Best Quality Still Photos?

sgparry wrote on 11/2/2003, 2:55 PM
I shoot mostly architecture, particularly Gothic cathedrals, and like using still photos and panning and zooming when appropriate. What's the best way to get them: capture from tape or save as JPEG from a previously captured video tape? Is the resolution equal from a DV source?

Also many of my non-video photos are 35mm with a different aspect ratio and they only take up part of the screen within a black field. Any suggestions for techniques to have them fill the full screen? Resolution can be a problem.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 11/3/2003, 8:53 AM
Whether you capture directly from the tape or from the AVI you've captured to your computer, you should get the same quality. And the same resolution -- 720 x 480 pixels. This doesn't leave you much room to pan and scan since, obviously, if you zoom in on the image at all, you'll be trying to read more pixels than the image has (since you'll need all 720 x 480 pixels for each frame). You may be able to cheat just a bit but, if you zoom in too much, your image is going to break up and you'll see the "pixelation."

When you scan in the photos from 35 mm film, use your graphics software (Photoshop, Paintshop or whatever) to trim your photo down to 720 x 480 (although it will fill your screen even better if you trim it to 650 x 480 pixels).

Naturally, if you want to do any panning/cropping/zooming into the still, allow for it be scanning your photo in at a higher resolution but cropping it in Photoshop (or whatever) down to the same aspect ratio. (Say, 1300 x 960 pixels). That should get you enough resolution to zoom into the still up to 400% in Screenblast.