What pixel aspect, and dimension to get D70 images to fill 16:9 area on timeline?

Ralph Oshiro

Ralph Oshiro

Veteran
I'm sure it's been asked before, but I kinda need to know this in a hurry:

I shot some stills on my D70 at its maximum resolution of 3008 x 2000 pixels. These pixels, I presume are "square." I want to insert these stills in a video that was shot with a native 16:9 2/3" video imager (DSR450). What do I do in Photoshop to the image size of the D70 files? And do I convert the D70 pixel's aspect ratio from "square" to "1.2" (DV widescreen) in Photoshop? At first, I resized my D70 images to 722 x 480, but that size is too small for the image area of a 16:9 video. The proportion is correct (not "skinny," not "stretched"), but there isn't enough of the still image to completely fill the 16:9 video frame from side to side. I don't mind cropping the D70 image slightly to "fit/fill" the 16:9 video image area. Help!
 
I think I figured it out my own damned self!

1. Resize horizontal pixel dimension in "image>image size" to 852 pixels.
2. Resize canvas vertical pixel dimension in "image>canvas size" to 480 pixels.
3. Prompt will ask if it's okay to proceed with cropping--answer "yes."
4. Do not adjust pixel aspect ratio (leave "square").
5. Save in desired file type.
6. Import into Adobe Premiere Pro, and, "Voila!"

Right?
 
Photoshop 7.0 and higher should have this built in actually. You just need to tell it what you want and it'll setup a canvas for you in the dimensions you need. Paste your image into the canvas at full resolution. Then just resize it (hold down the shift key while doing so to maintain aspect ratio of the raw image). Fill out the canvas, and yes you'll have a little bit of cropping, and voila you're done.

The closest preset I could find to the dimensions you seemed to end up with is:

864x480 Wide NTSC DV/DVD

So looks like your width at 852 is just a few pixels off, at least based upon what Photoshop provides with its included presets.

cheers.
 
VaricamLife said:
The closest preset I could find to the dimensions you seemed to end up with is:

864x480 Wide NTSC DV/DVD

So looks like your width at 852 is just a few pixels off, at least based upon what Photoshop provides with its included presets.
Click to expand...
AH HA! I WAS a few pixels off! THANK YOU! I still saw skinny black vertical bands to the left and right of my frame! I have Photoshop CS (version 8) but I guess I'm too stupid to use it correctly! Thanks a lot for your help!
 
np

np

No problem. And don't worry about not knowing about it, I'm so far behind in PS as far as were things have gone in CS2. It can really be a beast of a program. I just want to wait for CS3 now though, which to my understanding will come out as a UB for Intel Macs.

cheers.
 
864?

Hmmm...

When I export a 16:9 from Vegas, it saves them as 873x480, so I've been using 873x480 going "the other way", too.
 
864 is for square pixels (in photoshop). Your HD footage (or your still in a video timeline) is not square. There will be a pixel aspect ratio that is not 1:1. So when you export from Vegas its exporting with the non square pixels.

Now if you're saying you're getting 873, that's a pretty minor difference. It will technically make a difference in how things look, but perhaps its so minor that you don't really notice it.

At the end of the day I'm sure if you really broke down the detailed math and analysis of a all post production workflows you'd find a few things that technically break down quality. However, when we watch our stuff and when audiences watch our stuff, all they have are their eyes. So minor imperfections can easily go unoticed, even by those with a keener sense of what to look out for. Having the perfect numbers for every minute detail in post can't save a bad script, but a great script can certainly save a few minor imperfections resulting from some numbers being a little off.

cheers.
 
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