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Author Topic: Broadcast Quality File Prep?  (Read 3148 times)

dabreeze

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« on: February 04, 2009, 02:20:45 pm »

The Weather Channel is licensing a number of my images for a "storm story" segment to air in April, and I was just wondering if anyone might be able to help me with what would be the
optimum file prep parameters for broadcast? Size, ppi, and appropriate sharpening? I imagine it's probably pretty close to a typicial web prep but I'd like to make sure that the
images look as good as possible.
Many thanks,
Derek von Briesen
www.dvbphotography.com
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deon

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 11:47:20 pm »

Quote from: dabreeze
The Weather Channel is licensing a number of my images for a "storm story" segment to air in April, and I was just wondering if anyone might be able to help me with what would be the
optimum file prep parameters for broadcast?

very similar to the web i'd say without the variable rez. - make the pictures look lovely for yourself on your accurate screen and send them the result as good sized (screen sized?) pictures, best as as srgb tiffs (depending on how they are sent) - the tv picture compositing pgms are pretty much what we do here, so all our problems with pictures are their problems too -
also maybe just ask them what they want and send them that or better
« Last Edit: February 04, 2009, 11:48:10 pm by deon »
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Josh-H

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2009, 12:10:42 am »

Quote from: dabreeze
The Weather Channel is licensing a number of my images for a "storm story" segment to air in April, and I was just wondering if anyone might be able to help me with what would be the
optimum file prep parameters for broadcast? Size, ppi, and appropriate sharpening? I imagine it's probably pretty close to a typicial web prep but I'd like to make sure that the
images look as good as possible.
Many thanks,
Derek von Briesen
www.dvbphotography.com

I would ring them up and simply ask them what form they want the images in.

Here in Australia I have had more than half a dozen images used by the ABC for their national news weather and they provide exact details on their requirements.

Ask them - it may save you unnecessary work or having to redo the images.
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bill t.

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2009, 02:08:51 am »

Even local news channels are set up to handle just about anything.  You can't go wrong with low-compression jpegs.  Remember that HD has the same colorspace as sRGB, so sort of like on the web don't send them ARGB.  Keep the post processing down and don't sharpen at all.  Avoid large black areas, deep shadows, blown out white areas, or important textures above about the 190 level (for 8 bits).  HD is 1920 x 1080 max, so 3K to 4K wide jpgs should more than handle it with some headroom to do kinestasis moves.  In PS you can invoke Filters->Video->NTSC Colors to limit your gamut to whatever can actually be successfully broadcast, but that's really sRGB these days.

Try dropping a few images into whatever movie editor came with your PC or Mac and burn them to a DVD.  I have found that even at NTSC quality still images usually manage to look really great on the TV screen.
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dabreeze

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2009, 09:44:31 am »

hey thanks guys. i'm still waiting to hear back from them, but interestingly enough, other than an appoximate size (1080x1920)
estimate, the segment producer couldn't give me much. so i thought i'd try and get a little bit ahead of the curve by tapping the
expertise of folks here. as usual, good feedback!!
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Schewe

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2009, 12:04:24 pm »

Quote from: dabreeze
1080x1920


That's HD size and if you crop and size to that you'll eliminate ANY moves the editor may want to do. Giving them 2-3X HD would prolly be better unless you get specific instructions to follow. Doing moves with still images; pans and zooms, is very typical to avoid the static shot syndrome (unless the image is being used as background only) o you really don't want to over crop and under size the submitted images...and sRGB would be fine.
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dabreeze

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2009, 09:53:04 pm »

jeff,
i was hoping you would jump in on this thread. in the context of the story i would think they will want to pan & zoom as they are using landscape stills to approximate footage of an area they can't access. if i provided them with 1080x1920 @ say, 240 dpi, this would be a bit more than 3xHD would it not? low compression jpg or tif? a standard screen sharpen from lightroom in addition to a photokit capture sharpen on the original master?
thanks in advance,
dvb
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Schewe

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2009, 11:33:31 pm »

Quote from: dabreeze
if i provided them with 1080x1920 @ say, 240 dpi, this would be a bit more than 3xHD would it not?


No...it would be HD. HD is 1920x1080, if you want 3x that, then take the pixel dimensions and multiply by 3 (5760x3240). DPI (actually PPI) has nothing to do with it. Truth be told, you can prolly get by with 2x (3840x2160) but you really should be talking with whoever will be doing the transfers and edits.
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Pete_G

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2009, 08:40:35 am »

To be honest I wouldn't try to second guess them, if they haven't come up with specs, I'd send them a tif in a good colour space, at full resolution. That way they can do what they like with it. If they come back complaining, then you can ask for definite specs and resend. Most people I know would prefer an image without any conversion or resizing. Of course, you should do whatever post production on the images you see fit, as part of your normal image prepartion but oversharpening might cause problems because you can't go back.
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dabreeze

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Broadcast Quality File Prep?
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2009, 11:32:56 am »

best idea pete, thanks. the producer's on the road doing interviews and since this is absolutely last minute & i
still haven't gotten specifics from anyone tech-related (even though i've asked!!), i'm gonna go with your and jeff's suggestions.
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