I am starting to do more slide show videos for couples using stills. I give a discount to those who scan the pictures themselves and put them onto a cd. I actually prefer that because I hate scanning.... anyways, I tell them to use 150 dpi when scanning. Is this what everyone else uses for slide show quality?

I would consider 150 dpi a minimum. Even higher is I expect to do a lot of panning and zooming within the photograph.

I used to prefer scanning photos myself because I had the option of re-scanning at a higher resolution if I felt I needed to do so. however, I recently discvovered that clients generally provide images at their camera's highest resolution which is usually better than 150dpi. I can always resize if I need to do so.

For 4x6's and 5x7's, 300dpi is a safer margain. For 8x10's and larger, 150dpi is ok. That's what I used in the past.

Ben Lynn

it's nice to get them as hi-res as possible, but they will just get sized down anyway, at least in our case. we use fcp for the slideshows and huge images tend to cause jaggies, especially with ken burns-esque motion. photoshop is better at interpolating the images down than fcp.

150 dpi up to 300dpi with enlargement up to about 300% to give some spacial leverage

Try not to throw on pics with stupidly high pixel counts coz the downscaling that ur NLE will do will slow down your processing immensly.

Keep it simple and youll get a good workflow, in the end, u dont really want to throw on a 6mb jpg to the timeline coz itll jsut chunder away.

I tend to stick with 300dpi, mostly for the zoom/pan reasons stated above. I don't find it bogs down my render times noticeably-if it did I would deal with the extra time, as the results are worth it to me. Of course any pics I don't have to scan at all is a bonus...
Vin

I usually do it at 600 dpi, mainly because I also use Imagematics StillMotion Creator for the "Ken Burns effect." That's as high as anyone should ever go.

If you scan them yourself you can also boost the contrast, retouch, color correct, and just plain deliver a better product, most customers are horrible at scanning.

Bill

I am having trouble getting my photo's that are not the same H & W to show up full screen without showing empty black screen on the sides. Can anyone fill me in on what they do, im sure it is somthing simple. I am useing photo shop and pro show gold to do my slide show. I have Primere pro, after effects and encore as well. Advice?

When croppping use the same or similiar aspect ratio of your project. I use 500 x 480 crop tool to minimize the black bars on the side for 720 by 480 project.

I usually scan photos at 300dpi. Accepting scans from clients has been problematic in the past, so I prefer to do it myself. 300 dpi usually gives you enough room to zoom, pan, etc. I'd say 98% of the photos in my slideshows have motion, so I don't usually crop them to eliminate empty (black) space on the sides of the screen. I can't stand having empty space (black bars) on the screen as it seems so boring.

I agree with other and prefer scanning myself. It's not much fun, but you do have so much more control over then scan quality. Plus, I'm always worried that the client will show others, but omit that the bad scans were their own, leaving a potential client to think I scanned the images that poorly.

I've also found that After Effects does an AWESOME job with photo montages. When bringing hi-res images into FCP, it didn't do well, and I got jaggies and flicker a lot. Doing the same show in AE looks perfect, albeit forever long render times. I know that not everyone has AE, but if you do, it's so much better than FCP for montages with hi-res images. Just FYI.

Dan

anyways, I tell them to use 150 dpi when scanning. Is this what everyone else uses for slide show quality?

Actually, DPI doesn't matter. It's only relevant if you were going to output a print.

What matters is the overall dimensions and the absolute minimum is 720x480. If you plan on doing any Ken Burns type effects, then you will have to have larger dimensions.

Actually, DPI doesn't matter. It's only relevant if you were going to output a print.

What matters is the overall dimensions and the absolute minimum is 720x480. If you plan on doing any Ken Burns type effects, then you will have to have larger dimensions.




DPI does matter if your doing zooms, etc.

I am starting to do more slide show videos for couples using stills. I give a discount to those who scan the pictures themselves and put them onto a cd. I actually prefer that because I hate scanning.... anyways, I tell them to use 150 dpi when scanning. Is this what everyone else uses for slide show quality?



Jennifer....re think giving discounts for anything, you problably already put in a ton of hours with the edits, stick to your rates. I bet if you didn't give a discount for your client scanning their own pics, they would still pay your standard rate with no complaints.

DPI does matter if your doing zooms, etc.

Only if the output is printed. It's the overall dimensions in pixels that are relevant, not the dpi.

DPI is more a by-product than anything else when it comes to video display, because a standard NTSC video has the same resolution whether it's a 13" or 65" screen - It will never exceed 720x480.

David is right, editing apps and AE are resolution independent. They just care about number o dots.

However, try to tell a client "I need 1200x1700 pixels" and they look at you like you are from mars. I just tell them at least 300 dpi.

m

When scanning images to import into my NLE which format should I save them in? I usually save in JPG... is this the best format to be using?

Thanks,
Jeff

I typically scan to a tiff file only because it's a lossless format. Jpegs are compressed and detail is lost in that process. Now, for some video applications, you would never notice the difference between a good jpeg and a tiff file, but I've always been one to save in a lossless format when file size doesn't matter.

Dan

Some NLE's don't like tif's as well as other formats. PNG and PSD are usually good formats as well.

Really? Tiff is such a standard format, it seems odd that any modern nle wouldn't like them. I use FCP and it handles tiffs very well.

Regardless, png and psd formats are lossless and perfectly fine to use as well. And psd's can be more flexible if the nle allows the layers to import.

Dan

I give a discount to those who scan the pictures themselves and put them onto a cd. I actually prefer that because I hate scanning....
Have you dealt with couples scanning it themselves only to get the images on the CD full of dust and lint? The time saved in properly scanning is taken up with cleaning up the scans in a paint program.

Have you dealt with couples scanning it themselves only to get the images on the CD full of dust and lint? The time saved in properly scanning is taken up with cleaning up the scans in a paint program.I agree and would rather just scan the things myself. Depending on the size, I usually gang scan 4 - 6 pics at a time anyway and let photoshop crop 'em with a mouse click. Always 300 dpi because they're typically pretty small.

While digital pics are becoming more standard, it'll be some time before scanning is obsolete. (In my backyard anyway).

.... I usually gang scan 4 - 6 pics at a time anyway and let photoshop crop 'em with a mouse click.

Anyone who's ever scanned photos on a flatbed knows that however careful you are when lowering the lid, at least one or two photos will rotate a bit.

For anyone who might not know, Photoshop CS has a great feature that after the scan, you can tell it to crop each photo as well as straighten any that are crooked.

The command is: File -> Automate -> Crop & Straighten Photos

Usually it's pretty accurate and is a real time saver when you're doing a big batch.

For anyone who might not know, Photoshop CS has a great feature that after the scan, you can tell it to crop each photo as well as straighten any that are crooked.
Same goes for Photoshop "Elements". Does all I need for a lot less money. (and brain power).