Still Image Resolution?

BradK wrote on 12/30/2001, 12:57 PM
First, I just received Vegas Video 3.0. I love it!

I'm starting a new project (NTSC DV) with several still images taken from my digital camera. I've played with it a bit, but I'm unsure what resolution I should be converting it to before importing it into my project. Does VV3 resize the image automatically or what would be the optimum resolution I should have images set to before importing? 740x480?

Thanks, Brad

Comments

FadeToBlack wrote on 12/30/2001, 3:49 PM
tserface wrote on 12/30/2001, 9:49 PM
Actually, if you're going to run it on a regular TV or projector, you will want to make the picture a bit smaller than 655x480 by panning it until you get a bit of a black border around the edge. You can turn on the grid to see where the safe area is around the edges, but you will lose part of the picture on the TV even though it looks OK on the screen.

Tom
FadeToBlack wrote on 12/30/2001, 10:49 PM
Chienworks wrote on 12/30/2001, 11:16 PM
The suggestion to make it smaller is to get the picture to fit in the safe
area of the screen that is reliably displayed on a television set. In other
words, make the picture NOT fill the entire frame, since the outer edge
of the frame can't be seen on a TV. Of course, the same think could be
accomplished with a larger image and then "crop" larger instead of
smaller to include a black space around the edge.
tserface wrote on 12/31/2001, 9:53 AM
Perhaps I said it wrong. What I do is make the picture 655x480 and then use the panning tools to make it fit within the inside rectangle of the grid, or at least until what I want to see is inside that rectangle. Otherwise, you don't get on the TV what you see in the preview window. I like using this new Director's Cut thing because I can size it while seeing it on the TV.

Tom
FadeToBlack wrote on 12/31/2001, 10:59 AM
dvstudio wrote on 12/31/2001, 5:23 PM
I agree with GG. I leave the safe area grid ON all the time.

The inside grid is "title safe" which means that all titles or graphics should be inside this box to make certain they are seen on all TV screens.

The larger (outside grid) is "action safe" which means that anything outside this box will not be seen on most TV's.

tserface wrote on 1/1/2002, 12:12 PM
Agreed. I do with there was a way to just have the picture automatically made the safe size, but it's not much trouble to do it manually so...

The grid is a nice tool and I use it often.

Tom
BradK wrote on 1/1/2002, 2:05 PM
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll give this a try. This is the first time I've come across the 655x480 size as well. I'd heard 704x480 mentioned somewhere before but that didn't translate well to the final cut.

-Brad
BradK wrote on 1/2/2002, 11:41 AM
This just occurred to me. 655x480 works fine for landscape pictures, but what's generally suggested for portrait? If you were to reverse the vertical & horizonatal sizes to 480x655, this will leave black edges on either side of the picture.

I did attempt a portrait picture sized at 655x480, and it didn't look bad though slightly squashed. Is it a general rule perhaps to stay way from portrait stills? I'd then be forced to crop my image to make it a landscape aspect ratio.

Thanks, Brad