If you go to Event Pan/Crop, you can uncheck Maintain aspect ratio and check Streth to fill frame. This will ensure that the image fills the entire frame edge to edge and top to bottom.

However, a better solution is to scan/crop the image slightly larger than what you want shown in the project and then use Pan/Crop to do the final bit of cropping. With this method you can also take into account the fact that televisions won't show the outer edge of the video frame due to overscanning. Cropping a picture so that little Johnny and Susie just fit at the left & right edges of the family photo doesn't help much if they end up outside the viewable area of the television! To help you properly size and place the images, you can click the Overlays button (looks like a # on steroids) just above the preview window and select Safe Areas. Everything inside the inner dashed line should be visible on most televisions, and everything outside the outer dashed line probably won't be visible on most televisions.

If you final destination is Television, then having a small amount of black around the edges probably won't matter anyway.

To scan still photos for use in Vegas, you need to keep in mind that a computer scanner uses square pixels (the sides are 1:1) while NTSC TV uses rectangular pixels. (wider than tall)

To correctly display a photo on an NTSC TV without distortion, you need to crop the photographs at a 1.33333:1 aspect ratio. Let's say you have a 4"x6" photograph which you scan at 300dpi. That would give you an image which is 1800 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high. This is an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, but (and this is important) based on SQUARE pixels.

Then, in a paint program like Paint Shop Pro, which unlike Photoshop will show the crop's aspect ratio, crop (don't resize) the image to an aspect ratio of 1.333:1. It doesn't really matter what size (in pixels) the cropped image ends up, as long as it's 1.333:1 and preferably at least 720x540. (Or 768x576 for PAL.)

If you're in Photoshop, just divide the width in pixels by the height in pixels and make sure it's 1.333. Then, after you have cropped the image, resize it to 720x480, or 720x576 for PAL. (Make sure turn OFF "maintain aspect ratio" when you resize it.) This will get you back to an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, but it's now based on rectangular pixels and you will have compensated for the fact that DV video uses rectangular pixels instead of the square pixels of a computer monitor. (Scanners operate in square pixels.) Anyway, the resulting 720x480 (720x576 PAL) image will display correctly at 1.333:1 on a television with no size distortions.

Here's an experiment to prove the concept: Create an image of 720x540 NTSC (768x576 PAL) in a paint program, draw a perfect circle in the middle of the image, then resize the image to 720x480 (720x576 PAL). The circle will now appear oval shaped on the computer monitor, take it into Vegas, render it out and look at it on a television, it will be a perfect circle again. All graphics created in a paint program for use in DV video should start at a 1.333:1 ratio (i.e.: 720x540 NTSC, 768x576 PAL) and, when you're done, resize it to 720x480 (720x576 PAL.)

John Cline

You will also need to take into account the safe title and safe motion areas of a standard TV screen. If you have vital pixel information at the very edges of your image, you will need to make your initial crop a bit wider or it will get lost in the overscan area. Obviously, a computer monitor does not have an overscan area so you won't see this until you play to a broadcast TV and discover that a few percent of your image is missing.

SonicBoom:
Thanks for the scanning tip. I tried it and it is much easier!
Chienworks:
Thanks for the tip on Pan/Crop and the safe image # sign.
Steve

John:
Thanks for the pixel info.
Steve

Are they wanting the images to be still? I always scan in images about 3 times the size of what the full frame would be. That way, I can use the pan/crop tools to animate them, like you would on an animation stand. Think Cival War documentary on Discovery Channel. You never see those images standing still, even though they are stills. Well...not never, but you get the idea. It just adds a bit of life. I guess it's all up to what your client wants.

Chris:
Yes, you're right! I'll make the stills "move" with a little Pan/Crop, a little Track Motion. One to four images flying in and out on the screen at times. These are photoss of old whaling vessels (The Tall Ships) with all the rigging and sailors hanging from them. Kind of like an old Errol Flynn swashbuckler.
Thanks,
Steve

Cool! Speaking of Swashbuckling... did you here about that nasty pirate movie that's soon to be released? It's rated Arrrrrr.

(...sorry...I couldn't help it!)

Hey, for the record, 'The Civil War' was PBS, not Discovery Channel.

(This matters to those of us who work at PBS & are proud to be airing it next week!)

David.

Speakikng of Swashbucklers:

Q: What does a pirate pay for corn?

B: Buccaneer!

tailgate: Ha!
David_Kuznicki: Sorry, man. I didn't realize there was only one Civil War Doc and that PBS did it. I could have sworn I have seen Civil War photo montages in docs on many other channels. (Yes, you detect a hint of sarcasm here.)

Gotta have a sense of humor to do what we do...sit in front of a computer screen day & night!
Steve

--David_Kuznicki: Sorry, man. I didn't realize there was only one Civil War Doc and that PBS did it. I could have sworn I have seen Civil War photo montages in docs on many other channels. (Yes, you detect a hint of sarcasm here.)

(Chuckle, chuckle)
Gotta forgive me-- I don't watch much TV. At least, outside of Master Control.
I guess the real question isn't who did it, but WHAT DID THEY CUT IT ON?!