Still pictures can be used very effectively on video. Simple snap shots will due, any still image can be used.

INTERNET VIRAL VIDEOS
The Internet loves viral videos put together with still pictures, graphics and music. These are extremely easy to make.

Get stock photos off istockphoto.com if you need to. If you get quality pictures like that and don’t need to crop them, you can put together a quality video for the Internet without even having a camera!

Import the stills into a free video editing program like Windows Movie Maker, add music, transitions and graphics. Voila! You are an artiste in a mere two hours.

Still pictures often provide visuals for stuff that can’t be captured on tape for whatever reason. Which is easier for the low-budget video producer who needs a shot of Henry the VIII?

• Import a scan out of the history text book of the oil painting of Good King Henry
• Hire an actor, rent an elaborate costume, and build an appropriate set.

The still picture option wins every time!

Ideally, a video should be made of moving video, but stills can be substituted easily, particularly if that’s all you have or you’re low on funds. I’ve seen hundreds of low-dollar videos that rely on stills completely. Stills can be much easier, faster and therefore cheaper. If you add some music, throw in a few nice graphics, such a still picture video can work beautifully and be finished in a few hours.

HOW TO GET STILL IMAGES ON YOUR VIDEO

At its easiest and moist crude, all you have to do to get that still image on video is to scotch tape a photo on the wall and take a shot of it with your video camera. Use a tripod and be at least 6 feet away. Zoom in on the picture. Fill up the frame as much as possible. If you fill it up 100%, no one will ever guess you have been tacky and just scotch taped the picture on the wall. Somehow, it will all translate into the “magic” of TV.

Unnecessary aside: Damn, I gotta laugh when I hear people say the "magic of TV". Trust me, there ain’t no magic involved above the molecular level. It always amazed me how many people are actually fooled and think if it’s on TV it must be spectacular, magical, special, important and true. Hell, I’ve seen testimonials staged for the cheap insurance commercials and the “satisfied customer” is just one of the low-paid crew members who'd never heard of this insurance company until they paid him to say they are terrific.

Moving on.

DIGITAL IMPORT

You can scan the photo and import it into your video editing software. If the picture needs cropping or adjustments, do that first in a photo editing program. Many simple photo editing programs can crop a picture., but most of the simple video editing programs can't. The more sophisticated ones do.

Programs like Final Cut Pro can easily crop and otherwise alter a still picture, but if possible, shoot it in the camera cropped properly in order to save time later in editing.

MOVING STILLS

There's a saying in TV production that, "if the picture doesn’t move, move the picture." While I don't fully agree with that, doing a slow zoom or pan across a still picture can help the flow of your video. With professionally produced TV today, this is done virtually every time a still picture is used.

Notice I said SLOW zoom or pan. The movement can be done with the camera lens while shooting, or done digitally during editing if you're using a sophisticated program like Final Cut Pro. (FCP).

PROS
The advantage of doing it during editing is that it’s tons easier to get a perfectly smooth, slow movement. Unless you have a high-dollar fluid head tripod, you’ll never get perfectly smooth movement panning or tilting the camera and even zooming smoothly can be tricky. This is especially true when beginning or ending a movement; a tripod will always wiggle on you.

CONS
The disadvantage of doing “camera movement” while editing boils down to the differences between optical (done with lens) and digital zooming, panning or tilting. This is even assuming that your digital editing program can handle the task. Simple freebies like Windows Movie maker are not up to the task but you could handle it easily with Final Cut Pro Express.

When you do a digital movement, you have a set amount of pixels you’re working with and you’re either enlarging them or moving across them. So with digital movements, you’ll either run out of shot before you get a decent move or you’ll have to zoom in so much your shot will deteriorate into pixels.

An optical zoom will retain great resolution, no matter how tight you get in on an object and as long as you can twist and twirl the camera, an optical pan or tilt can be made to last as long as you need it.

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