cropping still images to 16x9 widescreen

frederick-wise wrote on 4/8/2009, 5:31 PM
I've been making some videos in 16x9 and I've learned that you need to crop your still images to 16x9 to make them fit the whole screen. Unfortunately, cropping to 16x9 in Photoshop Elements 7 is not a "preset" and I have to do a lot of trial and error to get the ratio right (1.78). Does anyone know how to get Photoshop or other still imaging software (Vegas?) to easily and accurately crop to a 16x9 image? I'm going to post this in the Photoshop forum as well!

Comments

CClub wrote on 4/8/2009, 5:44 PM
If you're just looking for basic 16x9 template for a still photo in Vegas timeline:
- Click on "Event Pan/Crop" box (upper of 2 small boxes on Right side of event in timeline... if you can't see them, you need to expand the timeline by clicking the + sign in the lower right of the full Vegas window).
- At the top of thePan/Crop window that opens, click the Preset drop-down box, choose 16x9.
- If you happen to be in the middle of the event in the Vegas timeline, a new keyframe will appear at the bottom of the Pan/Crop window. You can fix this by either 1) deleting the keyframe diamond to the far left of the new keyframe or 2) undoing your new keyframe you created, clicking on the keyframe to the far left and redoing the Preset step above. If you're not familiar with keyframes and begin to have problems here, it can get pretty tricky explaining here and may want to research it a bit in this forum.
Edit: just so you know, it doesn't actually crop the photo, but if you're just looking for the image to be 16x9, it doesn't matter, and then you can actually move the 16x9 rectangle around and choose what part you want to appear on-screen. Careful, there are many dynamics involved here... it's great once you take time to learn your options, but in the interim, be ready with the Undo button.
winrockpost wrote on 4/8/2009, 5:45 PM
just right click on the image in vegas,,click match aspect or match output, forget exactly what it says,,, or in photoshop just set the project to the dimensions of your vegas settings
frederick-wise wrote on 4/8/2009, 6:28 PM
In Photoshop I've tried using the image/resize/image resize... and then enter into a screen that shows 2 main sections; but trials in that tool only lead to distortions of widening or narrowing the image. What I really need is a cropping tool that can produce a "crop box" set to a 16x9 ratio.

Here's the problem I'm having in more detail. I have a video where I've cut out a still of a person via Photoshop and have saved the floating image as a PNG so that the background is invisible. Then I have my floating person superimposed on backing video and I have the person's still image move from off-screen on one side of the video to off-screen on the other side of the frame via keyframe event/pan but I notice some borders showing up on both edges and/or the top/bottom if I don't get the image eactly as a 16x9 before I use it in Vegas. This leads me back to Photoshop where i keep tweaking my cropping until it fits just right without any borders appearing in Vegas.

If I could crop 16x9 in the first place with ease, that would be great but I don't see that option in Photoshop.
frederick-wise wrote on 4/8/2009, 6:52 PM
Thanx for the tip. That seems to have gotten rid of those annoying borders. I notice that I need to set it to 16x9 for each keyframe. Now I'll see if it works without perfectly cropped stills.
Chienworks wrote on 4/8/2009, 7:17 PM
Pan/Crop, match output aspect ... is the way to go, always works perfectly. If you do it first thing before adding any additional keyframes then it carries over to all the new keyframes automatically.
frederick-wise wrote on 4/8/2009, 7:35 PM
I just found the "aspect ratio" button for cropping in Photoshop E7 that appears in the upper left-hand corner when the crop tool is selected and maintains the ratio as you draw the crop-box. Sadly it doesn't have a preset for 16x9 (1.78). The closest is 5x3 (1.66). Perhaps there is a way to make a preset in Photoshop for a 16x9 crop - I can't believe they didn't include one in this day-and-age of 16x9. Maybe my HP imaging sfotware has a 16x9 crop preset.
frederick-wise wrote on 4/8/2009, 7:38 PM
Vista has a 16x9 preset! Hard to believe it, but Vista's Photo Gallery actually has the cropping tool I've been looking for. Come on Photoshop, you are behind the times...........
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/8/2009, 8:17 PM
adobe had NTSC fps wrong for ~a decade, give them a break. ;)

anyway... NTSC DV Widescreen is 873x480 when using a 1.0 pixel aspect ratio (which is what images use). So any ratio of that will work.

How did I find that out? Vegas! Make a widescreen project, change the preview to best - full & then click the little disk icon on the right of the best - full setting. It will save a screenshot of what's currently in the preview @ the settings in the project properties, except a 1.0 aspect ratio image do you can edit it. :D