Photo's in video editing

[coondogg97]

This is more of a poll then a question. What do you guys think about putting pictures in the middle of a video? Im not a big fan of inserting pictures in the middle of video, but my wife keeps telling me to get over it. What do you guys think? Yay or nay? Any opinions are appreciated!

Thanks,

Brian

[guns1inger]

It's a question of style, aesthetic, and sometimes, practicality. I do a lot of video work for a local school, and most of the time I get handed a couple of DV tapes, a couple of DVDs, and a handful of CDs full of photos. Digital cameras are so common now that everybody carries them, and a lot of the time the only record of an event is still images. If it is not the only record, it certainly makes up a large part of the visual record.

For me the issue then isn't so much whether or not to use them, but how best to use them. For me the decisions are

1. Where best to put them in
2. How best to present them
3. How to make them work within the full scope of the production

The so-called 'Ken Burns Effect' is over-used, however the real problem I see is that it is also often, especially by amateurs, used very badly. Pans and zooms that cross over each other or rapidly change direction make for a very jarring experience for the viewer. Like transitions, the best ones are subtle and go unnoticed unless they need to make a point. Gentle pans or zooms can make a photo fit visually within a video without jarring the viewer out of the experience.

Give an amateur 100 transitions or 100 ways to move around a photo and they will try to fit every one of them into their first video (and often their second, third etc.). If this has been the bulk of your exposure to photos in videos, then I don't blame you for being gun-shy. But when all you have is still images, then you learn to make it work. Subtle is always better.

[coondogg97]

Gun - Thanks for your opinion. I completely understand where you are coming from and I think that’s why I am so stand off when it comes to using photos in video. I have only done 2 other edits before this one and its RARE that I use something other then the default "fade" when transitioning between scenes. I have seen some videos online that you can tell people put A LOT of effort into, but they look corny and overdone due to all of the unneeded effects and that’s the last thing I want to do. That's the reason I am so stand offish when it comes to pictures in the middle of a video. I have no problem with a picture montage at the end of a video, but I think it’s real easy to lose a person focus when you start throwing still images at them in the middle of motion video.

I will play with some things tonight and see if what works best if anything..

Thanks again,

Brian