Resize photos for video
manually
This
is for those who use video editing programs (such as Windows Movie Maker and
iMovie) that don’t have the “change aspect ratio on non-video images when
exporting” option and who plan to view the finished family history video on
standard definition and some high definition television. Because of the square vs rectangular pixel problem, you will
have to manually change the aspect ratio of photos prior to importing into the
video editing program.
Use
the table below to crop for frame size and rescale to adjust for the computer
vs. TV pixel difference.
Change aspect ratio
For
this, a more complex photo editing program than Picasa or Picture Manager is
needed. The following instructions are for Gimp,
a free, open source program. Other photo editing programs may have tools with
different names and in different places, but the procedure will be the same.
Since
you’re now going to use a more complicated program to change aspect ratio, you
might as well crop for video frame size in Gimp as well.
Crop for video frame
size (Gimp)
1. Open image in Gimp.
File>Open
2. Select Crop tool from the Tool
Window
3. Directly under Crop, check the
Fixed box.
4. From the drop-down menu, select
Aspect Ratio
5. In the box directly below that
enter your aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9)
6. Check Highlight box
7. In the drop-down menu below
that, select Rule of thirds or Golden Sections (same as Golden Mean).
8. Drag the cross hairs across the
image to select your new area. Notice the rule of thirds grid. Center at
least one grid cross point on a focal point in the picture. Hit enter (MAC—return)
key.
9. Resize. Choose the Original Dimension
figures for your video Format from the table above. I’m using NTSC 4:3
(720 x 534) as an example for these instructions. On the image window, go to Image>Scale
Image. The Scale Image window will open
10. Enter the appropriate width and
height. For NTSC that would be W 720 and H 540. Gimp prefers this for 4:3 aspect ratio.
11. Make sure pixels is selected
and click Scale and Save. It’s now resized for video import
(not for tv
viewing yet).
Taking care of the pixel problem for TV viewing
Continuing on in Gimp.
1. Select Image>Scale Image
again
2. Under Image Size and to the right of Width and Height drop-down menus, click on the chain links to break them.
3. Change Height to appropriate "Rescaled Dimension" from table. In this case, I'm using 540 (that's what Gimp likes).
4. Go to File>Save. Ready for import and eventually the TV screen
 
Before rescale After rescale
If you used another
photo editing program to change aspect ratio, be sure to uncheck the “Constrain
Aspect Ratio” box (Photoshop) or similar instruction in your program. Now that you've compensated for the pixel difference, you
won’t offend anyone in your family history video by making them look fatter
than they really are.
1|2|3 <Back
1. Prepping your photos for video
2. Crop for video frame size
More Editing
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