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azpix
Inspiring
September 9, 2018
Question

Time lapse crop question Photoshopt to Premiere Pro

  • September 9, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 2490 views

i am  working on a time lapse video. historically i have done these in camera on my Lumix GH5 with great results. On a recent trip, i made some time lapses and didn't render the video in camera so I am trying to learn the in and outs using my adobe products. my workflow is to edit the photos  in LR > export to a folder> open in PS as a sequence, then render video> place that video in my sequence in adobe premier prop

my dilemma is this, my video i'm working with is is 3840 x 2160 and the photos from my GH45 are 5184 x 3888. so when  i put my video in my sequence, it's producing a clip with black bars running up the side of the clip, Sample shot below from my program window in premier.

my questions:

  • prior to rendering the video is there a way to crop the whole sequence to exactly 3840 x 2160? I'm not seeing that option like i do when i edit an individual photo in PS?
  • is this the most efficient way to accomplish this?

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    2 replies

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 10, 2018

    Assuming it's in Premiere Pro because you need to edit it in with other clips, this should take about 10 seconds to fix.

    In Premiere Pro, with the time lapse video selected in the Timeline, open the Effect Controls panel and expand the Motion controls. You should then see the Scale option. Change the Scale value until the black bars are gone and it fits exactly the way you want.

    I like to leave the time lapse sequence at its original pixel dimensions; I usually don't downsample it before importing it into Premiere Pro. Because then you have complete freedom to crop as needed in Premiere at any time. All of those extra pixels in the original sequence give you the option of doing virtual zooming and panning within the time lapse video.

    JJMack
    Community Expert
    JJMackCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 10, 2018

    Since their GH5 does not have a Timelaps feature.  I think their GH45 setup may resuls in a collection of still image files not a video file. In any case the camera is not capturing 16:9  Images. Images captured need to be cropped and scaled to the 4k image frame size they want.

    I do not use Premier Pro I have no idea of how well it can handle still image frames.   I'm sure it can.  Most of the processng the OP want to do to their still Image files is automated  by a Photoshop script Load Image Files into a stack, and standard  Photoshop features Frame animation make frame form layer, Image Crop, Plugin Fit Image to frame size and render video.

    I'm sure Premier Pro can do as well.  If I ever want to do video editing I would surly install Premier Pro and After effects.  Disk Space is not a problem for me Learning Premier Pro and After Effects is where my problem is....

    JJMack
    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 10, 2018

    I have a similar camera, a Panasonic G85, and you are correct that these cameras don't capture 16:9 stills by default. But there is no need to spend extra time or steps pre-cropping and resampling a time lapse sequence to a 16:9 video. In either Premiere Pro or Photoshop, you set up your 16:9 frame, and then you can scale the 4:3 or 3:2 time lapse sequence within the 16:9 video frame in a few seconds. This non-destructive cropping preserves all original pixels, so that the scaling or composition can be adjusted easily at any time.

    The video below shows how to do this adjustment quickly in both Premiere Pro and Photoshop.

    In Photoshop, this is possible because the sequence of still images is imported as a single Smart Object.

    JJMack
    Community Expert
    JJMackCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 9, 2018

    azpix  wrote

    my dilemma is this, my video i'm working with is is 3840 x 2160 and the photos from my GH45 are 5184 x 3888. so when  i put my video in my sequence, it's producing a clip with black bars running up the side of the clip, Sample shot below from my program window in premier.

    Because your image does not have a 16:9 aspect ration if you fit them to a 16:9  4k Frame canvas your images will have a boarder on two sides.

    You need to crop your images to have a 16:9 aspect ratio.  This should easy to do.   Use menu File>Scripts>Load Files into a stack.   To load your image sequence into a single Photoshop document.  Set the rectangle marquee tool to fixed aspect ratio 16:9 and drag out a 16:9 selection.  Position the selection for the crop you want then use menu Image>Crop.  Then menu File>Automate>Fit image... Set width 3840 height 2160.  Create a Frame Animation timeline and use the frame animation panel fly-out menu item Make Frames from Layers.   Finally menu File>Export>Render Video and render out your time laps mp4 video.

    Photoshop can do it all you doe not need Premier pro for this.

    JJMack
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