Sunday, April 10, 2005
Panning and Zooming with Still Photography:
Photostory 3 is a wonderful program allowing quick-and-easy assembly of a "movie" from your still photographs. You can tweak it any number of ways for individual expression, but if you choose the program's defaults, you still get a very professional result.
Sometimes, one wants to convert this "movie" into a "real" video format for generating a DVD. This is only advised for distribution to people who do not own a modern computer, since Photostory results can be as high as 1024x768 resolution, and DVD's are much more limited (figure 640x480---a noticeable degradation of quality, especially when viewed on a computer screen).
But the need does occasionally arise, usually in two situations: 1) your recipient wants to watch your stuff on TV, not a computer and 2) you wish to interweave your still photos with home videos. For that, you MUST convert your Photostory 3 (.wmv) files into a video-editing format (either .mpg or .avi, which most video editing programs will accept).
I found that you can use Roxio's Video Editing program to convert .wmv files into either .avi or .mpg files. Then you can import the results into any normal video editor, such a Pinnacle or perhaps Premier. I had no success converting .wmv files via Windows own Windows Movie Maker program.
Here's a caution, however. I found by experimentation that the results are FAR SUPERIOR if you construct your Photostory "movie" in the highest (1024x768 resolution), and THEN convert in Roxio. If I assembled the Photostory at "DVD" resolution (640x480) the results, after conversion are JUST TERRIBLE.
So, here's a brief recap:
1) open Photostory 3, import your stills, add your narrative and soundtrack music and save at the highest resolution (1024x768). You'll want to save this product regardless of what further you do with it, for viewing yourself, later, on your computer. It will be sparkling and crisp, much better than viewing any DVD results on your computer. It's also orders-of-magnitude smaller in file-size than any video. (e.g. eminently suitable for sending out on a CD versus DVD disk).
2) open Roxio's video editor and import the .wmv file onto the story line, then immediately go to the "create file" step and save as .avi file. (Make sure the settings are at least equal to DVD's resolution).
3) use a suitable Video Editing program (I use Pinnacle Studio 8) to assemble your DVD, using these .avi files plus any others you may have, and any home videos.
4) create the DVD content and burn the DVD from Pinnacle (for example).
The result (can be) a rather seamless integration of your photo stills and your home digital videos, playable on a desktop DVD player though a TV.
I've looked for the "one program" solution to the creating of videos from stills-plus-videos but find that the result is far worse than if one first assembles the stills in Photostory 3. (e.g. if you do all the steps in Pinnacle Studio 8) the work level is hugely greater, and you will get NO panning-and-zooming effects. Adobe premier, I've heard, can do it all, but I think the effort is still considerably greater.
Photostory 3 is a wonderful program allowing quick-and-easy assembly of a "movie" from your still photographs. You can tweak it any number of ways for individual expression, but if you choose the program's defaults, you still get a very professional result.
Sometimes, one wants to convert this "movie" into a "real" video format for generating a DVD. This is only advised for distribution to people who do not own a modern computer, since Photostory results can be as high as 1024x768 resolution, and DVD's are much more limited (figure 640x480---a noticeable degradation of quality, especially when viewed on a computer screen).
But the need does occasionally arise, usually in two situations: 1) your recipient wants to watch your stuff on TV, not a computer and 2) you wish to interweave your still photos with home videos. For that, you MUST convert your Photostory 3 (.wmv) files into a video-editing format (either .mpg or .avi, which most video editing programs will accept).
I found that you can use Roxio's Video Editing program to convert .wmv files into either .avi or .mpg files. Then you can import the results into any normal video editor, such a Pinnacle or perhaps Premier. I had no success converting .wmv files via Windows own Windows Movie Maker program.
Here's a caution, however. I found by experimentation that the results are FAR SUPERIOR if you construct your Photostory "movie" in the highest (1024x768 resolution), and THEN convert in Roxio. If I assembled the Photostory at "DVD" resolution (640x480) the results, after conversion are JUST TERRIBLE.
So, here's a brief recap:
1) open Photostory 3, import your stills, add your narrative and soundtrack music and save at the highest resolution (1024x768). You'll want to save this product regardless of what further you do with it, for viewing yourself, later, on your computer. It will be sparkling and crisp, much better than viewing any DVD results on your computer. It's also orders-of-magnitude smaller in file-size than any video. (e.g. eminently suitable for sending out on a CD versus DVD disk).
2) open Roxio's video editor and import the .wmv file onto the story line, then immediately go to the "create file" step and save as .avi file. (Make sure the settings are at least equal to DVD's resolution).
3) use a suitable Video Editing program (I use Pinnacle Studio 8) to assemble your DVD, using these .avi files plus any others you may have, and any home videos.
4) create the DVD content and burn the DVD from Pinnacle (for example).
The result (can be) a rather seamless integration of your photo stills and your home digital videos, playable on a desktop DVD player though a TV.
I've looked for the "one program" solution to the creating of videos from stills-plus-videos but find that the result is far worse than if one first assembles the stills in Photostory 3. (e.g. if you do all the steps in Pinnacle Studio 8) the work level is hugely greater, and you will get NO panning-and-zooming effects. Adobe premier, I've heard, can do it all, but I think the effort is still considerably greater.
www.photo.net
Here's another great site, suggested to me by John Reiff. You have to sign up to get full access to this site, but even without, you can see some great photos, at medium to high resolution. This site seems to be about creative photography, so go there for inspiration and fresh ideas.
Here's another great site, suggested to me by John Reiff. You have to sign up to get full access to this site, but even without, you can see some great photos, at medium to high resolution. This site seems to be about creative photography, so go there for inspiration and fresh ideas.
