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Videoguys' Adobe Photoshop CS Hands-On Review
Adobe recently announced all new upgrades for their complete video lineup including the new Adobe Video Collection 2.5 and Adobe Video Collection Professional 2.5. These full-featured software *collections* include Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for video editing, Adobe After Effects 6.5, Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 and Adobe Audition 1.5. The Professional Collection includes the Professional version of Adobe After Effects 6.5 plus the full version of Adobe Photoshop CS. Why would Adobe Photoshop CS be added to a video production bundle? Do you really need Photoshop? Is it only for professionals?
Adobe Photoshop CS is the newest version of the most powerful image enhancement software around and should be an add-on to every video editing system. If you have the Adobe Video Collection, a Matrox, Canopus or ADS non-linear editor with Adobe software or ANY other video production software, Photoshop will allow you to make the most of your videos. Photo montages, title screens, logos and graphics and even DVD menu screens may all be created and improved with Photoshop CS. Whether you are an experienced video editor, an experienced graphic designer, or a complete novice in both fields, learning Photoshop is well worth the time and effort. Fortunately there are some very comprehensive training materials available from Total Training and even some new materials specifically designed for those using Photoshop for Digital Video. These DVDs by Class-on-Demand and VASST were very helpful in writing this hands-on review -- and I've been using Photoshop for close to 10 years!
Make your Photos Video Friendly
Whether you’ve decided to finally edit all of those old family videos, or if you’re a professional putting the finishing touches on your last wedding, corporate training or other event video, chances are you will need to incorporate a still image at some point in your production. It may be as simple as a photo-montage or as intricate as a pan-and-zoom ala a Ken Burns’ documentary. In either case, it’s important to realize that the photos you scan into your computer or grab from a digital camera may look great in print but terrible in video. Here are some easy ways to make sure your photos will look great on the big screen.
 Adobe Photoshop CS has some great new templates for creating new files. If you have an older version of Photoshop this feature alone may be worth the upgrade! The easiest way to make sure your photos will be video-friendly is to always start with a new file based on one of these templates. So, go to File > New > Preset and choose one of the video templates to use for your photo. I am working with DV footage so I chose NTSC DV 720x480 (with guides) but before you click OK note that I also changed my background contents to Transparent and my color profile to “Don’t Manage.” Now, when you click OK, you’ll be all set to begin. But wait,,, did you get a warning message about the pixel aspect ratio correction? What does this mean? This is Adobe’s way of telling you that anything copied to or created in this file will be rendered into non-square pixels optimized for video. Click OK and you’re well on your way. Now you can open the photo you need to use, copy and paste it into your video template, resize it to fit the frame and Voila!, you now have a made-for-tv image. But that’s not all, Photoshop CS can do sooo much more, all for the same low price, buy now and learn these image enhancement techniques…
Image Enhancement for Video Output
I hope you’re happy with your image now that you’ve formatted it properly. But, will the image look the same when you output it to an NTSC monitor as it does here on your computer screen? Will anything bad happen to it if I encode it to an MPEG-2 file for DVD, or worse, a low-resolution file for multimedia and the web? Fortunately Adobe Photoshop CS has quite a few tools to make sure your image looks great and when you combine that with a basic understanding of the way video works you’ll be much happier with the final results.
 One of the most common problems that plague photographs incorporated in video productions is a flickering edge. While a clean, sharp edge may print beautifully on your photo-quality inkjet this same line can create a lot of video noise. Remember, video is a series of moving pixels that constantly refresh. Therefore, thin, sharp edges may reveal this otherwise subtle movement. The easiest way to resolve this problem is to take advantage of the various blur filters included in Photoshop. In this photo from my wedding you see my wife and I standing amongst the pews of our church. The hard edges of the pews (especially those on the right) may create these flickering problems. Now instead of my lovely wife being the center of attention your audience will be entranced by some dancing pixels on the right. You may easily resolve this by selecting some of the offending lines and creating a motion blur of just 1 or 2 pixels. Another example of when you may run into this problem is with titles, graphics or drawings.
 Another important enhancement tool that you should use with every photo you plan on bringing to video is “levels.” Levels are the image adjustment tools in Photoshop that allow you to control the white, greys and blacks. The RGB color space that we selected when we created the new file from a template uses a color range between "0" and "256." However, this range is too much for most monitors and you’d be better off limiting it to 16 and 235 – a great tip I learned from the VASST training DVD! If you are working on Avid Xpress this range is known as the 601 color palette. You can do this very quickly by going to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Control/Command + L for those using keyboard shortcuts) and adjusting the black and white in your output levels. This will prevent your whites from being too bright and your blacks from getting washed out. I also recommend that you click on the preview mode and adjust the input levels to quickly correct the overall color of your photo. A good start is to move the black and white markers to the beginning and end of the histogram and tweak from there.
