Hi All,

How should photos be scanned for a video/photo project for playback on a TV?  I have read that photos should be scanned at 300dpi with an output size of 640 x 480. Is this sufficient? When I pull them into Paint Shop the actual size is less than 2". Seems small. Also, My landscape photos still show black borders when on the time line view of my project. Will they show differently when viewed on the TV screen?

Thanks!

AJ 

Are you doing a 16:9 project?  If so, you should probably scan at a 16:9 aspect ratio  (cropping, etc. as you see fit).

Long story short:  DPI doesn't matter to Studio.  All Studio cares about are the dimensions of the scanned photo in pixels -- if you're doing a 4:3 project, then you should scan at a 4:3 ratio (or you'll end up having to do further zooming/etc. in Studio to get rid of borders, etc.).  Same-same for 16:9.

And 640x480 isn't necessarily the "best" ratio, anyway -- 720x540 probably looks a *little* better than 640x480 in a 4:3 project.  But even 1600x1200 will "work" and will allow you to do a little pan-n-zooming without getting TOO bad (you get much bigger than that, though, and too many photos can start to bog Studio down somewhat).    Same-same in 16:9 -- 1600x900 will "work".

And as for your last question:  Yes, they will show differently on the TV screen -- keep that in mind when you're croppping and placing your photos.  TV screens have a so-called "overscan" to them -- there is an area (a "border" if you will) around the outside edge of your picture that you CAN see when editing in Studio which you WON'T be able to see  when you play your video back on your TV set.    In other words, if you tweak your photo so a person's head is *just* under the top of the screen in Studio, when you play back that video on your TV, the top of that person's head will be "chopped off".

BittMann

Thanks Bittman,

 The information you provided helped!

A.
 

Regarding "preparing" stills: I recall seeing a screen in Pinn Studio 12 asking me what resolution I want to choose for imported photographs. Is there such a setting? Can you direct me to it? 

Also, once a photo is in the timeline, is there a way to confirm or check its resolution?

I'm doing a mixed stills/video project in 16:9, will be dealing with 4:3 photos,  and don't want to get off on the wrong foot.

 CW 

As far as I know there is no setting in V12 or V14 that will allow you to choose the resolution of the photo. 

Keep in mind, you are not actually importing the photo, just grabbing a copy from its location on your computer.   

Once a photo is in the timeline, you can go back to the original and check the resolution and/or edit the photo...I have done this many times when I need to fix red eye, color correct or reduce noise in a photo.

Just make sure that if you save a copy of it while keeping the old one, you must tell studio to use the new pic by dragging it into the timeline in place of the old one.  Or just save the edited pic with the same name as the old one. 

Hope this helps.

Steve