VFX plates. Dramatic pans and scans over archival content. Still images can be used in a myriad of ways in your video project.
Thankfully, Adobe Premiere Pro keeps the door wide open for aspiring filmmakers looking to incorporate photos, graphics, and more into multimedia projects large and small.
What Types of Images Can You Import Into Premiere Pro?
While the ceiling is high, Premiere Pro does impose some limitations on which still images the program will accept. The image can be no wider or taller than 32,768 pixels, allowing for a frame size of up to 256 megapixels in total.
Naturally, you will want to choose images that are at least as large as the frame of the video that you will be adding them to. While a smaller image size may reduce the time that it takes for Premiere to render your sequence, having pixels to spare may be ideal for you, depending on the project. Account for a still image twice as large as your project’s aspect ratio if you plan on punching in at any point in time.
The content of your still image may also pose some technical challenges to Premiere. Moiré patterns may appear when minute, tightly-clustered lines in the photo are continuously reinterpreted by Premiere as you scale out or zoom in.
Lines and stripes may confuse the program as it tries to parse their boundaries between discrete and contrasted values, resulting in unsightly artifacts. It’s best to avoid things like tightly-knit or banded designs when working with media of contrasting resolution, especially if you intend to scale it up or down on-screen.
As far as acceptable file types go, you can use JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs, TIFFs, and DPXs. Premiere is also able to link projects to Photoshop and Illustrator files dynamically, giving you the means to continuously adjust your image without disturbing it from its place in your Premiere timeline.
Importing Your Image: Best Practices
Once you’ve confirmed that your image of choice is in accordance with the aforementioned, there are a few best practices in Premiere Pro to be mindful of when importing still images.
Before pulling anything in, hop on over to your Preferences menu from the Edit dropdown. Navigate to your Timeline settings.
Here, you will be able to specify the length of every still that you import into the program by adjusting the Still Image Default Duration setting. Doing this preemptively will save you a lot of headaches down the line, especially if you intend to eventually import an image sequence.
If alpha transparency in Premiere Pro is what you’re after, you can assign channel properties in Photoshop or Illustrator that will be attached to the image file brought into Premiere.
Keep in mind that JPEGs are not capable of carrying alpha transparency with them, no matter where the images are coming from. You should also make sure that any stills that you plan on using are video-friendly in terms of color space, two common options being sRBG and NTSC RGB.
Also noteworthy: if your image is saved as either a PSD or an AI file, all of your separate layers will be preserved and can continuously be modified as you work—you will be asked whether or not you would like to merge them when you bring them into Premiere Pro.
Containing your workflow to only the Adobe suite might be your best bet if you’re using these images to animate a complicated sequence, or if your project features many graphic elements that you plan on tweaking many times.
Now will also be your moment to do your due diligence in terms of naming conventions and folder hierarchy, even if only for the sake of completeness and professionalism. Getting used to working in this way will make editing larger projects later on much easier.
How to Import Still Images Into Premiere Pro
Ready to begin? Fire up Premiere—it’s showtime.
From one of your bins, either right-click and select Import from the context menu, or hit Ctrl + I to call up the Import window. Select your still image of choice and click Open.
From the bin, you’ll be able to pull it right into your timeline. You can use the Effect Controls panel to adjust the position, scale, rotation, and opacity of the image. You will also be able to apply other effects to the image, much like you would any other asset.
And that’s it. How easy was that?
When to Use Still Images in Your Project
Getting the images ready is the annoying part. Now, all that’s left is to decide what you’re going to do with them.
We’ve got more than a few jumping-off points for you to explore.
1. When Money Is Tight
Most of us start out filmmaking at home on our own. Sky replacement is one common crowd-pleaser—you’re able to transform your humble accommodations into a remote, exotic destination (spacesuit and helmet sold separately). There are many ways that you can upgrade even the most modest project with still images in this way.
2. When You Need the Resolution
Still images make excellent assets when working with composited VFX; they’re clean, crisp, and will generally pack a wallop in terms of resolution.
Think about a video shot in 1080p and another shot in 4K; the latter allows you to scale the image up, cropping you in without hitting a wall. A still image of greater proportion will only afford you so much more flexibility in post-production.
3. When You’re Animating a Sequence
Animation comes in all sorts of flavors. Harness the persistence of vision and bring the inanimate objects around you to life. Image sequences in Premiere Pro allow you to do so with ease.
4. When You Want to Reinforce an Idea
Our man Ken Burns is the one who started it all. His work in documentary filmmaking is what made panning and scanning archival photos à la the History Channel one of the most infamous tropes to ever grace our television screens.
When you’re short on material and need to get your point across, this technique works well to bridge any semantic gaps that you may have in your narrative.
5. When You’ve Got a Lot to Keep Track Of
Reference for color? Done. Documentation for continuity? Why wouldn’t you want that in your back pocket after your shoot? Save yourself the hassle of pulling out your pencil and notepad; snap a shot to pull into your system when all is said and done.
The Possibilities at Hand Should Terrify and Excite You
With a bit of lateral thinking, your creativity will know no bounds. There are literally endless possibilities when it comes to incorporating images into your projects, which may seem overwhelming at first. All it takes is a bit of experimenting to figure out the best way to include a still image in your project.