Photo Montage
 

A customer has given me CDs with photos that are on average 10mb each in size. That is 10Mb per photo.

Without even trying, I assume these jpgs are too large to use in great number on the vegas timeline.

I normally convert photos to .png format before using.

What would those of you with experience do with these large files before using them to make a photo montage?

You could use an automated method of reducing their size and changing their format. PhotoShop and other paint programs can be automated to process many images at once.

Thank you Edward.

I successfully used actions in Photoshop to resize (and otherwise treat) around 200 images, all of varying size and quality, for a montage I put together for a client last week.

There is a MUCH cheaper alternative available at http://www.batchphoto.com which starts at $19.95 for the Lite version.

Worth a glance at least!

Cheers,

Ian . . .

Thanks Ian...definately worth a look...I actually have Photoshop CS2 but haven't had the time to learn it! A friend told me earlier it's not that hard to batch process....as it turned out I had the client downsize them!

I use IrfanView to batch resize and convert my photos. It works great and it's free.

I used it years ago and have forgotten about it completely, great idea...I just downloaded it for future use!

Ha! I remember IrfanView - great little viewer. Haven't seen it for ages but I'll certainly get me a copy. Thanks David.

Hmmm . . . should point out it says not for commercial use ¦-(

not impossible.....
 

Because I "Ken Burns" the heck out of pictures I use, I often have 2-4MB jpgs on my time line. I'll zoom in to 25% of the image and then pan across a crowd of faces, etc so I need lots of resolution. The only time it real kills you is with crossfades, transitions, or track movement. Add on any of those and you will need to bump the preview down to preview @ 1/2 or 1/4. Enough to get the gist of what you are doing, but so little that it will piss you off that Vegas can't handle these better. I've done a dozen of these and each time it annoys me. No amount of vegas updates (I've tried demos, patches, etc) has ever fixed this problem.

Just a thought - how about using low resolution proxies while you're editing, at least to get your positioing/panning etc right, then swapping them out for the full res pics? Hassle, I know, but at least you'll have a better chance of seeing the transitions in real time.

Thanks, Jason, at least I know from your experience that I can use larger sized photos...it just means they are tough to preview..

I recently had a terrible time using large PNGs on a 1080i timeline with Vegas 7 closing or crashing during rendering. Details are here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=104321

I emailed Sony support 1 week ago about my experience and never heard back.

go download a free program called Canon Digital Photo Professional. Its what we use to convert RAW to .jpg, but it works on .jpg to jog and its MUCH faster than Photoshop.

Import your .jpgs, highlight all of them, and then click on batch process.
In this next window, resize to 72 to 96dpi and bring the frame res to 2500x1500 (or vice versa). This is quick, simple and free.

Having a bit of a problem downloading the Canon software. I'm either asked for a serial number for my camera (it's expecting a Canon DSLR, which I don't have) or to have the original CD that came with the camera (er, which I don't have!).

I wonder if this siftware is only licenced to be used by Canon stills camera owners?

If that is the case it's a real shame as the specs of the s/w look perfect!