Widescreen Export Confusion

K

Kiri

Active member
Hi, I'm having a really hard time getting my head around export settings for achieving a widescreen look from premiere and really hope someone can help me out.


I'll attach some images to illustrate what I mean. (please ignore the differences in color etc, I'm just asking about the aspect ratio)

I'm using a single clip shot on the new gopro in 4k 30fps.

The first image is what the output looks like when I exported from the gopro studio software. This is basically what I want (in terms of widescreen format / aspect ratio).
gopro-studio-wide.jpg

The 2nd image is exported from premiere (from a 1080p timeline). This is with an output size of 1280x720 (same size as export from gopro studio), and widescreen 16:9 (1.21) aspect ratio.
premiere-wide.jpg

The 3rd image is export from premiere (from a 1080p timeline). This is with an output size of 1920x1080 , and square pixel aspect ratio.
premiere-square-pix.jpg


So, the widescreen output from premiere looks kind of similar to the gopro studio output, except that it has stretched the image quite a lot in the center or the frame (not what I want). The gopro studio on the other hand, seems to have stretched the edges of the frame, but not the center. Ideally, I'd like to get this look without any stretching, but the gopro studio version is preferable to the premiere one, and to my eyes, still achieves a more pleasing widescreen aspect ratio.

Can someone explain to me what is going on here, and hopefully how I can get what I want? (a widescreen image with minimal or no stretching)
 
All your provided images appear to be a screen grab as they are 16:10 with a letterbox. So I'll talk about the sizes of the footage frame, not the image frame here.

The first image, from Gopro studio is 2.35:1. Exporting to 1280x720 seems like an awful waste of resolution since the original would be 3840x2160. But if it's going to youtube or some other online platform, nobody fullscreens your work, much less views it on a display capable of showing your resolution.

It appears to have some kind of fisheye lens correction applied to it. But you probably knew that already. If you like this look, own Premiere CC, and want to keep things simple, then use Premiere's own lens distortion removal tool (in the effects preset panel). This way you will have the controls in one timeline, and no transcoding/re-rendering.

You'll next setup a timeline that makes sense for the kinds of footage you have, and the desired output frame aspect ratio.

Then as far as your export settings, these depend on the destination. The export is where the letterboxing happens, as you render out a master, a version for youtube, for projection at the concert etc.

Hope this help,
Craig
 
Thanks for the advice Craig, but that's not really what I am asking about. I'm wondering how the gopro studio file was able to make such a widescreen frame without squashing / stretching the image (as has happened in the premiere exports). And how I can get such an output from premiere
 
Ok so to be clear, you like the look of a 2.35:1 frame? If yes, you could make a standard 1.78:1 (aka 16x9) sequence and drop in a letterbox image mask on the top video track. Unlike a crop effect, you can move your footage around and scale it underneath the mask. And this way you don't have to make a custom sequence preset.

There are masks for download all over:

http://whoismatt.com/cinemascopetutorial/
 
Yes. That's a good idea, and a good workaround. But I'm also curious to know why I don't seem to be able to get that look (of the GP studio output) without using masks. I mean, the source footage is exactly the same file, so I would have thought I would be able to get a similar output frame from premiere as I got from GP studio.
 
I dunno as I've never used GP studio. I am guessing it's a combination of a crop mode and some lens distortion correction of some sort.

All things you can do in Premiere.
C
 
The GoPro output looks to be exponentially adding a fisheye style distortion as the image moves away from the centre third (or, it could be correcting the centre third - depends how you think - glass half full or half empty!).

So, the centre section (look at the mirror ball) looks round, but then, as it gets to the outer edges, the distortion becomes way more pronounced (screen left look at the chap sitting on the floor in the Gopro - he's heavily distorted - or screen right see the angle of the amp/speaker).
 
Yeah that's what I thought too. The image seems to be stretched near the sides but not at the center. It must be a feature of how GP Studio does the widescreen conversion.
At least that explains why I was getting such different results from premiere.

If I want that look, I guess it will be easier to output a high quality standard version from premiere and then re-encode in GP Studio.

Thanks guys
 
Thanks Craig! This looks very informative. I'll go through all that info over the next day or so and see if it answers some of my questions. Cheers
 
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