MAKING A STILLS PHOTOGRAPH PRESENTATION:
This page last updated on 29 December 2000
There are two basic ways of making a VCD (generic) that contains only still pictures with or without music or voice over. Some burner software has the option to put stills into a folder, add some music and the DVD player will go to the correct folder (SEGMENT) and play the resulting dat file. This method is restrictive. The quality from full resolution (704 x 576 or 480) stills is excellent with this process but the same level of quality can be produced from a mpeg stream.
The basic mandatory rule for all stills to be viewed on a 4:3 aspect ratio TV or computer is to be sure to begin the process with images that are a true 4:3 - 640 x 480 NTSC or 768 x 576 PAL.
Let me explain using the 3 images above. Image 3 is the normal 4:3 format in NTSC of 640 x 480, this is how we see an image on the TV. The centre picture 2 is the same picture after it has been encoded to SVCD in NTSC (480 x 480). The DVD player expands it to the full 4:3 dimensions. Picture 1 is the image that would come from a DV camera (720 x 480) and in this case the DVD player will compress the image to the 640 x 480 viewing size. The compression or expansion is indicated by the circles, unless you get it right, "circles aint circles."
If you, as so many others do, use a DV frame of 720 x 480 (NTSC) as the basis then what you will see on the TV or on a correctly compressed image (NTSC) for a computer, is shown on the right below. Its a horizontally compressed image as indicated by the circle - everything in the frame is also compressed horizontally, the ladies will love it!
Most DV software providers do not provide images that are correct for the 4:3 format we view in. Have a close look at your DV titles and they will be made up of characters compressed in NTSC and expanded in PAL.
Below are the same 3 frames produced in the PAL dimensions of (1) DV 720 x 576, (2) SVCD 480 x 576, (3) 4:3 TV 768 x 576. In Pal the DV image is expanded instead of compressed as it is in NTSC.
Be aware also that what you see on a TV or in your camera viewfinder is not what you see on a computer screen. The TV surround crops off the picture and quite often photographs do not allow for this. This effect is shown in the images above by the black mask. Editing software will allow you to adjust the picture layout for this aspect so what you see on the TV is what you previously saw on the photo album page. If your using scanned photographs then they are already cropped in the printing process and may not take another crop without destroying the picture as a picture when some of the image is covered or hidden by the TV surround.
As an example, I have often, in PAL, used an image reduced to the 4:3 size of 704 x 528 placed in a 768 x 576 black frame to retain the proportions and to see all of the frame on the TV. You should also note a normal 6" x 4" picture is in the proportions of 3:2 and therefore requires adjustment in the edit to make full use of the 4:3 format used by the TV or computer screen.
If you have understood the above it will be obvious that photographs based on the 16:9 or any other non standard 4:3 aspect ratio can be handled in the same way. This treatment allows sub titles to be added above or below the actual picture.
The editing programs like MSP6 or Premiere give better control over the production and allows the use of transitions, titles and motion based special effects together with more than one piece of music that maybe the restriction in the burner related software. The quality of the edit program product, if the process is structured, will not be noticably different to your average viewer afterall, the TV is a great level maker.
To author a CD-R presentation of still photographs or digital camera images the process is similar to that used for video. The process of setting up the encoder after editing in the NLE program is identical to that described on the Super VCD's page: You may need to adjust some settings. Set the edit program for a still length of 5 to 6 seconds (can be changed if needed) and import the stills, placing them on alternate main video tracks. Add your titles, transitions between (cross fades, wipes or zooms) and after your satisfied with the sequence add the music or voice over file. Be sure to not use the "optimize" the stills option, it is essential that each still be fully rendered as part of the mpeg stream or you may have trouble playing them from the DVD player.
Pictures can be scanned or be digital still camera images. If scanned, make sure you begin with larger image sizes than is required - never start off smaller and enlarge. A 6 x 4 photograph should be scanned at not less than 300 dpi. You can also capture stills from a video (lower quality if interlaced) and all must be in the viewing aspect ratio of the TV - usually 4:3 so for PAL produce pictures in your edit software at 768 x 576 or for NTSC 640 x 480. Do not check the "maintain aspect ratio" in the edit program output window.
The content in your presentation is not limited to just single photographs. The 4:3 aspect frame can be structured to use more than one photograph. For example the wedding photographs on the right, comprises two scanned images from 4 x 6 photographs (2:3 aspect ratio) which together fill the 4:3 frame when placed side by side. The Senna tribute frame, left, contains 3 pictures. With multi photographs and an editing program one can cross merge the multi photograph frame, indeed, a stills presentation is limited only by your imagination and perhaps the software to achieve it.
If your capturing from video you can actually leave the frame size the same as was captured. In DV the frame size will already be adjusted by compressing or expanding the image. Let the encoder do the resize to the stadard video VCD frame size of 352 x 288 (PAL) or 240 (NTSC) and 480 x 576 PAL or 480 x 480 NTSC.
