How do I insert a picture into iMovie regardless of aspect ratio

When I insert a picture, i either have the choice of cropping the picture or having black bars on the sides. How can I insert a picture into imovie and not be dictated based on the aspect ratio. thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Sep 2, 2012 12:46 PM

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23 replies

Sep 3, 2012 3:24 AM in response to Klaus1

Hi Klaus,


iMovie '11 also does pretty much as you've described for iMovie HD 6. The picture (or video) will always import in it's original form. So, for example, a portrait image will import just as it appears in iPhoto. Of course, it will have black on each side whether the video aspect is 16:9 or 4:3 (when the image is set to "Fit" in the Viewer options).


In the Viewer, iMovie '11 gives us a choice as to whether we want to "Allow Black" or "Disallow Black". In the latter case, if Crop is chosen, a green moveable border will be framed around a section of the image, in the same aspect ratio as the project. Likewise, if Ken Burns is selected, both a green and red border will appear, allowing the setting of the start and end sections respectively (including the size of these sections). The start and end positions can easily be reversed with one click on an icon.


Hope this clarifies things. I think Karsten was just indicating that to fit a whole image into the frame (such as a portrait image), without cropping or showing black, would require distorting the image to make it fit with all pixels intact. Hence his tongue in cheek remark about showing "eggheads". 🙂


Regards

John

Sep 3, 2012 3:37 AM in response to Klaus1

Klaus1 wrote:


Must be one of the wonderful improvements introduced in iMovie 11. 😉


nope, never.


look:


example #1: a 1:1 pic in a 16:9 screen

option A bars l/r

option B cat-off


User uploaded file



example #2: a wiiiide screen pic in a 16:9 screen

option A bars t/b

option B catcut off


User uploaded file


and you don't want kitty look like that:


User uploaded file


(1:1 aspect ratio distorted to make fit onto a 16:9 screen)

Sep 3, 2012 4:16 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Well I never! How the heck did I miss that? Very clever of you to use that. I remember Klaus' old avatar, but completely missed the new one (and they used to call me eagle eye at work). No, Alvin didn't look like the Garfield (stretched) version, but very much like Klaus' cat.


PS. Hope I didn't misrepresent you in my earlier response to Klaus. 😝


John

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How do I insert a picture into iMovie regardless of aspect ratio

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