Adding Still Images to Video Projects

We started a conversation on the DIY Podcast Blog last week about using still images in students’ video podcasts. Still images can be used in a variety of ways to enhance video projects. One technique, known as the pan and scan effect or move-on-stills photography, was introduced to most of us through Ken Burns’ documentary film “The Civil War.”

The technique is used primarily when film or video material is not available. It gives life to still images by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, if your students include DIY Podcast clips of an astronaut in their video project, they could use this effect on an expedition or space shuttle crew portrait. Your class videographer could slowly pan across crew members’ faces and settle on the crew member being discussed by the narrator. The pan and scan effect also can be used to transition from one scene to another.

You can achieve this technique with a camera or with software that incorporates still images into a video project using slow pan and zoom effects. If you scan an image, it’s important to determine the right scanning resolution for your work. You need enough data in the scanned image to allow you to zoom in without causing the image to break into blocks of pixels, but you don’t necessarily need to go with the highest scanning density because the resulting file will take a lot of hard drive space and slow your computer processing.

We’ll consider some of the benefits of using still images in video projects in our next blog post. How are you using still images with video in your classroom? Post a comment and share your experience.

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14 thoughts on “Adding Still Images to Video Projects”

  1. I use a lot of still images in my videos. If I use a pan and move motion on the images it can almost look like it is moving. I then store my videos on the easy video player on the amazon s3 servers. It really works well.

  2. Using still images with super high resolution and then flipping it in a certain angle at which brain recognize an object would be of help if it can be designed. I hope I dint confuse you with my thought.
    Vijeth Kumar
    Website:

  3. Adding images to videos is an art and this art is not known by every one, so after reading this page every one is feels capable to add images at all.

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