FCP project - What picture format to use?

A

Anthony_Gilmore

Well-known member
I'm making a doc that requires a lot of still images/photos and I'm not sure on the resolution and file type to use. Currently we have nuemrous file types, tiffs, jpeg's etc., but i'm sure I should just stick with one type. What do I use? And do they only need to be 72resoultion?
 
72dpi will give you a fine resolution for 720x480 size pics.

HOWEVER -- if you want to do ANY zooming panning etc you'll need deeper resolution.

I suggest 300dpi, but only if you've got a really good dual processor. It WILL eat up render time.

100 if you just want them big enough to cover the canvas and maybe do some slight pushes etc.

It won't matter the type.

Good luck,

CaptM
 
It all comes down to number of pixels (width/height)
DPI doesn't really mean anything since you're not printing it.
As mentioned if you plan to pan or zoom figure out the maximum you need. If you plan to pan across a still that will be 3 frames wide then make it 3 x 720 in pixel size.
 
Scott -- that gets more confusing than not.

It really is about dpi when scanning photos into photoshop. If you scan at 72 you are only going to get the size for FCP of the picture... give or take.

BUT if you scan at 300 you're sure to have enough dpi depth within the picture to make it large enough to scan.

CaptM
 
Well that all depends on where you're getting the pictures (i.e. digital, scanning, web, etc)
The main point is to get get as many pixels as you need. If you're scanning an 8x10 or a 35mm slide then you'll need to scan at a different amount to get your target pixel count. You woouldn't want to scan a slide at 300 dpi and expect to zoom into it.
Your digital camera may record images and mark them as 180 DPI but if they're 3000 across then they'll be fine.
3000 pixels remains the same 3000 whether it's 300 dpi or 72 dpi. Now if you printed a 3000 image with those 2 different dpi you'd get different sizes on paper but with video you're always looking through a 720 pixel window.
 
Ideally you'd save as non-lossy formats (tiff, Photoshop).
There's a slight loss in JPEGs but if it's set to max quality it's usually not visible.
 
well I'm working with tiff's now but when i render they become strange...it seems to jig out a git and introduce strange interlacing. Could it be the bit rate? 8bit or 12bit?
 
DPI Really has nothing to do with this at all.

DPI only relates to printing nothing to with video.

Scott is right in this instance, it is all about the amount of pixels.

having a 300DPI images means nothing... the image will still be displayed at 72DPI on the monitor (or 100 DPI depending on your monitor).

The editor will not take into account the DPI.. it will just see a 2000x3000 pixel image (that also happens to be at 300 DPI).. DPI is just strictly a printing measurement...(Monitors are either 72 DPI or 100 DPI.. I haven't heard of others as of yet..)


Although, if your scanning images to use in your project, then scan at a higher DPI so you get an image that is much larger than 720x480 in pixels so you have some breathing room in terms of zooming/panning etc...

As for format... it shouldn't matter what format you use... you can use lossy image formats like JPG, GIF etc.. or lossless like BMP, TIFF, TARGA etc..

just remember that if your using a lossy image format your editor will have to transcode that image to the codec your editing with. so you will be further compressing the image. My suggestion, use a TIFF or other non compressed image format if possible.
 
I agree completely with what you BOTH are saying. AND scanning is becoming less and less of an issue. True, dpi IS only a print measure, BUT it is also a size matter when it comes to scanning.

IF you scan an image at 300 dpi then a 100 dpi monitor will show that image at 3x the size when it come to percentages in photoshop. TRUE the size of the image might still be 5x6 inches, BUT not when it comes into FCP.

THEN it becomes the huge mass of 1.5 megs or whatever.

So --

Because dpi has become a standard measurement of SCANNING I'll continue to use it when people ask what resolution should I bring a photo into fcp for ken burns type editing.

You can stop using it if you want, but people WILL be confused.

IF you're scanning -- 300 if you want to go deep... 100 if not.
IF you're capturing from your digital camera... bring it in the best jpeg you can. Go ahead, Loki -- tell him he needs a 6megapixel camera rather than a 3megapixel.

Again, it doesn't matter what the size is when printed, so it won't matter size when brought into fcp either.

What you want is color depth and that depth is determined by dots or pixels per inch. Same damn thing.

Got 2 dots per inch? Better move to cleaveland if you want to see it clearly.
Got 200 pix per inch? Ok -- much better.

CaptM

Edit: Sorry guys. I've been drinking again. I do actually have a point though... in there somewhere.
 
Hmm, color depth is normally measured by the amount of values for a given pixel. (8 bits = 256, 1- bits = 1024, etc)
I'm assuming you're meaning depth = resolution?

If you're still images are shifting then make sure that they don't have fine horizontal detail. If you had a line a single pixel tall then it will flicker due to interlacing (since you only see it every other field)
Also make sure theere's no aspect ratio mismatch. The system may try to refit it.
If you're moving it in the editor be sure everything is set for best quality and note that once it's compressed to DV it will be losing resolution.
I haven't found FCP the cleanest to do moves on stills with.
 
Scott's right again.

Thanks for keeping a clear and calm head while I was on a California Cabernet induced rant last night.

CaptM
 
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