Imported images being stretched to fill a sequence frame width

[Flexigav]

Using a compilation of image and video media

I prefer to resize my images so the height is the same as the sequence frame height. If you resize your images to the same height as your sequence frame height and are happy to keep it at its native aspect ratio, rather than crop it to the sequence aspect ratio prior to importing it then you will have to accept the black (or base colour) matting on each side of it that makes up the difference in image width to frame width. Premiere Pro has options available to fill the frame if that is desired. If by default it is doing that and you don't wish for that, because it stretches an image from its default width to the sequence frame width distorting the image, then the first thing you should check is the "Pixel Aspect Ratio" for that image. It may have to be set to "Conform to Square Pixels (1.0). For me, this setting resulted in the image remaining at its imported width. Its height was already fixed to the sequence height before it was imported into Premiere Pro.

In CC 2015.3 this option is found by right-clicking on the image asset in the Project panel then > Modify > Interpret Footage. Look for the "Pixel Aspect Ratio" section.

Hopefully that is all you will need to do.

[Ann Bens]

Images usually are PAR 1.0 (stills, hd footage).

Changing the aspect ration for these assets results in unnatural distortion. Not the way to go imo.

[SAFEHARBOR11]

Really no reason to mess with Pixel Aspect at all...if an individual item needs to be "stretched" to fill the frame, easily done using Adobe Motion effect. Uncheck Uniform Scale, then adjust Scale Width as needed. Done. If you have several pieces of media to do, adjust first one, copy, then multi-select other items and paste effect to them.

Thanks

Jeff

[Flexigav]

Too true, that is why I suggested checking to see if they are set to a Square Pixel Aspect ratio, because if for whatever reason they are not, and your images are being stretched to fill the frame in only one dimension, that will most likely be the reason. I know this from experience and never did find out what caused a batch of them to have this setting changed in the first place—however resetting them back to a Square Pixel Aspect ratio corrected the problem.

Cheers

Gavin

[adrian_1976]

This didn't work, so I imported the image/video into a different project, empty expect for that, then EXPORTED the video/image, and IMPORTED it into the project that didn't work. Yes, it takes a few minutes, but it works. Let me know if this helps anyone.