Video Editing

Still Pictures

Adding Photographs

Shooting Video Of

The least desirable method to put photographic content in your video is to simply shoot video of photographs. This is probably best when you are showing photographs as separate images distinct from the video itself, as when you show a set of framed photographs on a table. In this case photographs become elements in a video scene.

The best way is to use photographs in digital format.

Using Digital Photo Files

The best way to bring the content of photographs into your video, as an integral part of the video is to use photographs in digital form. JPEG's are handiest. There are four main methods:

  1. Scan photographs using a flat-bed scanner
  2. Scan negatives using a film scanner
  3. Use photographs from a digital camera
  4. Capture frames from video as still pictures (this usually has the lowest quality depending in large part on the capture utility)

There are two ways to get a picture into our video editor:

  1. Place the digital photo file in the same folder as the rest of your video file.
  2. Import the photo file using the File/Import menu to locate the file
Files Placed in a Folder


Files placed in Folder can be viewed in the "Explorer" tab. From here you can drag and drop files into the video and audio tracks.

Import Photo File


To Import start with the File Menu


Importing File via File Dialog

Drag And Drop Photo


Highlight the file in the Explorer Tab then drag the file to the Video Track.


When you let up on the mouse the photograph's image will show in the track.


This is what the image looks like in the preview. (Note:The text comes from the text clip on the track above the photo.)

 

A Word About RealPix

Before we think of video as the only way to deliver still photographs in sequence and the only way to pan or zoom on photographs we need to give a word about RealPix. Real Networks uses a method for sending sequences of still pictures from the server to the client. The images are at their best quality because they do not have to be encoded in a compressed video format. In addition, all transitions, zooms, pans and crops are done by the client (the visitor's browser plugin) so that the transitions do not have to be encoded as they are in video.

In addition, the RealPix format is a fairly simply XML text file which downloads easily and very quickly across the internet. It allows you to add text titles to a set of pictures. The text file is a list of pictures to be downloaded. The list includes instructions on how to display each picture; how long, what size, cropping, rotation, zoom areas, pan areas and what kind of transitions should be created to bring in each picture from the previous.

Cropping

Any picture or video Clip can be cropped. You will need to use cropping for the Pans and Zooms below. For a look again at cropping click here.

Timing For the Pan and/or Zoom

You control the amount of time the effect takes by pulling out the clip to make the clip longer or shorter. Very simple. But it helps to be told. The pans and zooms shown on this page take the full length of the clip to happen.

Pans

Pans combine cropping and the "Begin" and "End" buttons. Pans are camera movements across a scene from one side to another. They take place across a span of time. We can set that up easily within any photograph. Once you pace the photo in one of the video tracks (see section above) you can treat it like video.


Click on the "FX" box in the lower right corner to bring up the effects dialog.


In the effects dialog make sure the "Begin" button is depressed. Then move the crop frame to the beginning selection area in your photograph. In this illustration we are starting at the far left side. You can see how this looks in the preview window (make sure you set your edit cursor over the picture clip).


For the finish of the pan, first click the "End" button, then move the crop box to the ending position. In this illustration we are panning to the far right of the picture. As you move the crop box you will be able to see the end frame of your pan.

To see a RealMedia (28kb) example of the pan shown above click here.

 

Zooms

"Out" part of the zoom "In" part of the zoom

There is no rule on whether you should zoom In or Out. Just frame each one where you want it and make sure you set the "Begin" and the "End" buttons to create a sequence.

Pan and Zoom

This one combines both the pan and the zoom. By now you have probably bumped into this by accident. In any case here is an example of zooming from a larger area coverage on the left side of the picture to a smaller group of individuals on the right side of the screen.

To see this example in RealMedia (28kb) click here.

Rotations

Here we will redo the previous example except for rotating the last frame (under the "End" button).

In this case the rotation cursor is used on a corner handle.

To see this example in RealMedia click one of these (28kb, 56kb, 128kb).