scanning images-dpi? frame size? sd? hd? final cut pro whew!!! at DVinfo.net

Rob Katz · March 15th, 2008, 01:23 PM

i need to scan images that will be as part of a production's b roll.

if i shoot sd what dpi should i set my scanner for?

i imagine for sd the frame size should be 640 x 480?

what would the dpi be for a hd production?

how about hd frame size?

all of these scanned images will be edited in final cut pro

obviously, i know very little about doing this correctly.

any and all specific input would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance for sharing your experience

be well

rob

Jason Robinson · March 15th, 2008, 03:50 PM

Are you going to be using a lot of "Ken Burns" or just flashing the stills up on the screen? If you will be zooming in, playing with the stills and using effects, then you will want the tightest crop to be at least as high a resolution as your delivery format. So if you are doing an SD NTSC production (720x480) then look at a picture and figure out what is the smallest section you would show over the whole screen. Then assume that small piece is at least the resolution of your production. Then take that proportion of the picture and multiple it by many more sections of that size finish off the full width / height of the picture. That result should be the minimum resolution of the final scanned image.

If you are doing very tight crops (lots of zoom) then you will need higher dpi scanned images. I generally don't use pictures unless they are scanned in around 300dpi or greater. This does mean that the files are large (~2MB) but I would rather have the quality and a slower preview than suffer the blown out pixel look if I zoom in too far.

Bill Busby · March 16th, 2008, 04:41 AM

FWIW... dpi has nothing to do whatsoever with video. DPI is relative to print. It's the pixel dimensions that matter for video.

Take a peek here http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

March 15th, 2008, 01:23 PM	#1
Rob Katz Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: new york city, new york Posts: 594	scanning images-dpi? frame size? sd? hd? final cut pro whew!!! i need to scan images that will be as part of a production's b roll. if i shoot sd what dpi should i set my scanner for? i imagine for sd the frame size should be 640 x 480? what would the dpi be for a hd production? how about hd frame size? all of these scanned images will be edited in final cut pro obviously, i know very little about doing this correctly. any and all specific input would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance for sharing your experience be well rob

March 15th, 2008, 03:50 PM	#2
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	Depends (the usual answer) Are you going to be using a lot of "Ken Burns" or just flashing the stills up on the screen? If you will be zooming in, playing with the stills and using effects, then you will want the tightest crop to be at least as high a resolution as your delivery format. So if you are doing an SD NTSC production (720x480) then look at a picture and figure out what is the smallest section you would show over the whole screen. Then assume that small piece is at least the resolution of your production. Then take that proportion of the picture and multiple it by many more sections of that size finish off the full width / height of the picture. That result should be the minimum resolution of the final scanned image. If you are doing very tight crops (lots of zoom) then you will need higher dpi scanned images. I generally don't use pictures unless they are scanned in around 300dpi or greater. This does mean that the files are large (~2MB) but I would rather have the quality and a slower preview than suffer the blown out pixel look if I zoom in too far.

March 16th, 2008, 04:41 AM	#3
Bill Busby Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 959	FWIW... dpi has nothing to do whatsoever with video. DPI is relative to print. It's the pixel dimensions that matter for video. Take a peek here http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html