From the course: Motion Graphics for Video Editors: Terms and Technology

Sizing a photo for a video project

From the course: Motion Graphics for Video Editors: Terms and Technology

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Sizing a photo for a video project

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- There are many ways to size a photo for a video project. I want to show you my favorite, which works quite well. Simply create a new document that matches the specs that you need. I've already got one here that I can use. Now, choose File, Place Embedded. Navigate to the image that you want to use. In this case, let's select the developed photo, and I'll click Place. It's automatically dropped in. Holding down the Shift and the Option key, or the Alt key on a PC, I can adjust the size of the object. When satisfied, press Return, and it will update right within the project. As an added benefit, if you embed a raw file, it's even better. You can grab the raw file, which is the original camera file in a native format, and get the Camera Raw dialogue. Remember, this gives us great flexibility to do things like lift the Shadows and recover the Highlights and get a proper overall Exposure to the image. I'll maximize the Contrast here a little bit and lift up the Highlights and the white point a little. There we go. Let's add a little more color in and take advantage of a nice trick here, click on the Gradient Tool, the graduated filter, and we'll dip the Exposure a little bit and drag from the top. You see it creates a blend in the sky. Let's put the color Temperature back to normal, and we get a nice, moody sky. When I click OK, that file is dropped in. Holding down the Shift or Option key, I can adjust the size to taste and position it, and it's ready to go. Now, you can simply import these into your NLE. Let's save this here. We'll call this Church photos. And I'll switch to my non-linear editor. Let's just empty out this project. And we'll import that in. When you click Import, you'll get the ability to import the layered Photoshop file. You could choose to bring these in as Individual Layers or as a Sequence. I'll bring these in as Individual Layers. Now what's great is you've got those files, so for example, let's just put this into a Sequence. There it is. And, if I ever need to, I can just choose to edit this. It'll take me right back to Photoshop, I can double-click on the raw image and make tweaks. Maybe changing something like the White Balance a bit. And boosting the Clarity for a stronger, more dramatic photo, with a little less Saturation. Once I click OK, it updates. Additionally, I can press Command + t or Control + t for free transform, because the full, Raw photo is there, allowing me to re-compose the photo. When I close and save the file, it will update right in your timeline. Now, what's great here is, in the future if you need to, you've got everything you need in one file. You can make edits, you could adjust the exposure, redevelop the raw file. Remember, with the Smart Object, you can in fact select the layer and make changes, or redevelop it. For example, if I jump back into Photoshop there and open up the Smart Object, I can even select a layer that is a Smart Object and, from the Layer menu, choose to export the original raw file right back out. This is great, it gives you data management and flexibility in one package. All of the photos and assets you need are stored inside that single Photoshop document, making it easy to keep track of them, and everything is backed up.

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