Problem Adding Stills and Maintaining Aspect Ratio

[Anthony Pekowski]

When trying to add stills into my project they all appear to have black bars either horizontally or vertically, this is a known problem and usually I'm capable of just right clicking the still and deselecting Maintain Aspect Ratio to correct the issue. This particular project though, all the stills become distorted when trying to do so. Any suggestions? I'm using Vegas 6, editing in HD (for the first time, if that has anything to do with it), and all my stills are 3456x2592x24 or 2592x3456x24, while my project is 1440x1080x32.

[Edward Troxel]

I always open Pan/Crop, right-click the image, and choose "Match Output Aspect". I never change "Maintain Aspect Ratio" as I want the aspect ratio to remain the same on that image. The newest versions of Vegas can optionally do a Match Output Aspect for you automatically.

[Anthony Pekowski]

Ok, I just figured out the problem, by holding ctrl in even pan/crop I can manually change the aspect ratio. And ya, I'm using the ancient Vegas 6, I dont think it has a Match Output Aspect

[Mike Kujbida]

And ya, I'm using the ancient Vegas 6, I dont think it has a Match Output Aspect

Sure it does.
IIRC, Match Output Aspect has been there since the beginning.

[Edward Troxel]

Agreed, Vegas 6 can certainly do it. In fact, a script was written for Vegas 4 that would do a bunch of photos automatically. It's just that now in Vegas 9, it can be applied automatically when adding a picture instead of having to so them one at a time or via a script.

[Jeff Harper]

Edward, how to have it applied automatically?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

I always resize the still so it is the correct aspect ratio. That way you don't need to fiddle around with Match Aspect at all. If you do that remember that the horizontal pixels in HD have a PAR of 1.333 : 1 so your stills need to have an aspect of 1.777 : 1 I normally just make 'em 1920x1080 and they slot in nicely but if you are intending to Pan or Zoom on the still probably 3840x2160 is better.

Chris

[Jeff Harper]

That's nice, except when using 100+ photos mixed with video, then it is impractical to resize the photos. I am aware of how to match the aspect ratio, then copy and paste attibutes to the rest, but I'm curious how Vegas can automatically fix the correct aspect ration for added photos.

[Edward Troxel]

My normal method is to just drop photos on the timeline and then run Montage Magic on each of them which automatically applies the Match Output Aspect and adds pans and zooms to each image.

However, in Vegas Pro 9, in Options - Preferences - Editing tab is an option for "Automatically crop still images added to the timeline" which will automatically do a Match Output Aspect for all images added to the timeline. Naturally you may still need to adjust the Pan/Crop to get the correct area showing. I just fine it easier to use Montage Magic.

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks Edward, nice tip. I have not heard of Montage Magic....

[Edward Troxel]

Montage Magic is my newest script I released a few months ago. While Excalibur can add pans and zooms automatically, it does so in a random manner. Montage Magic is much smarter by doing a facial detection on the image and, if faces are found, it assumes THAT is the primary area of the image. However, it also allows easily adjusting the beginning and ending points of the pan/zoom without having to worry about keyframes.

[Jeff Harper]

Yes, I was checking it out a few minutes ago, looks great. I cannot afford it today, but it is a must buy for any pro that uses Vegas for photomonatages. Same story with Ultimate S, it will fix aspect ration but it is random, which means more adjusting. Montage Magic, great stuff.

[Jay Massengill]

You can also use IrfanView (a free, well-known software package) to batch resize large numbers of photo files very quickly. The number of attributes that can be edited in the batch process is extensive and the resize quality is good. I use it for many photo processing tasks.

[Jeff Harper]

I use Irfanview also, though it does not address the original issue in this thread, but as you say it is a great program. It is much faster than Photoshop for batch processing.