resolution of photos in iMovie

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Level 1

9 points

resolution of photos in iMovie

My iMovie has a lot of photos in tif or tiff format. They are 25—35 GB each. I plan to share the video as a file at 720 p for viewing on a iPad or a tv set sent by bluetooth. I am concerned that the resulting video file will be extremely big.

Does iMovie have a maximum effective resolution for photos that is a lot smaller than that of the photos? If that is true, perhaps I should export each photo into a much smaller size before putting it into iMovie.

Or if iMovie does have a max effective resolution, does iMovie reduce the size of each photo as it creates the video file, resulting in a reasonably small file to share?

Even if I am asking my questions wrong, I will welcome comments

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Dec 2, 2022 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Dec 5, 2022 1:00 PM in response to dougieboy

Yes, as to both of your questions.

It is not the leading clip in the timeline that determines the resolution, it is the first clip added that, at the time, just happens to be the leading clip. The resolution is determined by the first clip that is initially placed into a newly created blank project. After that, you can delete the first clip or move it any place else in the timeline, or put other clips in front of it. The project resolution will remain the same as the first clip that you initially placed. In fact, once you have set the project resolution you can no longer change it within that project, no matter what the resolution of the later added clips may be, or whether you add a new clip at the beginning of the timeline. You can even delete all the clips in the project to start over, but the project resolution will remain the same even if you add a new first clip that has a different resolution. To change the project resolution, you must start a new project and insert a clip with a different resolution than before. Whatever the project resolution is that you have set, say it is 740p, when you export you may still get export options of 540p or 1080p, along with 740p.

So, you can add your first clip to set the resolution, and then delete it, or put your introductory clip in front of it, and the resolution will still remain that of the first clip that you initially added before adding the introductory clip.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Dec 2, 2022 6:44 PM in response to dougieboy

Hi,

I did a little test. Using the same photo I created a 36.6 MB TIFF and a 5.5MB jpeg. I put the TIFF into an iMovie project and exported it to my desktop. The TIFF movie had a file size of 971 kb on the desktop. I put the jpeg photo into a different iMovie project and exported it at the same settings as the TIFF. I got an identical sized 971 kb movie on the desktop. Although the two photos were vastly different sizes, the exported movies were identical in size. The resolutions of the two movies had been set at 540 in the iMovie export box, and both movies exported at 540.

Based on my very limited testing, I conclude that whether TIFF or jpeg, it will not affect the size or resolution of the exported movie. File size and resolution will be determined by the export settings that you choose.

The resolution of the project will be determined by the resolution of the very first video clip (not photo) that is inserted into a newly created blank project.

However, you can do your own testing, using a couple of photos, and see what findings that you get.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

dougieboy Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 4, 2022 6:03 PM in response to Rich839

Thank you. Excellent and logical answer. I will repeat the test with a few of the big photos vs the same ones exported to much smaller. I will put them in with no other items such as backgrounds, then share each as a file to see if both files come out the same size as they did for you. I will let you know.

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Answer 4

dougieboy Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 5, 2022 12:25 PM in response to Rich839

Rich839, I repeated your test by comparing four tif photos with a total size of about 115 MB and the same photos after export as 1 MB jpeg items. As you found, the shared iMovies were the same size. So I will not bother to downsize the original photos--some are even bigger--knowing that the resulting shared file will come out the same size either way.

Also thank you for this statement:

"The resolution of the project will be determined by the resolution of the very first video clip (not photo) that is inserted into a newly created blank project." I will appreciate if you will clarify.

Does that mean that if I put in an introduction clip (background + title) as the first clip that appears in the project pane and the final shared iMovie file, resolution of the resulting iMovie file is determined by that leading clip?

Or do you mean that iMovie file resolution will be determined by the first clip I drop into the event browser , even if that first clip ultimately appears near the end of the final, shared iMovie file?

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resolution of photos in iMovie

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