Using 4k footage in a 1080p project for zooming purposes - best way?

[jaystarkey]

What is the best (most painless) way to use 4K (UHD) footage, while taking advantage of its resolution (say, if you want to "zoom" from 50% to 100% at 1080p), when you plan on outputting the video to 1080p -- and you need to mix with other 1080p video?

I recently started using 4k footage for my 1080p projects. This is so I can zoom in on the 4k when I need to while maintaining resolution.  I still have other cameras/sources that are 1080p, and my final videos are all 1080p. Note: I take my audio separately, so I use sequences for alignment of audio and video, not raw footage.

Details.

In the past, typically I would create a sequence called "synced", drag all my clips on there and align the audio up from multiple takes, and then I use that "synced" sequence for editing -- putting everything into a sequence called "final".  Then I just render out the "final" to get the video.  Now that I am using 4k on 1080p, I put everything into the "synced" sequence and set the scale to 50% so everything fits, then use my typical workflow.  In the "final" sequence, I would sometimes scale that up to 200%.  thinking this would be the same thing as pulling the 4K sequence onto the 1080p timeline directly and scaling to 100% (e.g. Premiere would know the extra resolution is there and take advantage of it), but when I rendered it out, I noticed it was blurrier than expected.

I did a little test, and obviously if I put 4K stuff into a 1080p sequence, scale to 50%, and then put that onto a 1080p timeline and scale that sequence up to 200%, the scaling is done with my downsampled 4k with loss of resolution.  (Hopefully, that makes sense...). I have some many cuts that I could not manually scale to 50% on the "final" timeline. I guess I could make the "final" sequence 4k, scale all the 1080p stuff up, and then choose 1080p when rendering....?

I just am unsure of the best way to make editing easy and to make everything the fullest resolution possible at 1080p when zooming in on a portion of the video with the 4k data. Also, I tried various setting to see if I could get 4k footage to automatically scale when I put a 4k sequence in the source panel and add it to a 1080p sequence in the timeline, but this only seems to only work for raw footage -- anything inside a 4k sequence as added at 100% scale and I have to manually scale each clip down by setting to the frame size -- which would be too time consuming/impractical. Thanks!

[eikonoklastes]

There are a few methods you could explore to potentially make your life easier:

- Assign a shortcut to the "Set to Frame Size" button.

- Give all your 4K clips the same label colour.  You can preprocess them in the Project Panel before bringing them into your timeline.  Then you can right-click > Label > Select Label Group (assign a shortcut to this too if you want) and apply the Set to Frame Size in one go.

- There's also Copy > Paste Attributes which might be useful to look at.

Also, important side note:

Use "Set to Frame Size", not "Scale to Frame Size" for your 4K footage.

When you use Scale, it shrinks your footage and then uses that as the reference frame when you scale up, and not the original dimensions, which will result in a lossy upscale.

[FSlodysko]

Provided your machine can handle it, I'd say make your sequences match your target output, so that you have no doubt on how it will look.  If your machine slows down from the 4K footage, try using Premiere to create proxy files to be used while editing.

In your "sync" sequence, keep the setting at 1080, so that in your "final" sequence the scale doesn't change.  You can always change the scale in your "sync" sequence at will and it will automatically adjust in your "final" sequence, since the "sync" sequence is nested there.

For more information regarding proxy files, try this link

Work offline using proxy media |

[Guest]

Sure that is the best way to use 3840 in a 1920 environment. I do that all the time for my interviews shot with one camera.

Zoom to get good close up for side to side cut the pieces as you move along Audio is not affected in any way

[Jim_Simon]

I would sometimes scale that up to 200%.  thinking this would be the same thing as pulling the 4K sequence onto the 1080p timeline directly and scaling to 100%

That is incorrect.

[Ann Bens]

You set up a 1920x1080 sequence.

You drop your udh clip into that sequence and do not change settings when asked on the first clip.

The udh clip will be zoomed in.

right click on clip and Set to Frame Size.

​Now you can keyframe Scale up to 100%. (and of course the other parameters.

If you drop 1080p footage in that same sequence you cannot zoom in on that clip without loosing resolution.

[darryll88109905]

I had the same question. Here is what I tried:

METHOD #1

Create 1080p sequence first. Then drag in 4k footage. When asked if I want sequence settings to be updated to match video, I say no. The 4k footage fits the 1080p screen at 50% Scale in Effects Control. I went as high as 150% to do the cutaway shots, that is, to make it look like I have two cameras to cover a wide area. I exported to 1080p.

METHOD #2

Dragged 4k footage into Premier and accepted to make sequence match footage settings. So, basically a 4k sequence. Did equivalent Scale changes in Effects Control, although the numbers are different because in this sequence the the 4k footage fits the frame at 100% to start. Exported to 4k.

METHOD #3

Same as Method #2, but I exported to 1080p.

RESULTS

I played back the three video files in VLC. The zoomed portions of the video look a bit better in METHOD #2 than METHOD #1. Viewed at 1080p on YouTube, I don't see a noticeable difference. I can, however, conclusively say that METHOD #3 was the worst. It's as if Premiere takes the original 4k footage, converts it to HD, and then the, say, 150% Scale looks as bad as if the footage started in HD.

CONCLUSION

I will probably use METHOD #1 from now on, although I may do some more tests. Would be interested to read about other people's tests.

[timoostrich]

I am facing a similar problem.

When I used one 4k file only, I created a 1920x1080 sequence and scaled the 4k footage down to 50%.

That way I am able too zoom in to 100% if I want.

Now I am using two cameras and I created a multi camera timeline.
That was I can't zoom in and out any more.

Case 1: I place my 4k source file in at 100%. If I set some frames to 50% the image is cut. I can't zoom out.

Case 2: I place my 4k source file in at 50%. If I zoom in to 100% for some frames, the quality is not 4k anymore. It's just a zoomed hd file.

Any ideas how I could handle that? I want to be able, to do different zooms on my 4k stream in a multi camera setting...