Problem including photos into my video project.

corelito · Post by **corelito** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:41 am

I know this subject has been covered in these forums before and I have read them but one thing I don't understand is why Windows Movie Maker is able to handle jpgs without any problems and U lead 11 plus can't.

I compleated the photo montage using WMM and imported it into Ulead so I could add menus and the whole thing is lousy.

I can't believe I would have to go back and convert all my jpgs to Bitmaps to get the quality I had in WMM which some of the answers to this problem on this forum suggests.

I hate to rant but I am finding out that WMM is a free, wonderful, easy program that only lacks a few more features and a menu making capability that would blow all these other high priced editing programs out of the water when it comes to making simple family videos with a photo montage. We're not talking Martin Scorsese quality films here.

The jpgs are 76 dpi and 604 x 453 around 820,000 bytes.

Again, I don't understand why Windows Movie Maker is able to handle jpgs and video without any problems and U lead 11 plus can't or another high priced competator program I own.

Any suggestions would be appreciated to this newbie. Thanks for hearing me out.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:31 am

There would appear to be a problem with either your computer or your installation. VideoStudio does accept JPG images. I would though advise you to resize them because 604 x 453 is not a normal video size.
Please view:
What dimensions etc should I use for still images in Videos?

I would also advise you to click here -->

so that we can then view your system specifications.

corelito · Post by **corelito** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:39 am

Thanks for the quick reply. Short of resizing 50+ photos one by one, is there a way or a program that would resize them all at once?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:49 am

Most imaging programs (If not all) have a macro function - it's name will vary from one program to another but the function it performs is the same.
You record your actions one ONE photo.
You then play that action on all the other photographs in that folder.

corelito · Post by **corelito** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:09 am

Yes, I have a Corel photopaint program and there is a setting for recordings and scripts that does exactly that. Thank You. I never needed or used it before.

My only comment is that to resize to 720 x 480, I have to have the box marked 'maintain aspect ratio' unchecked. This leaves the photos with a skewed look. Any thoughts?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:17 am

If you think about it, even using WMM they are going to get skewed because they are going to get stretched one way or the other to fit your TV screen.

I know it is time saving to automatically adjust them all as a job lot but best results will obviously be to go through them and crop them manually to the correct dimensions - avoids losing heads and feet etc.

What I would do is firstly use a macro to resize them so that they are at least
720 and at least 480 (one of those will be larger when you maintain the aspect ratio). Then I would go through them and crop off the excess - choosing the are I want to keep rather than leaving it to the discretion of the computer.

Alternatively and perhaps better is to resize then as I suggested, but rather than now go through and crop them - use the pan and zoom filter or the crop filter and create a Ken Burns effect - brings your photographs to life.

MediaStudio/VideoStudio: Create a Ken Burns effect Slideshow

corelito · Post by **corelito** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:08 am

Yes. I see your point. In looking at my digital camera settings though I see a setting for 640 x 480 but no 720 x 480.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:15 am

Perhaps a little hint to your wife about what to buy you for Christmas!

aljimenez · Post by **aljimenez** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:14 am

corelito wrote:Thanks for the quick reply. Short of resizing 50+ photos one by one, is there a way or a program that would resize them all at once?

The best freeware image viewer:

http://www.irfanview.com/

It has a batch program I use that renames and/or resizes photo files fast.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:16 am

corelito wrote:Yes, I have a Corel photopaint program and there is a setting for recordings and scripts that does exactly that. Thank You. I never needed or used it before.

My only comment is that to resize to 720 x 480, I have to have the box marked 'maintain aspect ratio' unchecked. This leaves the photos with a skewed look. Any thoughts?

Your images are 604 x 453 at a ratio of 4:3
720 x 480 is not 4 x 3.

Try using 720 x 540, this should keep your images in proportion and fill the screen.

OK
Increasing the size will not improve the quality, your images at 604 x 453 are small to say the least, unfortunately to fit the video screen you have to resize them. I generally use images twice the size of the video frame, for NTSC this would be 1440 x 1080px, this allows for some Pan & Zoom type editing.

Furthermore if you use the zoom function as part of VS editing the quality will deter ate further.

Its difficult to compare image quality on a pc monitor as the monitor only displays 96 dpi.

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:35 am

They'll work at that ratio in MM, as MM being designed as a video editor and not a stills editor was programmed to accept stills in a 4.3 mode, as it was also designed to output 4.3 wmv video files.

corelito · Post by **corelito** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:41 am

aljimenez wrote:
corelito wrote:Thanks for the quick reply. Short of resizing 50+ photos one by one, is there a way or a program that would resize them all at once?
The best freeware image viewer:

http://www.irfanview.com/

It has a batch program I use that renames and/or resizes photo files fast.

Thanks for the tip!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:45 pm

If you have Windows XP
Please click here -->

so that we can then view your system specifications.
Then you can also batch resize all the pictures in a hard drive folder using a Windows Powertoy Image Re-sizer

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