Slideshow Problems - Portrait Images

kevm wrote on 9/20/2011, 9:21 AM

I'm having difficulties with slideshows, when using portrait images in conjunction with motion (pan and/or zoom).

Instead of showing all (or at least most) of a portrait image (with large areas of black either side of the photo), the photo is 'zoomed in', so that the width of the photo is about the same as the width of the screen...obviously resulting in the top and bottom of the portrait photo not being shown.

This only happens when selecting slideshow effects involving Pan and/or Zoom...if, for example, I select 'Fades', it works as I'd expect it to.

To illustrate what I mean, here's a picture...

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/9793045/1/Slideshow?h=6d6a02

Hopefully this makes it a little clearer.

I'm currently making various slideshows for a wedding video...as you can imagine, zooming in on our female guests chests without showing their faces could land me in some trouble with my new wife ;-)

I'm aware of a workaround - that is to edit each portrait photo to place a landscape black background behind it - but with hundreds of photos, I'd really rather avoid this.

I've tried reducing the file size / resolution of the photos (as I saw on another forum) but this made no difference.

Does anyone know how can I solve, or even workaround my problem, so that I can use portrait photos in a slideshow and use pan/zoom in the transitions?

I'm using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 11.0 Build 220.

Thanks for your help :-)

Comments

kevm wrote on 9/21/2011, 11:14 AM

Any ideas, anyone?

It's almost as if the application is not taking into account the 'Automatically crop still images added to timeline' setting when processing the slide?

A bug perhaps?

What is the best way to report bugs?

musicvid10 wrote on 9/21/2011, 12:04 PM

Unless it is something new in your version of VMS, there is no bug.
The default behavior is to display the full image, as in the bottom example you posted.

Do you by chance have "Match Output Aspect" enabled in your Event Pan/Crop window? You shouldn't, but without more information, it is impossible to know.

In the Context menu in the Pan/Crop window, making sure "Lock Aspect Ratio" is enabled, click "Match Source Aspect" and then "Restore" in that order. Does that fix it?

There are many good tutorials on using Pan/Crop in Vegas, which is not necessarily intuitive the first times you use it. Youtube is a good place to start to find tutorials and examples, as are several websites.

kevm wrote on 9/22/2011, 3:01 AM

Thanks for your response, musicvid - much appreciated.

I can't see a "Match Output Aspect" 'toggle' in the Event Pan/Crop window, though it is an option in the context menu (in the pan/crop window), though obviously 'enabling' it only affects the current keyframe (not sure if I fully understand what you mean?).

Following your instructions, it certainly does have the effect of 'fixing it', in the sense that the photo now is now shown in its entirity, but ONLY for that keyframe...so I'd have to do that action for both start and end keyframe (because the slow pan movement is generated automatically by the slideshow function), and even then I'd lose all motion, so I'd have to (re)create the pan motion manually.

I may have misunderstood your instructions, but if I haven't then in the scenario I'm referring to (i.e. having inserted a slideshow using pan and/or zoom as the 'effect'), this isn't a workable solution (but thank you anyway).

Whatever is the case (bug or no bug), there seems to be an inconsistency in how creating slideshows...would anyone be able to try out the following to verify this?...

- With a blank project, select 'Slideshow' from the 'Insert' menu
- Select a single, portrait photo in the 'Pictures' tab
- On the 'Settings' tab, select the 'Fades' effect
- Click the 'Create' button

Your project should consist of one image, with no motion, that is pillarboxed (I think this is the correct term...i.e. you can see the image in its entirity, with black areas either side of it)

- Now follow the same steps but this time using 'Fades with Pan' as the effect

What you should see now is only the middle third (approximately) of the photo, with no pillarboxing...so, for example, a picture of the mona-lisa won't show her head.

I can see no obvious reason for this inconstency, nor a way to affect the outcome of this.

Musicvid - I've googled for tutorials, and found a few...the best one where a motion effect was delivered by means of a blurred background image (copy of the foreground image)...but I'm really after being able to have the 'Ken Burns' effect (I believe that's the correct term) whilst being able to mix landscape and portrait images.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

ps re-reading my original post, I'm not sure if I made it totally clear that I was using the Insert > Slideshow function - apologies if this was the case.

musicvid10 wrote on 9/22/2011, 7:47 AM

No, I didn't know that. I have Vegas Pro, and no idea how that Slideshow thing works. I don't know of a way to change a bunch of existing keyframes without doing so individually or starting over. Best of luck.

Bob Decker wrote on 9/22/2011, 10:03 AM

Here's one of the best pan/crop tutorials from a real expert-Bill Myers. All of his videos are very helpful for VMS.

If you go into the Training section of the Sony website and look under Webinars, you'll find one that was recently made for working with sitll images. The slideshow function I can't help you with. When I work with a few still images I animate them manually using the methods in the above videos. If I have a lot, I prefer using a different program like ProShow Gold. Sony has also come out with a new program called MoviEZ. It's an automatic slideshow creator. I'm playing with the trial and it works quite well.
I

EGS wrote on 9/22/2011, 11:09 AM

I am having the exact same issue here (VMS10) with a pan&zoom slideshow of 800+ pics. Sure would like to change them all at once. Anybody?

kevm wrote on 9/23/2011, 2:54 AM

Thanks for your responses.

I'll take a look at the youtube tutorial - thanks. Pro show gold looks good, though not sure if I can justify USD70 just to make slideshows (this is a very occasional hobby!). MoviEZ looks interesting - may check that out.

EGS - glad (in a way!) that it's not just me! My hunch is that either it's a bug, or there is some technical reason why it's doing this. I've contacted Sony Support though I haven't heard anything yet...I'll post back here if they say anything of note.

I'm gradually resigning myself to the fact that there's no quick way to do this, so for now, I'm going to create my slideshows with a gently animated background, with the photos (landscape and portrait of various aspect ratios) all well within the boundaries of the screen.

Cheers!

Kevin