What is the best format for photos

JediKnight2 wrote on 9/18/2007, 1:59 PM

I did a small splash photo for the opening to my movies. I put it together in Illustrator and exported it as both jpegs and png formats. I even made the image size exactly the same size as my movie size. When I import it into Vegas and export my movie the image is all crudded up...distorted and the edges look like crap. Any suggestions

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 9/18/2007, 2:13 PM

Use "Best (Auto)" in the preview window to see if the image looks good or not. Also, are you sure the image is exactly the same pixel count as the project? What's your project's pixel size and what's the image's?

RMD wrote on 9/24/2007, 7:37 PM

yup, and remember Video output on a DVD or TV have 10x11 pixels not 10x10 like on your pcs. I just grab the raw jpegs from my directory in explorer and drag em in. Don't fiddle with aspect ratios... it'll work out better.

Paul Mead wrote on 9/24/2007, 7:49 PM

I even made the image size exactly the same size as my movie size.

Be careful with that. Still pictures don't have the same pixel aspect ratio as video frames. Read the section titled "Correcting images for DV pixel aspect ratios" in the Vegas 7.0 manual, Chapter 14. For example, it says "Full frame, pixel-aspect-corrected still images for NTSC DV projects are 655x480."

MSmart wrote on 9/24/2007, 7:59 PM

HERE is another thread on the subject.

Retired wrote on 9/25/2007, 2:31 PM

A picture formated at 655 x 480 is what you need and it doesn't matter if you zoom or not. They are crystal clear on a standard 4:3 TV. That said a 655 x 480 picture can be of various sizes. To produce the image you need software which allows you to crop an image at any size either up on down.

Examples: A image cropped at 6.823 in.x 5 in x 96 ppi is 655 pix by 480 pix. The same image cropped at 6 in. x 4.397 in. x 109.167 ppi is again 655 x 480. The same image cropped at 9.097 in. x 6.677 x 72 ppi also results in an image that is 655 x 480. I personally like 6.823 in.x 5 in. x 96 ppi . No matter how you slice the pie , the end result must always be 655 x 480 and you can see it can be achieved in many ways. The file size is around 922k in every case. I know it is hard to belive a image this small could be perfect on a TV but belive me it is. VMS loves this format and it uses very little resource and does not slow your system down. Try it, you will like it. You can prove the above to yourself. Also, I save all my files as PSD. Because I use hundreds at a time I create a batch file which will format all of my pictures at once in just a few seconds.

Right from the manual: "Full frame, pixel-aspect corrected still images for use in NTSC DV projects are 655 x 480". I hope this helps.

CP