Q: Images/stills turn black in iMovie since El Capitan upgrade

We need to clarify a few things here. I am on several discussion groups on issues with "black photo" problems.

We all need to be aware that to this point I have found NO ONE that can run iMovie v8 or v9 with El Capitan. Not sure Apple will even try to get this combination to work. I think they will just say you MUST upgrade to iMovie v10.

As for the black photos in iMovie 10 issue, I hope Apple eventually comes up with a definite answer to why this sometimes happens.

I have been using iMovie 10 now for about a month and have had no problems at all. I have imported all kinds of different resolution photos from all kinds of sources. So I DO NOT think the problem is with Apple system or software. I suggest that it is a combination of other effects due to some other software or combination of such. But we still need to resolve this for those having problems.

Again, there seems to be much confusion in this discussion as to which iMovie version we are discussing. It started out as iMovie v8 and El Capitan. Those of you still trying to run El Capitan and iMovie v8 or 9 need to make a decision, either upgrade to iMovie 10 or go back to a previous OS.

For future comments please identify which combination you are working with.

I am having the same issue. I switched to Mac years ago, due to these types of bugs in Windows-based software. Apple: Figure it out. Don't give me a reason to go back.

UPDATE TO ALL:

I just today had the "Black Photo" problem pop up.

I checked several discussions and tried several fixes. The one I found to be the solution for me was indeed the high resolution of the photo. I had the photo set to 3840 x 2560. I reduced to 3300 and still no luck. Dropped it to 3200 and all is well. I did notice that the preview in the event would show the photo but if I skim over it, it would go black.

I then went back to iMovie v9 on my old iMac and that same photo works fine. Interesting that Apple would somehow have introduced this limitation on iMovie 10.1. Especially as they now have introduced 4K video. Seems more logical that they would at least allow 4K photos.

Thanks Rich Rydalch - however solution that worked for you does not work for me (reducing image size). And since it's not that clear what is an 'acceptable size' (I tried various sizes - reduced up to 800x500, without success), I wonder if there is not another action that is done when the image gets saved, that is effectively correcting the issue, maybe the "color space" of the pic is converted when using the resizing tool then saving, or anything else in the pic metadata...

I understand from the thread that Apple is not reviewing these posts but I get really upset with them : iMovie was given "for free" (Well, was part of what I bought...) with my iMac in 2009, and the fact that I updated to El Capitan prevents me from using it anymore. I know iMovie 09 is quite old now, and that could be part of the issue, but I can't update it without buying iLife...

Sounds like you might still be trying to run iMovie v9 and El Capitan. As I have stated several times, THAT IS AN IMPOSSIBLE COMBINATION!

Are you sure you cannot update to iMovie v10? Mine updated automatically when I updated to El Capitan. Have you checked you App Store account>Purchased tab?

I'm running iMovie-9.0.9 under elCapitan and some of my video clips turns green.

Does anyone has an explanation or even better a cure???

I have the same black photo issues with iMovie 10.1 running on El Capitan 10.11.2.   iPhone 5 & 6 photos are fine,  as are those taken on a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.  However photos taken on a Fujifilm FinePix AV10 and also a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 both result in black photos.  I will try some of the suggestions in this post and will report back any successes!

UPDATE - As suggested by others,  I went back to iPhoto,  selected all of the problematic photos,  limited size to 3250 pixels wide and exported them to a new folder.  I then imported those modified photos into iMovie.  All was fine,  they subsequently worked perfectly.

It's irritating and unlike Apple to have two Apple apps that don't work smoothly together.  At least in this case the fix is simple,  but I hope they resolve this  sometime soon.

K.

To Rich.

You are quite right, I simply upgraded to iMovie 10.1 and dumped 9.0.9, that solved the problem .

But the user interface is not so "intuitively" in 10.1 as in 9.0.9.

I'm confused how to turn your "media" file into a project or a "theater" file in the correct way,. In one instance

I got the error message: "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.Compressor.CompressorKit.ErrorDomain error -1.)".

I just "love" these kind of error messages, they remind me of the old Windows days 25 years ago.

A couple of issues with iMovie 10 that you need to be aware of. I seems there is a limit to the pixel width of photos. Anything over 3200 will also go black.

I at first also was disappointed in the interface. But after working with it, doing a lot of searches on the internet to find the same functions that we had in v9 I am now quite comfortable with it and actually quite like it. It functions much like most other video editing apps as well as the old Mac iMovie HD and before. Be aware that when you start iMovie v10 it will automatically "Update Projects and Events" from v9 (and you can do others later). In the process it creates duplicates of all items in both your Projects and Events folders. As Apple advertises, "so you can continue to use iMovie 11 (v9) if you want". That ability to "continue to use iMovie 11 (v9)" went south with El Capitan. And to my knowledge Apple has not corrected the problem.

Arcady; It does indeed seem irritating that Apple would introduce a video editing app with capability of 4K video and not 4K photos.

Another workaround I have discovered is that both .png and .pdf formats of photos do not seem to have the limitation.

Several of us have contacted Apple to complain of this issue so hopefully they will fix it soon.

Thanks Rich,

That's useful - I had not appreciated that just opting for a different format solved the problem.  Even simpler!

Rich - As you know I indicated in this thread Re: When will the update be available that fixes the glitches with iMovie and OS X El Capitan?

that a 3200 pixel width limitation for a .jpg photo does not apply for everyone - I can use larger (4912 x 2760pixel) jpegs on all of my 3 macs running iMovie 10.1 under El Capitan 10.11.2 without problem and this is most likely the case for most people (who would have no reason to look at this thread). 

I have been able to get a black display problem on my oldest machine (2007 macbook  pro - the oldest machine capable of running El Capitan) with a 4000 x 2883 .tiff image while this works fine on my other (more powerful) machines. 

The question is what hardware gives rise to the problem?  Is it integrated graphics (my 3 machines all have discrete graphics).  Is it available VRAM (which may depend on what other demands there are on the VRAM from the display/s.  It might even be a side-effect of some OS configuration or  the presence of other particular software.

May be it would be worthwhile asking those withe problem to detail:

- their mac model (the Model Identifier code reported in 'About this mac' > System report under the second item in Hardware Overview)

- GPU model with VRAM total  under Graphics/Displays

in order to see if there is any pattern.

Another possibility (maybe this is even more likely) is that it depends on the detailed format of the .jpg image - according to wikipedia there are a large number of variations and it's possible that iMovie 10.1 does not 'like' some of them.

I have put one of my 4912 x 2760pixel jpegs on Dropbox at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8o68tbz0ywumu73/DSC05874.JPG?dl=0

from where you (or anyone else) can download it and see whether or not it displays black.

Geoff.

I Have attempted the resize "fix", and it worked. That said... Why should I or anyone have to put up with this? Every release of iMovie appears to be an attempt to simplify the app. This is not been my experience.

GeeD; I downloaded your photo and it works fine. I also pulled it into Photoshop, saved it in several different formats and they all work as well. I even bumped the resolution up to 6000. So I would conclude that the problem is the file structure. Problem is, what can we do about it?

Try this photo in your systems and see if it works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b13c1edu0jphz89/DSC00796.JPG?dl=0

I'd be curious to know if this problem was present in OS versions prior to El Capitan. It is definitely NOT a problem with iMovie v9 and Snow Leopard.