Obviously, there’s a lot more you can do to help improve your snapshot in Photoshop and a lot of that will come from experimenting with the software, logging some precious practice time, taking advantage of Photoshop’s many levels of undo and, if you’re really eager, using some of the great training tools available on the market. All of this power may become overwhelming to you newbies so start slow, save often and let your creative energy spill over to some of the great creativity this program can help you accomplish.
Using Photoshop CS to Create Video Elements
Adobe Photoshop CS would not be the benchmark in the industry if all it did was allow you to re-touch photos. PS is a complete creative tool that can easily create elements that will make your videos look like the productions the pros make. Use it to create title screens, lower-thirds, bugs, DVD menus and more.
 Lower-thirds are the title bars that you commonly see across the bottom of the screen during a news broadcast, interview or corporate video. These title bars convey important information such as the anchorman’s name without completely interrupting your footage. These are useful tools in most video productions to create a nice segue from one scene to the next without the constant interruption of title screens. Title screens and lower thirds may be created in Photoshop with the same basic tools. Start with a few gradients or patterns, add a color layer and scroll through the blending options in Photoshop to quickly create a nice background for your titles. You should of course be working on your video template with guides so be sure to use the action safe (outer guides) and title safe (inner guides) areas to layout your lower-third. Once you create your title, set the anti-aliasing and choose a contrasting color to outline, shadow or highlight your text. This contrast will make your text more readable even if it is superimposed over moving video. If you look at this frame grab from my son’s first vacation footage, you will see that the lower third I created fades to a transparency. Without the outer glow on the text the title would be very difficult to read over Tyler’s dark blue bathing suit. The one difference in creating the lower-third vs. the bumper is that these are often saved to an Alpha-channel that will preserve the transparencies for video overlay. To preserve this alpha channel I recommend saving your images in TGA format that is compatible with every video editing application I’ve ever used.
“Bugs” are small logos and graphics that appear on screen at all times. CNN started doing this and now just about every TV channel you turn on has a bug on the screen. Perhaps you have a client that would like you to do this with his company’s logo over the training video you are working on. If so, the principals are the same as creating the lower-third and mastering alpha-channels is now even more important.
 Finally, one of the most asked about functions in the world of video editing today is creating DVDs. DVDs are a revolutionary media that allows you to combine interactive capabilities to complement the viewing experience. You can use Adobe Photoshop to layout your menu screen with buttons that will later be used for navigation. What’s more, you can bring your image into Adobe EncoreDVD 1.5 and other popular authoring programs, recognize the Photoshop layers and automatically configure the buttons with navigation to the various chapters on the disc. The more advanced users may also want to add Adobe After Effects 6.5 to their workflow to create professional bumpers (motion title screens) and motion DVD menus. The possibilities are endless!
Whether you are a home videographer who has been bitten by the creativity bug or a professional producer looking to get the best tools for your trade, Adobe Photoshop CS2 should be the next add-on to your non-linear editing system.
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Videoguys Top 10
Tech Tips Using
Photoshop CS
for Digital Video
1. Open a new Photoshop file using a video template such as NTSC DV 720x480 and copy & paste your image to this template so Photoshop will automatically convert to non-square pixels for video.
2. Be sure to use template guides for safe action and safe title areas.
3. Prevent flicker. Images with thin, sharp lines such as the side of a building may flicker in video. Solve this quickly and easily by applying a motion blur of just 1 or 2 pixels. Drawn images such as lines or boxes will have a sharp edge that may also jitter. Use a Gaussian blur on these hard edges to prevent these problems.
4. Know your colors! Work in RGB color mode with a range between 16 - 235. The full black or white you use for print will not work well on video and this full-broadcast range will easily translate into any editing system including the 601 levels in Avid Xpress.
5. Save your images as TGA to preserve any transparencies/alpha channels.
6. If your titles are going to appear over moving video it may be impossible to find a color that is always readable and still looks good. For example, if you type in black and a person wearing a navy blue shirt walks across the screen the black may not be visible. To prevent this, always use a contrasting color to edge your type. This may be a stroke, outer glow, shadow or some combination of them all to guarantee visibility
7. When titling always set anti-aliasing. "None" may cause jagged edges and jitter while "smooth" or "sharp" will significantly improve the quality.
8. Use your layers. The Layers palette is a powerful tool that allows you to organize your work, make changes quickly and affect only the elements you want. More advanced projects may include layers, layer sets or layer sets within sets (this is a new feature of Adobe Photoshop CS).
9. Use your history palette. In the Edit>Preferences menu you can set the number of actions to store in the history palette. Beginners should set this number higher, but more advanced users will lower it to get better performance. I set my history levels to 20 and have still had excellent performance on most laptops & desktop computers.
10. Practice, practice, practice. Invest in training materials for Photoshop CS or any other software you use regularly and refer to them often. I have more than 10 years experience with photoshop and more than 5 editing and I am still learning new tricks.
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