How best to treat mixed aspect ratio?

[Beemer]

I'm making an AV that has a mix of vertical and horizontal images.   The vertical ones are too tightly in-camera cropped to crop as horizontal.   All the images are in date order so its not possible to group per aspect ratio.  What is the best way to put such a collection together?  I am exporting 1920x1080.

As a newbie to AV,  I'm thinking that I could place two verticals side by side (but not sure of the best way to do that),  or use a background just for the verticals to avoid blank sides.

All suggestions welcomed!

Ian

[jkb]

Hi Ian, first question, do the images really have to be in date order?

It is usually better to group images according to content and colour as long as they still tell the story.

If the images are high Resolution then it may be possible to enlarge the vertical ones and do a slow pan up or down the image, to keep everything the same aspect ratio.

But too many pans can be distracting.

 

If you wish to show the whole of the vertical images then as you suggest, placing them side by side can work.  Use a suitable full frame image, either slightly blurred or desaturated as a background.  This could be the same image throughout the AV to keep continuity, or you could use the preceding image.

Don't put the vertical ones full height, just reduce them slightly and maybe add a very thin border and shadow to make them stand out above the background.

You could either bring two images up together, Or bring up one then the other.

You could also change the background to that of the following image, so that it will easily transition into that.

The main aim is to keep the images flowing and avoid distractions.

If you live anywhere within travelling distance of Manchester (UK), then we run 1to1 workshops before our regular meetings at Wilmslow Guild AV Group. You are more than welcome to come along. See http://www.wilmslowguildav.org.uk for details.

Or see http://www.avnews.org.uk for other AV events.

Jill

[davegee]

I think that Barry Beckham has a video dealing with this sbject?

https://docs.pteavstudio.com/en-us/10.0/how_to_v10/beckham_3

See "Picture in Picture".

 

DG

[Beemer]

1 hour ago, jkb said:

Hi Ian, first question, do the images really have to be in date order?

It is usually better to group images according to content and colour as long as they still tell the story.

If the images are high Resolution then it may be possible to enlarge the vertical ones and do a slow pan up or down the image, to keep everything the same aspect ratio.

But too many pans can be distracting.

 

If you wish to show the whole of the vertical images then as you suggest, placing them side by side can work.  Use a suitable full frame image, either slightly blurred or desaturated as a background.  This could be the same image throughout the AV to keep continuity, or you could use the preceding image.

Don't put the vertical ones full height, just reduce them slightly and maybe add a very thin border and shadow to make them stand out above the background.

You could either bring two images up together, Or bring up one then the other.

You could also change the background to that of the following image, so that it will easily transition into that.

The main aim is to keep the images flowing and avoid distractions.

If you live anywhere within travelling distance of Manchester (UK), then we run 1to1 workshops before our regular meetings at Wilmslow Guild AV Group. You are more than welcome to come along. See http://www.wilmslowguildav.org.uk for details.

Or see http://www.avnews.org.uk for other AV events.

Jill

Hi Jill,

Thanks for the very interesting options.   This AV is about the timeline of my granddaughter from birth and using four AV MP4s.  So file date order is important as otherwise I envisage viewers noticing.

Ian 

[Beemer]

47 minutes ago, davegee said:

I think that Barry Beckham has a video dealing with this sbject?

https://docs.pteavstudio.com/en-us/10.0/how_to_v10/beckham_3

See "Picture in Picture".

 

DG

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Ian

[Xenofex2]

Ian

An interesting post as I am undertaking a similar project. Our eldest grand-daughter will be 18 years old later this year, and am probably about three quarters along the way.

Following on from DaveGee’s suggestion, I was actually looking at those recommended videos and would also recommend that you do not stop at the one suggested. I started going through them last night and subsequent ones also go into the same issue but from a slightly different aspect and thus suggestion. Then if not done already, check out Barry’s website as you can download some of those slide styles and make a donation towards the tutorial(s) and slide style.

An alternative suggestion that I have used for some of my images is to put together a montage (using masks) using my Photo Editing program of loads of the photos from one year.

Although not relative to your post, another maybe obvious suggestion but sometimes overlooked is to make sure you do regular saves of the project as you progress. And this time for the very first time, probably because I have used so many images of my grand-daughter and slides in the project I have started to action a nightly back-up of my P2E folder …. Just in case the worse happens and my computer dies.

One further suggestion for once your project is finally completed and this comes from experience. Many years back I did put together, albeit using a different program, an audio visual of the same grand-daughter as it so happens and her first two years. With the benefit of hindsight, it was too long and had too many swirly effects linking the images. The problem though is that mindful at the time of a filling hard drive on my computer I just deleted the folder to make space and so am now unable to easily make any amendments. At that time I don’t recall that external hard drives were around.  

George

Herts

[davegee]

Also take a look at some of Pascal's Styles at https://diaporashop.com/en/

 

DG

 

[Beemer]

2 hours ago, Xenofex2 said:

Ian

An interesting post as I am undertaking a similar project. Our eldest grand-daughter will be 18 years old later this year, and am probably about three quarters along the way.

Following on from DaveGee’s suggestion, I was actually looking at those recommended videos and would also recommend that you do not stop at the one suggested. I started going through them last night and subsequent ones also go into the same issue but from a slightly different aspect and thus suggestion. Then if not done already, check out Barry’s website as you can download some of those slide styles and make a donation towards the tutorial(s) and slide style.

An alternative suggestion that I have used for some of my images is to put together a montage (using masks) using my Photo Editing program of loads of the photos from one year.

Although not relative to your post, another maybe obvious suggestion but sometimes overlooked is to make sure you do regular saves of the project as you progress. And this time for the very first time, probably because I have used so many images of my grand-daughter and slides in the project I have started to action a nightly back-up of my P2E folder …. Just in case the worse happens and my computer dies.

One further suggestion for once your project is finally completed and this comes from experience. Many years back I did put together, albeit using a different program, an audio visual of the same grand-daughter as it so happens and her first two years. With the benefit of hindsight, it was too long and had too many swirly effects linking the images. The problem though is that mindful at the time of a filling hard drive on my computer I just deleted the folder to make space and so am now unable to easily make any amendments. At that time I don’t recall that external hard drives were around.  

George

Herts

George,

Thanks for your tips.  

Ian