Photo montages?

1. chadmoss
   Member

   
   How do you guys make photo montages? I am running roxio videowave. I can't figure out whether to scan photos or use my dv camera to video each picture and then transfer to computer. I tried to scan photos in...each picture looked very pixelated. Just need some advice. Thanks.

   Posted 7 years ago #

2. GiantFilms
   Member

   
   There is a great article in the November, 2003 issue about how to go about putting photos in your computer. I'd highly reccommend reading that. Personally, I use a digital camera to take the pictures which makes it very easy to upload them onto your computer without a loss of quality. If you don't already have one, you can buy a digital camera for as little as $50.

   Posted 7 years ago #

3. chadmoss
   Member

   
   What if you only have pictures from weddings that others have given you and they are not digital? Do you take digital pics of the 35mm pics?

   Posted 7 years ago #

4. nobody
   Member

   
   Buy or borrow a scanner to get your pictures into the computer.

   Posted 7 years ago #

5. GiantFilms
   Member

   
   No, I always would just scan my 35mms in. Scanning them in is usually not a problem. In fact, it's probably the best way to go. I'm suprised that you're having such problems with the quality of the pictures. If you have a picture editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, it's possible that you could take those pixelated photos and fix them up a little bit. Just a thought.

   Posted 7 years ago #

6. nobody
   Member

   
   Creating videos from photos is a significant part of our business. We have tried shooting and scanning. We get significantly better results by scanning. I cannot understand why anyone would get pixelization by scanning. Perhaps it has something to do with the DPI at which you are scanning.
   
   Scanning allows us to make minor corrections to the resulting JPEG image and it avoids the hot spots that often result when using a copy stand. Also scanning, when combined with the appropriate software, allows the creation of "Ken Burns" effect. With direct shooting about the only possible "Ken Burns" effect is zomming, and unless that is done with care, you will often find an edge of the photo appearing on the TV screen.

   Posted 7 years ago #

7. nobody
   Member

   
   Are you talking about real pixelated images or are you seeing aliasing? If you scan an 8x10 picture at, say 300dpi, you will have a 2400x3000 image. Getting it down to 640x480 for your video is a big jump. If you let your video editing software do it, you will likely get the worst case results, with serious aliasing of circles and diagonals. However, if you use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or Paint Shop Pro, you can drop the resolution a little at a time. I use about 20% per resizing step. It takes me eight steps to reduce a 3000x2400 to 640x480. I also find it helpful to use a little unsharp mask (150%/0.3/0) at the halfway point and then again on the final image.
   
   Of course, you can reduce the amount of reduction by just scanning at a lower resolution. Try 75 to 100 dpi for starters. The same applies to original digital photos for inclusion in a video. Just because you have a 6MP digital SLR, doesn't mean you have to shoot at the highest res. Shoot as close as possible to the resolution you plan to use.

   Posted 7 years ago #

8. kevinvideo
   Member

   
   I am also surprised that you are having bad quality from the scanned photos. Try scanning other pictures and see if you get the same result - if so then it may be the scanner. If not then it just may be the scanner itself. By the way I highly recommend videowave. I used to do technical support for a wide range of their products not too long ago. Videowave can work with about 1000 photos. If you use the smaller version, slideshow assistant, that will work great with up to 100 photos. Make sure you don't have an onboard video card, intel. Nvidia video cards work best with Roxio/Sonic programs. I probably have spoken with a few users on this message board over the phone, email, or chat room when it came to tech support. :P Anyways hope this helps.

   Posted 5 years ago #

9. Video-maniac
   Member

   
   kevinvideo,
   
   The post you just addressed is almost 4 years old! Usually those are pretty much left for reference only.

   Posted 5 years ago #

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