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Guest Post by Richard Harrington – Follow Richard on Twitter

Photos that are intended for use in a video project have much lower resolution requirements than those for print projects.  Additionally, video has very specific pixel dimensions that need to be followed.  Otherwise unwanted black bars can show up around the image on the video screen.  Let’s learn an easy workflow.

1.    Create a video-sized document Choose File > New… and choose a preset that matches your video editing timeline.

2.    Add your source photo Choose File > Place then navigate to your desired image file and click Place and then click OK. Your source photo may have a different pixel shape than your video graphic document. Many of the video presets rely upon non-square pixels, but Photoshop will handle all of the conversion internally.

3.    Scale the image to size Drag the Transform handles to size the photo.  Be sure to hold the shift key to scale the image proportionately.

4.    Commit the image Press Return (Enter) to complete the Place command and add the image to your document.

5.    Change your mind When using the Place command, the new layer is added as a Smart Object.  This means that you can choose to scale the image up to its original size at any time.  To modify the scale, choose Edit > Free Transform to resize the image.

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