- Capturing DV Footage
- Digitizing Analog Footage
- Digitizing Three Ways
- Capture and the Capture Panel
- Watching Video During Capture
- Controlling a Camera with the Capture Panel
- Storing Captured Footage
- Using Playback Controls in the Capture Panel
- Capturing DV
- Adding Media
- Adding Stills
- Adding Still-Image Sequences
- Creating a Still Image in Photoshop Elements
- Generating Synthetic Media
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating a Still Image in Photoshop Elements
You can launch Photoshop Elements from within Premiere Elements. When you do, Photoshop Elements automatically opens a new file with the proper dimensions to create a full-screen image in a DV project. The image is added to the current Premiere Elements project automatically.
Naturally, your computer will require sufficient memory (RAM) to run both programs simultaneously.
To create a still image in Photoshop Elements:
- Choose File > New > Photoshop File (
Figure 3.48
).
Figure 3.48 Choose File > New > Photoshop File.
- In the Save Photoshop File As dialog box that appears, make sure Add to Project (Merged Layers) is selected, and then specify a name and destination for the new file, and click Save (
Figure 3.49
).
Photoshop Elements launches. An Adobe Photoshop Elements dialog box warns you that the image will appear distorted when displayed on a computer screen but will appear normally when viewed on a television (see the sidebar "PAR Excellence: Pixel Aspect Ratios").
Figure 3.49 In the Save Photoshop File As dialog box, specify a name and location for the new file, and click Save.
- In the Adobe Photoshop Elements dialog box, click OK to acknowledge and close the dialog box (
Figure 3.50
).
Figure 3.50 Photoshop Elements points out the distortion caused by differences in pixel aspect ratios; click OK to close the dialog box.
- Create the still image you want (
Figure 3.51
).
Consult the Adobe Photoshop Elements User Guide, Help System, or other instructional resources for more about using Photoshop Elements.
Figure 3.51 In Photoshop Elements, create the still image you want, and then close the file.
- When you've completed the image, close Photoshop Elements.
In the warning dialog box, confirm that you want to save and close the file. The image you created appears in the selected folder of the Premiere Elements Media panel (
Figure 3.52
).
Figure 3.52 The Photoshop Elements image file you created is added to Premiere Elements' Media panel automatically.
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PAR Excellence: Pixel Aspect Ratios
Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) refers to the dimensions of each pixel used to create the image frame. Although some formats share the same image aspect ratio, they use different pixel aspect ratios ( Figure 3.53 and Figure 3.54 ).
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Figure 3.53 This example illustrates how square pixels can be used to form an image with a 43 aspect ratio.
)
Figure 3.54 This example illustrates how nonsquare pixels form an image with a 43 aspect ratio.
Images appear distorted when the PAR of the footage doesn't match the PAR of the display. Footage in DV looks distorted when displayed on a typical computer monitor, which displays square pixels ( Figure 3.55 ). Conversely, a square-pixel image appears distorted when viewed or output at DV resolution.
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Figure 3.55 An image created with nonsquare pixels is distorted when displayed with square pixels.
This is why Photoshop Elements warns you that the image you create appears distorted—squeezed 10% horizontally, as a matter of fact—when viewed on a computer screen. But don't worry; the distortion will disappear once the image is interpreted and displayed correctly.
When you create square-pixel footage for DV output, set the image size to 720x534 to compensate for the differences in PARs.