Picture In…Picture Out

CATEGORIES: After Effects, Digital Photography, Tutorials | Richard Harrington | October 07, 2005

What do still images have to do with moving video? The short answer is, a lot! Moving and static images are constantly intertwined. Still photos are always finding their way into our video edits, as photos are often easier to acquire than footage. It seems like still cameras are more common than professional video cameras.

Likewise, people always want still pictures from their productions for news letters, websites, and other promotional purposes. For some reason, they always forget their photo cameras at home on the day of the shoot. So what’s a video pro to do? Well, it’s time to master the ins and outs of photos and video.

Prepping Pictures To Premiere Pro

STEP 1: Scan Pictures into Adobe Photoshop CS

It’s time to get your pictures into the computer. There are several affordable scanners available for less than $100 that can scan a good-quality image for use in video. Examine your pictures first for any dust or gunk; if they’re dirty, gently brush them off with a photo lens cloth. You should also ensure that the scanner glass is clean and the scanner is level. Then load up several pictures onto your fl atbed scanner. You’ll want to scan at a higher resolution initially (between 200-400 ppi) so you can crop or refine the picture as needed.

STEP 2: Crop and Straighten

Now you need to get the multiple pictures separated into their own windows. Photoshop CS offers a great automation command to speed things up. Choose File>Automate>Crop and Straighten Photos. This helpful command will straighten all of the images and then move each into a new window. If you scanned a photo with the wrong orientation, choose Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CW (or CCW). Save these new high-res scans in case you need to come back to them.

STEP 3: Create a Video-Sized Document

Starting with Photoshop CS, Adobe has added support for non-square pixels. This lets you build Photoshop graphics at the same size and pixel aspect ratio of your source footage. Choose File>New (Command- N [Control-N]) to launch the New Document dialog. From the pop-up Preset list, choose from NTSC, PAL, and HD document presets. Photoshop sets the graphic to conform to your video format’s specs. We’ll use one PSD document to hold all of the newly sized video images.

STEP 4: Move ‘Em In

It’s time to move your squarepixel images into the videosized document. When you do, Photoshop CS will automatically convert their pixel aspect ratio. Simply drag-and-drop each image from the Layers palette onto your master video document. If you prefer, you can choose to copy-and-paste instead.

STEP 5: Transform as Needed

Chances are the pictures are too big for the video screen. We’ll have to size them down because we aren’t panning around the images (use After Effects as it can handle the conversion on its own).

Press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to access Free Transform. Then press Command-0 (PC: Control-0) to zoom out and see the entire image. Hold down Option-Shift (PC: Alt- Shift), grab the corners, and pull in. You’ll need to decide how much of the picture to see and shrink the image to whatever size you want. Click the checkbox in the Options Bar or press Enter to accept the changes.

STEP 6: Fix the Flicker

Because of interlacing on video monitors, images with small details will often flicker. You won’t see it on your computer monitor, but you will if you have a broadcast monitor hooked up and drop the graphics into your video Timeline. (If you have Photoshop CS2, it comes with a video export plug-in to allow previewing your graphics over FireWire to a television). The easiest way to fix flicker is with the De-Flickerator action available from www.adobeevangelists. com. Just click on the Encore DVD section and check it out. Run the action on a flattened image for best results.

STEP 7: Make It Safe

Photoshop works in the RGB color space (as does your computer monitor); televisions work in the YUV color space. We have a problem because color conversion between the two isn’t perfect. The biggest problem you can fix is the shift in luminance.

Color-correct your image as needed within Photoshop. Then apply a broadcast-safe “clamp” (”Where’s that fi lter?” you ask). Choose Image>Adjustments> Levels, “clamp” your Output Levels to 16 and 235 to make the image broadcast safe for luminance, and click OK. Don’t worry, the blacks and whites will be restored on the TV.

STEP 8: Move It Out

Repeat after us: “JPEG is bad.” So many people are magically drawn to this file format-it’s great for Web distribution but awful for video production. We’ve got a bunch of photos inside one PSD file. Let’s split them out for Premiere Pro. Choose File>Scripts>Export Layers to Files and when the dialog pops up, set the Destination and File Name Prefix, and choose a file format (such as uncompressed TIFF or 32-bit Targa). Click Run and let Photoshop do all the hard work. When finished, import those stills into Premiere Pro and you’re ready to edit away.

Prepping Pictures From Premiere Pro

STEP 1: Select and Export the Shot

Well, the client wants a frame grab from their video edit to put on a postcard or website (but not a poster or billboard- not gonna happen!). Select a video frame that’s representative of what they want (trying to avoid very fast-moving footage). Place your Current Time Indicator on the shot and choose File>Export>Frame or press Control-Shift-M.

STEP 2: Resize and Format

In the new dialog you can target a drive for the new file. You’ll also want to click on Settings so you can choose the right file format. From General, choose to Save As a TIFF (you can uncheck the Add to Project When Finished box). From the Video controls, select Compressor: None; Color Depth: Millions of Colors; Frame Size: 640×480 (for 4:3 material) 860×480 (for 16:9 material); and Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0). Click OK to export the uncompressed TIFF.

STEP 3: De-Interlace

Those Interlaced fi elds are great…for a television. We need to remove them for print. Let’s open the image in Photoshop and then get to work. Choose Filter>Video>De-Interlace. From the dialog, choose to remove the Odd or Even fields (it’s a personal choice that will determine what part of the image you see; it doesn’t matter which one you pick). Choose to fill in the missing info using the Interpolation method to create new fields. Click OK.

STEP 4: Make It Big

We can generally double an image in Photoshop and get acceptable results. Choose Image>Image Size to modify the image. Set the Width and Height to 200% of their original size (you may need to click on the drop-down menu that says pixels). Make sure Resample Image is checked on, and choose the Nearest Neighbor method from the drop-down menu. This will blow the image up 200% and will result in a 4×3″ print at 300 dpi or a 6.5×5″ print at 200 dpi. If you need larger images, you’ll need to check out third-party scalers, such as Extensis SmartScale or Genuine Fractals.

STEP 5: Restore Levels

The video frame grab has broadcast-safe levels that make it appear washed out on the computer monitor (as well as the printed page). Choose Image>Adjustments>Levels and “clamp” the Input Levels (set white to 16, black to 235, and move the middle or gray slider as desired to fix exposure). Click OK. You may also want to boost the saturation a little for print by choosing Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and moving the Saturation slider to the right.

STEP 6: Move It Out

It’s time to save the picture for the print folks in your life. Choose File>Save As and specify a destination and format. Most print designers prefer TIFF, while Web folks may ask for a JPEG. As far as destinations go, people surveyed were split between tropical islands and mountain retreats. See you next issue where we’ll tackle color correction of video footage.

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