[MacDV] Re: iMovie 3 and bad-quality JPEGs in final result

[James Asherman]

On Sunday, December 14, 2003, at 10:35  PM, Randy Clark wrote:

>> From: "RichGB" <rgb at ellerbach.com>
>>
>> On [2003-Dec-13]  Randy Clark <hawkgx at planetkc.com> wrote:
>>> Update on my low-quality JPEGs dilemma:  the DVD produced from the 
>>> iMovie
>>> 3.03 to iDVD 3.01 workflow looks pretty bad when watching it on TV 
>>> as well.
>>> We were hoping it was just when viewing it on the computer that the 
>>> quality
>>> looked poor.  It's noticeably bad on TV.  Some relatives that saw it 
>>> (and
>>> didn't know about our concerns) made comments about the quality when 
>>> the
>>> stills appear outside the transitions.
>>>
>>> Still searching for answers...
>>
>> Well if it looks bad on the TV then nothing I know you can do in iM 
>> that is
>> going to make any difference at this stage.
>>
>> Di d yo bring the pictures in via iPhoto? If not give it a try, some 
>> people
>> report more success this way.
>>
>> I've used Photo-to-Movie in the past with good results and they have
>> ImageSurfer which may be useful to you (http://lqgraphics.com)
>>
>> Rich
>
> Rich,
> I'm pretty sure my friend imported them all manually from a folder on 
> his
> machine. All of the JPEGs for my particular videos weren't stored in 
> iPhoto,
> so I had to import them from a folder as well. Plus, on some of them I
> create 2 versions of the photo: one completely desaturated to black & 
> white;
> the other with a portion of the photo in color, and the rest 
> desaturated.
> Rather than do all this and then import into iPhoto, I just pull them 
> in
> from the folder.
>
> -- 
> Randy Clark
> hawkgx at planetkc.com
> Kansas City
>


You could do those things in iPhoto.
For a moment let me descrive my process since I do photo montages every 
day and they do not have such a problem.
This may seem crude. Sorry.
I shoot the pictures with a TRV900 in photo mode Super fine to a memory 
stick. Then I transfer the stick to a card reader and import them into 
iPhoto.
  There I crop or turn or brighten anything that needs it. You could 
also B/W it or mail it to your mother in law.
I put the new photos in an appropriately named album(before processsing)
Then I quit iphoto  and switch to iMovie where the photos are all there 
croppede and turned and processed and still at the same ressolution as 
the video camera.
I import the whole load at once  fro the sellected album and then take 
a few minutes adding appropriate transitions.
Then I export a Full DV QT .mov to my desktop and import the thing into 
FCP because  that makes it easier to place the music edit it or 
lengthen or shorten the movie to fit the music, This last step could 
also be done in iMovie, but that is how I do it. If warranted the Ken 
burns effect also gets a workout tho' motion control in FCP is pretty 
easy too on  that level.
Some of you will point out some stupid thing I am doing. I hope it 
helps me as much as you. 720 x640 and don't fret about it. these 
programs resizie stuff to their own liking anyway so straying from 
video resolution and then having the program auto correct it might be a 
problem. especially the 600 . iMovie will stretch your pictures at the 
stated res anyway. I think.
J