Scanned photos go blurry when keyframed in FCP

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Scanned photos go blurry when keyframed in FCP

I have a series of photographs that I am key framing to create a Ken Burns effect. All the images that were taken digitally are fine, but the few that I scanned and imported go blurry on playback. It is a noticeable difference. I have found that this is the case whether I am using key frames and transitions or not. I have experimented with turning frame blending on and off and I cannot find a way to stop this blurring from happening. The image itself is in focus. Thanks.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 25, 2010 12:14 PM

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Answer 1

Jim Cookman

Level 7

23,435 points

Apr 25, 2010 3:02 PM in response to Julie Cannon

How do they look on your properly calibrated external monitor? You can't rely on the canvas window.

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Answer 2

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Apr 25, 2010 3:48 PM in response to Julie Cannon

Hi -
As Mr. Cookman says plus:

Have your rendered the clip in the timeline that looks blurry? (Select the clip on the timeline, and type Command R to reder it), Does this help?

If not, please report your sequence properties (click anywhere in the timeline and type Command-0(zero)).

Also, click on one of the scanned images in your bin and type Command-9 to display the clip properties. Please report what those properties are. If it is easier to just post a screen shot, that would be fine.

Thanks

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Answer 3

Andy Mees

Level 6

12,610 points

Apr 26, 2010 1:27 AM in response to Meg The Dog

what they all said ... plus you sometimes need to tell FCP that you want to be able to render something even when the app doesn't want to let you because it wants to just offer you a "full quality" or "preview quality" playback ... to do that you can have a look in your Sequence > Render submenu and if these render options are not ticked then you can select them to toggle them on/off ... after that, if and when you select such a clip in the timeline then you can render it with Cmd-R

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Answer 4

Apr 26, 2010 9:21 AM in response to Julie Cannon

If you have not already, make sure your photos are sized to the canvas size. Try to not let final cut pro do the image resizing/scaling for you. This will get you better results.

A large image in FCP scaled can get some very poor results.

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Answer 5

Julie Cannon Author

Level 1

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Apr 26, 2010 11:31 AM in response to BROOKLYNTREEZ

_Thank you so much for all the posts. Yes, the sequence in question is rendered and playing back in Safe RT. I do not have an external monitor to watch this back on - my only option would be to continually export though compressor to make a DVD and watch that, which I can do for this instance but would prefer not to routinely do. An external monitor is a consideration in the future and a good point. The sequence properties are as follows:_
_Frame size: 1440x1080, aspect ration HD (1440x1080) (16:9)_
_Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD (1440x1080) - Anamorphic 16:9 is not checked_
_Field dominance: Upper (odd)_
_Editing Timebase: 29.97_

_One of the scanned image settings are:_
Still V1
Creator: Preview Creator: preview
size 120.0K 120.0 K
Vi Rate: 29.97 fps Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Frame Size:1440x1080 768x512
Pixel aspect: square square
Gamma level: Source Source
Field Dominance: None None
Alpha: None/Ignore None/Ignore
Composite: Normal Normal

I have checked the render options in the Sequence tab, they were all checked; unchecking some/all seems to have no effect. Most images are scaled to the size of the canvas window, with the exception of two, on which I had zoomed in. I can take those out and crop the separately and re-import them so they are scaled to the canvas window. Thanks so much for the input.

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Answer 6

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Apr 26, 2010 11:46 AM in response to Julie Cannon

Hi -
From what you report, my 2 cents would be to re-scan the images currently giving you trouble and create files that are much larger in size, at least 3K pixels wide (dpi does not matter for video). If you can, save the scanned image as a TIF, PICT, or PNG file.

The scanned images you are working with now are much to small, and from the files size reported, too highly compressed to work well - particularly if you are doing the infamous "Ken Burns" zoom ins/outs/pans.

The reason you digital photos look better is that I would wager they much larger than your scanned images, so there is more room to move around on them without losing image quality.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 7

Julie Cannon Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 27, 2010 9:34 AM in response to Meg The Dog

That worked, thank you.

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