image I need from the photographer to insert within FCP; it will be shot in 25p widescreen (using JVC HD100) and I guess the photographs will need cropping his end (he works on photoshop...I unfortunately no longer have this program since moving to the mac)? Slightly unsure about whether I'll need to convert square pixels to rectangle...I really don't know?

* if there is a set resolution for these photo's to be set at?

Hope you can help!
Many thanks.

Take a look at this article I've been referred to on this site

http://larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_grfx_look.html

I think you need to save your photos in a 720*576 (or proportion thereof) image in Photoshop before you import them to make sure the pixels are the right shape. Video can do no better than 72dpi.

Thanks Daniel.
Not as straight forwards as I originally thought; I'll more than likely be filming this project in HDV 720p 16:9 - the HDV referred to on that site is for 1080 (and 1080i at that I believe).
I guess I'm going to have to get my head around conversions for this!

Still none the wiser as to what the still image size for 720p would be? 1280 x 720 x 72?

There are some really helpful tips on that site (text etc).
Many thanks.

If you're going to do Ken Burns effects on the pictures, you're going to want them to be bigger than your project's resolution. If your project is 720p, I'd have my pictures be 1080 or higher.

Hi Chris - yes there will be some kind of ken burns effects in the images (fairly close in on certain shots to bring out finer detailing etc).
Given what you've said (and please pardon my ignorance over resolution ratios) should it be a case of:

1080 x 576 ? or 1920 x 1080 x 72 (as stated on the link posted above)?

Having had correspondence from the photographer he has suggested a figure of 500k...but that's from his photo (shop) perspective.

Many thanks.

Think that your most zoomed in part should be at native rez.

Gunleik

Cheers Gunleik.
I'll play around with a few resolutions and see what works best.
Cheers.

David, any "dpi" figure is meaningless to FCP. All that matters is the width and height of any image measured in pixels, nothing else, pixels.

The exact pixel size doesn't matter, as long as it's bigger than your video frame (in equivalent square pixels).

If you want to do some Ken Burns effects - or Ken Morse, as he's known in UK :) - then you will need a small multiple of your video frame size (say x2) but again, it's not critical - FCP will handle it and if you adjust the "scale" parameter on the motion tab to zoom into the part you want, the exact size of the original image is irrelevant. You will want about 1500 pixels high by about 3000 pixels wide, so you can keep your "scale" parameter always under 100%, even when zoomed into, say, one quarter of the image.

Dont' use HUGE pixel sizes for your original images, as that will clobber FCP's responsiveness.

Thanks for that Martin. Since I moved over to the mac I no longer have photoshop in which I could play around with suggestions such as yourself.
In this case I need to ask said photographer for an image with set dimensions bearing in mind I'll need them in square pixels (correct?...the 16:9 video frames are stretched from 4:3 anyhow??) and will probably be 'ken morse'ing' into possibly 1/4 - 1/6 of the photographic image. I'm quite possibly thinking to much about this...I have tried it with relatively small images and they've turned out ok...but I really want to get this spot on and at the moment I'm still finding my feet in this game.
As it happens, I have an image up at the moment - full screen (on a 24" monitor) it looks spot on, but as you zoom in it starts pixallating somewhat - it's dimensions are 1337x954 so I guess double this should suffice.
Not to sure what you mean about keeping the scale parameter under 100% but that'll be down to my lack of FCP experience.
Cheers.
Dave.

Yes, firstly: get him to supply images with square pixels (anything else will cause unnecessary confusion and problems) - also best for him NOT to crop them - YOU will do that, according to your video needs.

- if you want to zoom into about 1/6th of the image, you will need a size in pixels of about 6x your video frame size in equivalent square pixels. With SD PAL widescreen 16:9, the video frame size is 1024x576 in equivalent square pixels. So, your input images should be about 6000 x 4000 pixels. (Noting that these are getting rather large - I hope you've got a fast Mac with lots of RAM and FCP doesn't choke!)

- re: keeping Scale parameter under 100%:
to use these images, import them into FCP's browser as they are, and just throw them on the timeline. FCP will automatically resize them to fit your video frame. Then, double click on the still image on the timeline and its parameters will appear in the Viewer. Go to the Motion tab in the Viewer, and adjust the scale parameter, which will have been set at around 20% by FCP automatically to make your image just fill your video frame. Change this scale parameter, and you will see the image on the timeline enlarge to zoom into the part you want. THIS is the number that must stay <100% to avoid pixellation. Adjust the centre parameter to move into the particular part of the still you want. Rotate and crop if you want, too.

Finally, if you want to PAN AROUND and ZOOM INTO your still, rather than have a static image, you'll have to start using keyframes.... but that's another part of the manual!!

HTH.

Thanks Martin - that's really helpful.
From what you've said (and size wise/choking the system!) I probably won't carry out such tight zooms - 1/3 - 1/4 at most. Bearing in mind that I'm fairly certain I'll be recording this in HDV the Mac will be calling A & E itself!

**** x 720 (forget exactly what the pixel dimesions are for HDV 720p) then multiplying this again for the zoom in's is going to be pretty heavt stuff.
Understood about the scaling now - cheers. I'll be playing around for some time before I'm confident of going 'full on'. I did a bit of key frame work with titles - slowly getting my head around this!
...and then when finished I'll start to work on the soundtrack...it will certainly help my learning curve somewhat!!

I appreciate your help on this Martin.
Thanks.

Good luck! :-)

I guess the video frame size is 1280 x 720 in equivalent square pixels for 720 line HD, but FCP will sort it out anyway when you put any still onto a 720p HDV timeline.

Cheers fella...I'll let you know how I get on/got on etc!
Regards
Dave.