28 Replies Latest reply: Dec 16, 2011 12:47 PM by Blue_Devil1 RSS

    Resize stills

    Polytrop

      I have about 900 photos (4-6 MB each) and my plan is to create 9-10 slide-shows and link them together into a continuing show with at least 20 chapters. I am trying to find info on 1) how to reduce the size of the photos in a batch and 2) what MB-size that would be appropriate for a DVD-product. Any hints or links? Thank you.

        • 1. Re: Resize stills
          Stan Jones CommunityMVP

          Resize them using a batch action in Photoshop.

           

          Resize them to a size, not a filesize. If you are not applying any transitions, set them to the DVD size you are using (NTSC 720x480).

           

          Encore's slideshow functions are often criticized, but what you are describing should work.

           

          Your number of slideshows suggests you understand there is a limit of 99 slides per slideshow.

          • 2. Re: Resize stills
            Polytrop Community Member

            Any suggestions on other slide-show applications? I like to use the teve set and the DVD-remote as a good old slide projector, stepping pictures back and forth but without interrupting the DVD soundtrack.

            • 3. Re: Resize stills
              John T Smith CommunityMVP

              >other slide-show applications

               

              http://www.google.com/

               

              enter

               

              slideshow software

               

              then read reviews of the resulting software

              • 4. Re: Resize stills
                Polytrop Community Member

                Oh dear John T, are we not witty?

                • 5. Re: Resize stills
                  Neil Wilkes CommunityMVP

                  Polytrop wrote:

                   

                  I have about 900 photos (4-6 MB each) and my plan is to create 9-10 slide-shows and link them together into a continuing show with at least 20 chapters. I am trying to find info on 1) how to reduce the size of the photos in a batch and 2) what MB-size that would be appropriate for a DVD-product. Any hints or links? Thank you.

                  I would do all of this in Premiere Pro, and export a sequence from there.

                  Ypu'll have far more control over the output this way.

                   

                  What is the resolution & DPI of the original photos, please?

                  And are you in NTSC or PAL land

                  • 6. Re: Resize stills
                    Polytrop Community Member

                    Hi Neil,

                     

                    I am in the PAL-area. DPI is 300*300 and the original size is 4928*3264.

                     

                    I started in Premiere Pro, but never find out how to proceed. Are you suggesting I should start there with resized pictures and export the sequence(s)?  to Encore?

                     

                    Thanks.

                    • 7. Re: Resize stills
                      Neil Wilkes CommunityMVP

                      Absolutely - for DVD-Video, you need 72DPI and no more than 720x576 pixels.

                      Resizing this lot in Encore will seriously tie it down, and may well fail.

                      I'd resize in Photoshop - start by dropping the DPI from 300 to 72 & see where that leaves it.

                      Should be more manageable from there.

                      Then resize, and bring the entire sequence (save as TIF files or BMP files when resizing) into P-Pro as an image sequence.

                      You can adjust from there as you need to with all the transitions & effects in the NLE.

                       

                      Save out to DV AVI and import that file into Encore.

                      • 8. Re: Resize stills
                        Polytrop Community Member

                        Niel,

                         

                        thanks a lot! I shall work on this. Are those steps documented anywhere? Cheers!

                        • 9. Re: Resize stills
                          John T Smith CommunityMVP
                          • 10. Re: Resize stills
                            Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                            Dpi has no meaning in video its the pixels that count.

                            DPI is for printing: dots/pixels per inch.

                            If one does not do panning and zooming 1050x576 square pixel will be just fine.

                            If one does do panning and zooming make the stills 2 the size.

                            You can leave them the original size but Premiere will have a hell of a time processing them.

                            • 11. Re: Resize stills
                              Polytrop Community Member

                              Ann,

                               

                              a still resized to 1050*576 (from 4920*3264) will lose it´s proportional aspect ratio and look bad. Or is there anything particular with square pixels?

                              • 12. Re: Resize stills
                                Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                                Stills are always square pixels.

                                Standard video has rectangular pixels.

                                When you drop a 1050x576 still in a pal dv widescreen project, Premiere will automaticly correct this to the correct par.

                                Default scale to frame size is off.

                                Just try it with one still.

                                 

                                1050.png

                                • 13. Re: Resize stills
                                  Polytrop Community Member

                                  Hejsan (Swedish for hi) Ann,

                                   

                                  those are two screen-captures from PP 5.0.3

                                   

                                  First, the asset, i e original photo (4928*3264) pixels and 4,6 MB file size. Of course, it would be a disaster to work with 900 stills of that format in PP or in an Encore sideshow.

                                   

                                   

                                  _1.jpg

                                   

                                  Second capture is same picture resized in PS Elements 10.0 to the format (1050*576) pixels you recommended. It does not look good. What might be the issue?

                                   

                                  Kids_1050psd.jpg

                                  • 14. Re: Resize stills
                                    Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                                    Hallo (that is Dutch)

                                    The first picture is not 1050x720.

                                    What does it say in the top next to the little viewer in the Project window (PW) when you highlight the still in the PW

                                    • 15. Re: Resize stills
                                      Giorgio1957 Community Member

                                      Hejsan to you also,

                                      resize a picture does NOT mean you must give to the photo the same dimension of the project.

                                      You MUST keep the proportion and, to do that, you'll probably had to cut a piece of the photo or, if you want to see the entire photo, you'll keep black stripes up and down, or right and left, depending by the original size of the photo.

                                      Example:

                                      you have a project 1920 x 1080 and a photo 3840 x 2000 (3840 is twice 1920 but 2000 is not double of 1080).

