Raw Files

If I want to incorporate photos, originally canon raw files, can/should those be imported as is or converted to jpeg or another format?

Personally, I prefer to work with PNG files, and resize them down to something closer to my video frame size. Gives much better performance.

The problem with Raw files is that while FCP will recognize them, it does not take advantage of them because it has no raw interpreter tools. You might be able to use Aperture libraries, adjust the raw there and import through FCP. If you don't want to go through that, then PNGs or JPEGs assuming no major color corrections should be fine.

I've always converted my raw files to tiff for use in FCP. I know that tiff and PS files work well when you have a layered file and are working with transparency.

In addtion, I usually create a file that is around 3600 pixels so that I can do motion control on an image if I want and not lose detail. My files are around 35MB.

I know many like to use PNG, not sure why or the advantages, but am wiling to learn.

Jonathan

@Jonathan - the advantage of the PNG over the JPEG is that you can have a 24 bit version with transparency. JPEGs don't support transparency. PNG is a visually lossless compressed format that is usually smaller than TIFF (which can be compressed, too).

For video work, it would be hard to see the difference between PNG and TIFF, unless you're really pushing the color correction on them. I find the best way to create PNG's with transparency is to output from Photoshop using "save for Web..." which allows you to resize and set transparency in one go.

Thanks for all the info guys! Look like png is the way to go. I'll give that a try and see how FCP handles them. Thanks again.