Prepping Stills for Video

[bill_d.1]

I have taken some photos which will be incorporated into a video production.

The editor (not me) is using Final Cut Pro. I have some questions on how best

to prepare these photos.

 

I am not overly concerned with aspect ratio because the images may not

necessarily be full frame (there may be captions or there may be more than one

image in a single frame, etc.) therefore I assume some resizing would take

place in FCP.

 

What I am wondering about are things like resolution, color space, sharpening,

etc.

 

Should I save the images at 72ppi or something else?

 

Should I save the images using sRGB or something else?

 

Should I apply unsharp mask the same as if I was preparing the images for use

on a computer monitor, or would I get better results going heavier or lighter?

 

Are there any other things I should be aware of?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Bill

[tobiasfeltus]

hi bill,

FCP can import pretty much any file format, and supports transparency of tifs, etc. so

there shouldnt be any problems with file compatibility.

 

the resolution it will be used at is 72dpi, so you might as well leave it at that.

 

the colourspace of video footage is different than sRGB, however, once again, FCP can do

all sorts of colour manipulation, so it is probably best to leave it at sRGB. i dont think

colour is ever going to be faithful 100% in video, as there is too much variation in TVs

anyway, and if it goes back to SDV resolution, then there is not a very big pixel count to

express colour either. the likelihood is that the editor will balance your image to match the

footage, or vice versa, especially if for broadcast.

 

bests,

t

[emre]

Just give him the file! Do not resize or sharpen; that can be done in FCP just fine. Otherwise you will be limiting his options.

 

Different video formats use different color spaces. The standard definition ones are pretty small, so stay away from saturated colors if possible.

 

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/aftereffects/articles/aftereffectscs3_color_mgmt.pdf

[bill_d.1]

Thank you for your responses. I appreciate your help.