cropping 4:3 24p in post to get 16:9

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shaun_au

Active member
I've been shooting in the squeeze mode since I got my DVX. Somepeople here to recommand to shoot 4:3 24p(blacktape the LCD) and crop to 16:9 in post. The reason to do so is to get the highest resolution possible and having some freedom to adjust the framing in 16:9. So how do you cropp it in Premiere Pro? :undecided
 
He's asking how to crop in post using Premiere and not how to uprez which is the Disjecta article you are guyys are referencing. Although, I do recommend trying the uprez route if you want 16:9 footage rather than 4:3 masked/cropped to 16:9.

With Premiere there are a couple of ways. One simple way is to place the 16:9 mask title on top of you clip.

Another option is to create a new timeline that contains your composed timeline. Then select the clip and adjust the top and bottom edges so they are smaller and crop the overall image down to 16:9.
 
I'm a little confused here about cropping 4:3 to get 16:9. Base on my understanding if you crop a 4:3 footage to 16:9, you are removing parts of the frame, right? So the resolution on a cropped 16:9 is actually lower than the original 4:3, correct? So for some users here who want to have some freedom of reframing the shot, they're willing to loose some resolution. But why do you want to do that?

Now, here comes the interesting part. What's the difference between cropping 4:3 in post and using the letterbox mode on DVX when you're filming? To me the end result is the same: you're only using a portion of the screen(less pixels, less resolution).

Finally, why people here against to use squeez mode? According to Barry's DVX book, squeez mode is pretty useful. I know the squeez mode is not as good as using an anamorphic lens, but it seems to be the best option for people like me who don't want to spend additional money for an addon 16:9 lens.
 
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shaun_au said:
Base on my understanding if you crop a 4:3 footage to 16:9, you are removing parts of the frame, right? So the resolution on a cropped 16:9 is actually lower than the original 4:3, correct? So for some users here who want to have some freedom of reframing the shot, they're willing to loose some resolution. But why do you want to do that?
Click to expand...
Yes and Yes to your first questions.

The answer to the third question is subjective. Some people want to reframe their footage widescreen because it gives a feeling more of film. Another reason to crop is for later uprezzing to actual 16:9 footage. There's a very good article in the technical section of the board by user "Disjecta" that explains how he does this.

shaun_au said:
Now, here comes the interesting part. What's the difference between cropping 4:3 in post and using the letterbox mode on DVX when you're filming? To me the end result is the same: you're only using a portion of the screen(less pixels, less resolution).
Click to expand...
The difference is what you mentioned before., the freedom to reframe in post.

shaun_au said:
Finally, why people here against to use squeez mode? According to Barry's DVX book, squeez mode is pretty useful. I know the squeez mode is not as good as using an anamorphic lens, but it seems to be the best option for people like me who don't want to spend additional money for an addon 16:9 lens.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure people are so against it. I think they are biased more towards maintaining the resolution up until post. And then in post dealing with any scaling. There are methods that provide much better results than the built in squeeze mode (the uprezzing method mentioned before).

The anamorphic lens is great if you want higher resolution and 16:9. But it's tricky to work with and expensive.
 
I'm glad this was brought up, I've been asking myself nearly the same thing recently. I don't know the answer, so I best stop asking myself, so here goes. Expecting the best image out of the camera, at what should one shoot in the DVX? Standard 4:3? Does letterbox or squeeze cause manipulation of the image in any way?
 
Toddgeer,
Letterboxing in camera simply crops off the top and bottom of your frame, no other manipulation of the image (except, of course, for your own particular scene file settings). I shoot 4:3 (like many others), compose the shot for 16x9 using one of my Screen Skin overlays, then add the letterbox in post.
Squeeze mode doesn't manipulate the image either except for the in-camera anamorphic squeeze. You do lose a bit of resolution with both methods, but not so much that I'd endure the hassle of the anamorphic adaptor.
Hope this helps.
Ken
the Screen Skins guy
 
Thanks, Ken. When you say Screen Skins, is that something in the DVX I haven't run across yet? Or something you place over the LCD?
 
Then why is it..like for example...i have 4:3 footage...and i want to crop it to 16:9 or all the way down to the 2:35:1 ratio....my footage becomes blurry? I use Vegas 6.

Wouldnt it in a sense be almost like cropping a regular image...no quality loss...just cutting off the image?
 
Toddgeer,
Sorry 'bout that. They're the overlays that I make to fit over the LCD finder on the DVX. You can get them at EVS, Birns & Sawyer and Abel Cine.
Ken
the Screen Skins guy
 
ok, I'm wondering, is it possible to just remove the black bars and leave it as such? I'm not interested in uprezzing and i'm using premiere, is it possible to just remove the black at the end so you only have the video frame or is this something that could be done when encoding? I'm thinking more for distro on the web and such, obviously black bars are fine on tv as that's what you'll get anyways. Thanks in advance :)
 
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