                                      Well,

                                      your definitive PROPORTIONED resize will be 1920 x 1000 or (approx) 2073 x 1080.

                                      In the first option you'll have black stripes up and down (1000 is less than 1080)

                                      In the second case you'll loose a piece of photo (left and right) because 2073 is larger than 1920.

                                      I hope Ann will be agree.

                                      Ciao

                                       

                                      Giorgio

                                      • 16. Re: Resize stills
                                        Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                                        If you want stills full screen without distortion it means loosing the top and bottom of that still.

                                        Stills have different dimensions as video does.

                                        • 17. Re: Resize stills
                                          Polytrop Community Member

                                          Hejsan Giorgio,

                                           

                                          thanks for your comments. I agree it is a must to keep the original´s proportions. I know we have to cut and crop stills in order to make them look ok. I´m also aware of black borders. I think I must live with them in this project since I prefer the original aspect ratio.

                                           

                                          Ciao / MAtts

                                          • 18. Re: Resize stills
                                            Polytrop Community Member

                                            Hallo Ann,

                                             

                                            that is right and also what I say. It is the second picture that is resized, please see text under that photo. I suppose your question refers to that picture, here is what PP:s project window says:

                                             

                                            Project._kids_1 kopiera.jpg

                                             

                                            Hejsan / MAtts

                                            • 19. Re: Resize stills
                                              Polytrop Community Member

                                              Hallo Ann,

                                               

                                              you make a pretty good conclusion there, I guess. In my project, people who view the 900 stills in the sideshow will hopefully disregard the black frames to the left and right of each picture when all the pictures appear in a similar floating stream. One Q remains. To what proportional size do you think I should scale the stills?

                                              • 20. Re: Resize stills
                                                Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                                                Right, the still is scaled to 1050 not cropped, hence the distorted image.

                                                Indead if you want the full still you end up with black border.

                                                So back to square one: if you leave all your stills at original resolution, Premiere will have hell of a time processing them.

                                                I would size them down to 1/4.

                                                • 21. Re: Resize stills
                                                  Neil Wilkes CommunityMVP

                                                  Ann is totally right.

                                                  Also, despite the fact that DPI is for printing, not video, you will find that if you drop the DPI on the photos from 300 to 72 (for video) that will also resize  them.....and maintain the correct proportions too. They will end up as 72 on the DVD regardless, so you might as well get them there right away.

                                                  That will take your pixel count to 1183x783, and if you keep the "Constrain Proportions" ticked in Photoshop & then scale that to 576 (if PAL), you will end up with a square pixel image of 870x576 in 2 simple steps.

                                                  Drop these into your premiere sequence, correct the PAR if required by interpreting the footage & off you go.

                                                   

                                                  Hope this helps

                                                  • 22. Re: Resize stills
                                                    Polytrop Community Member

                                                    Neil,

                                                     

                                                    most interesting, this DPI-track! Resizing in PP brought to new dimensions , most convenient. I must admit, I am not very familiar with Photo Shop; is it possible to make a batch process of/for (?)  those two simple steps you mention for 900 pictures?

                                                     

                                                    Why should I have to correct the PAR in PP? During the resizing in PS I assume the PAR of the originals will remain.

                                                    • 23. Re: Resize stills
                                                      Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                                                      Batch resizing in Photoshop: watch tutorial.

                                                      http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/elegant_slideshows/

                                                      • 24. Re: Resize stills
                                                        Polytrop Community Member

                                                        Pretty informative video. Unfortunately PS Elements does not seem to have the batch capability. But free and excellent tool InfanView has.

                                                        • 25. Re: Resize stills
                                                          Blue_Devil1 Community Member

                                                          I don't have a recent PS elements, but in Photoshop, the best way to resize is to go to File - Script - Image size and use that.  I suppose you could check and see if PS elements has the same commands.

                                                           

                                                          John Rich

                                                          • 26. Re: Resize stills
                                                            Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                                                            PSElements does have automation. See the Reply by Neale (Reply 37) in this ARTICLE, where he goes through the steps.

                                                             

                                                            Good luck,

                                                             

                                                            Hunt

                                                            • 27. Re: Resize stills
                                                              Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                                                              John,

                                                               

                                                              Thngs are a bit different in PSE, but one kind soul, Neale, took the time to outline how things work in that program. I do not have PSE, so cannot test his workflow, but to date, no issues from users. That leads me to believe that it works.

                                                               

                                                              Prior to the Image Script, I just used Actions and Automate to Batch. Have not explored the Script yet, but will, as I have been told that it is even better - my older version (CS 5 still sitting in box, until new computer shows up) did not have that Script.

                                                               

                                                              Hope that the linked article above will help Polytrop get the Still Images batch Scaled in PSE.

                                                               

                                                              Hunt

                                                              • 28. Re: Resize stills
                                                                Blue_Devil1 Community Member

                                                                Bill,

                                                                 

                                                                Sorry to be drifting away from the topic of the original poster.  Here is a link that I posted a while back using Photoshop CS3.  I was trying to use Andrew Kramer's technique for reszing JPEG's and it wouldn't work.

                                                                 

                                                                http://forums.adobe.com/message/2695285#2695285

                                                                 

                                                                 

                                                                I mistyped before ie I meant to say File - Scripts -  Image Processor  (not size).  It works in CS5 also.  Actually, one can select the JPEG"S in Bridge and then go to Tools - Photoshop and go from there.

                                                                 

                                                                Merry Chrismas,

                                                                 

                                                                John