You should take note that a standard VCD uses an Mpeg-1 stream which does not allow the use of interlaced vision to provide smooth motion. The Mpeg-2 format used for SVCD does and it is necessary to make the appropriate adjustments in the editing stage. Some examples of the differences will be in the use of transitions which if encoded in Mpeg-1 the result maybe quite jerky when played to the TV from your DVD player. Not all special effects are suitable for use with Mpeg-1. The encoding process creates a mpeg stream and some software may allow you to have multiple entry points from the one file that allows access by menu to certain parts of the main file for a given time. Some encoders do not produce an mpeg stream that can be accessed in that way.
Always begin first with a simple example and work towards a full professional level one later. I have produced many a mixture of stills and video in the one production, sometimes a subject is better presented in stills. After all, a video should only be a series of "storyboard" stills with motion.
All of the pictures used on this site have, in one form or another, been used in a stills presentation OR have been used as part of a normal motion video production as I very often mix the content. A documentary, for example, without a map has something missing and that involves the use of a still photograph, digital image or digital scan.
SOME SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS:
This section is a copy of the notes originally contained on my DVD pages,
being more prescriptive may be of some help in achieving an outcome.
Let me clarify the method to achieve the correct proportions when viewing on the 4:3 TV by describing the simple process of scanning a normal 6" x 4" print and making it acceptable for DV authoring (VCD, XVCD, SVCD or DVD).
The photograph must be scanned using at least 300dpi to produce an image larger than required (1800 x 1200 pixels). It is INCORRECT to simply reduce that scanned image to the DV frame size of 720 x 480 NTSC or 720 x 576 PAL. By coincidence, the 6 x 4 is the same aspect ratio as the DV frame size for NTSC (3:2). The scanned image must be first CROPPED into the 4:3 aspect ratio, so if you use the height as the base you will actually loose some of the width. Any good photo editing software will have this option. Once cropped to the 4:3 aspect ratio the image can then be sized to 720 wide x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL) for use in the authoring software.
Image 1 is the full 6 x 4 scan image (1800 x 1200 ie 3:2), the red rectangle is the 4:3 crop off. Image 2 is the 4:3 image resized for NTSC at the required aspect ratio of 3:2 (720 x 480) and you will note how the image is stretched sideways. When processed and played full screen on the computer or TV you will actually see, not image 2 but image 1 inside the red rectangular frame where "circles are circles".
If your computer monitor is not setup for 4:3 viewing then the circle in image 1 will not appear round, lots of computers are not correct, have you really checked yours?
This example is carefully chosen to also highlight that most prints when printed have already been cropped from that available in the original frame and therefore when cropping to the 4:3 format for the DV process there will be cases when some detail will be lost behind the TV surround and thus destroy the picture as a picture. This sample is such a case and I would be changing the size of it to overlay onto a black background so that all of the picture is seen on the TV screen.
The final image when place inside the frame so that the whole picture is actually seen within the surround is demonstrated below for a 4:3 standard TV. Image 4 shows a similar treatment for a 16:9 crop from the original photograph.
EDIT PROGRAM SPECIFICS:
One of the problems you will/may encounter, whether the final carrier is a generic VCD or a tape is that some parts of the picture will vibrate or suffer from interlace wobble. Here are some notes which have helped provide the best results from either MSP6 or Premiere 5 & 6 from which I have done 1000's of stills including wedding albums based on professional photographs (in PAL and in NTSC, and got paid for those). You may use jpegs in MSP6 and Premiere5.1c but you must use BMP's in Premiere 6, I have had no bad results from the use of jpegs and would defy a viewer to see the difference on a consumer TV.
1) use a top notch photoeditor to get the images from the scanned "big" size down to the size required. In DV, 720 x 576 PAL, 720 x 480 NTSC as noted above. However, you will need to do a check to see if the resizing, when carried out in the editing program, is better than that achieved from the photoeditor. Photoshop 5.5 is better than either MSP6 or P6 in this regard, less artifacts.
2)If you are going to move within the picture using applied "motion" then you will need to have the "big" size available on the timeline to get quality into the final presentation afterall you are cropping in the process and it is a no no to go below the frame sizes and expand the pixels to a bigger "size".
3) The question of "whether to use interlaced fields" is a compremise. The choice may restrict what you can actually do without suffering from a "jumpy" picture and/or transitions. I have found the best option in MSP6 was to set the timeline for "no fields" processing, with a project set for "no fields" and during editing add "flicker removal" when appropriate. The DV output is the normal interlaced option of Field A so that transitions and motion are not effected. In Premiere I use interlaced processing and only occasionally have I had to add "flicker removal" as the only form of de-interlacing. I deliberately do not do any more de-interlacing than is absolutely necessary - selectively on demand so that the best result is obtained - why de-interlace if its not necessary?
4) you will have the choice of overlaying sub titles etc in the editor or whether you do that in Photoshop 5.5. I have used both and I often do a PIP in Photoshop rather than in the editing program.
5) Make sure your whole project is rendered, do not use the "quick" solution that does not result in the still being rendered for transfer from the editing program.
6) Frameserving using Avisynth from Premiere is an excellent process when encoding to VCD, SVCD or DVD is required. Details are given on the SVCD page for this process. I have also found better quality from MSP6 by not using any preview files - turn the preview option off!
Goodluck!
First written - 08 June 2000