I did my first kill scene today and just noticed some un wanted stuff in the footage, it seems that my bad guys costume can be seen in some shots either in the Background or in the upper right hand corner The same goes for a bottle of corn suryp that I used for fake blood. These objects are not close to the actors so I am guessing if I am to crop the footage it wouldn't be messing with how the actors or actresses look right? The only cropping i have done ever was a facebook page and never did it with editing software, I do not own any editing soft ware so I am wondering if this is an easy fix or is I am just screwed all together. main question, is it possible to crop to save the shot
Cropping Questions
- Thread starter mrpink89
- Start date
You mean zooming in till the unwanted corn syrup bottle is out of frame... Cropping means changing the aspect ratio, or so I thought. But yeah zooming can work, as long as you don't have to zoom in too much to the point where the picture is pixelated.
Actually, the OP's terminology is correct. A zoom is something you do in camera. A crop is something you do in post. For all intents and purposes, they're the same thing, except with a zoom you don't lose any resolution.
mrpink, I crop all the damn time, but you're definitely limited in how much you can get away with. What resolution was it shot in, and what resolution do you want the final product to be?
Depending on the project, I sometimes intentionally want the final product to be 720p, because if I shot in 1080p, that leaves me a WHOLE bunch of wiggle-room for cropping, without degrading the final output (because I'm actually degrading the entire film). A lot of people might think this bad, but c'mon, is full 1080p really that important for a video that's gonna be screened on youtube?
If you shoot in 1080p, do some cropping, and then export to 1080p, those shots that you cropped WILL have a noticeable difference in resolution, and of course the degree to which you can notice is dependent on how much you've actually cropped.
Cropping is the right term from still photo point of view, but it doesn't work for me personally when talking moving pictures. I prefer to use "re-framing" the shot. but who cares what I say anyway.. lol
Well, I guess it's all semantics, so it doesn't really matter, so long as anybody you're working with is on the same page. Regardless, I'd say "re-framing" would make most sense when you're changing the aspect ratio. But if the aspect ratio stays the same, and you're basically just "zooming-in" in post, the effect you'd use is called "crop", at least by any software I've seen.
Ahh, semantics, not the biggest thing to worry about. In this convo, all that matters is that the OP understand that yes, you can do it, but the effects will be seen, so you're limited in how much you can get away with.
This is exactly what I did for several of my shots in my first short. I actually hadn't planned it this way, but I quickly realized that some of my footage needed cropping (like the edge of a blanket hanging in a window to block daylight... yikes). So, in order to keep those scenes from looking less clear than the rest of it I made the whole thing 720p and then I just made sure I never cropped any lower than 720p.
Anyway, I'm a total newb and cropping was really easy (using Sony Vegas, can't speak for other software).
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Takes me back to the days of a pan & scan
I've generally seen/heard it called a 'zoom' if the aspect ratio stays the same (mostly because you're zooming - and therefore losing resolutiong). You'd 'crop' bits off the top/bottom/sides to change aspect ratios (as you're not losing any resolution by cropping), but I've called it all sorts of things.
Doesn't really matter, the point is yes it is possible
However, without any kind of editing software (how are you editing your footage..?) I'm not sure how you'd accomplish it..
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Everyone's covered the options and solutions. I'd just like to add that investing in an external monitor will help you a lot. It's easy to miss little things on a little screen.