Forums > Photography Talk > Video Help...
Search

Photographer

Frank Lewis Photography

Posts: 14492

Winter Park, Florida, US

I have a video I shot Saturday and I need to know how to make the file smaller. Can I make the file smaller in Photoshop? Right now the video is 127 MB. I'd like to make it small enough to email but not lose too much detail. Shot the video with my K-3, the first time I've ever done this. The video is of the XP-82 Twin Mustang with one engine running.

http://xp-82twinmustangproject.blogspot.com/

Oct 17 16 12:50 pm Link

Photographer

kickfight

Posts: 35054

Portland, Oregon, US

Hey Frank! Well, depending on the length of your video clip, 127MB is actually a pretty reasonable size. Attempting to reduce it in size, byte-wise, will inevitably result in a reduction of resolution quality. If you feel such a trade-off is acceptable, an excellent application for processing video is Shotcut.

But if you just need to provide the file to someone else, I would forego using e-mail entirely... if you have a gmail account, you have Google Drive storage space as well. Just upload the existing 127MB file to Google Drive and then include a link to that file in an e-mail to your intended recipient. That link will allow them to download the file on their end.

Oct 17 16 01:19 pm Link

Photographer

Frank Lewis Photography

Posts: 14492

Winter Park, Florida, US

Yeah, it's a 47 second clip of the left engine running on the XP-82. I suggested Dropbox to the fellow who wants the video.

Oct 17 16 01:27 pm Link

Photographer

63fotos

Posts: 534

Flagstaff, Arizona, US

Yeah, 127mb is not that big of a file.
You could zip it, also, and Dropbox works.

Oct 17 16 02:22 pm Link

Photographer

bencook2

Posts: 3875

Tucson, Arizona, US

I don't know how to convert a video in Photoshop, but Adobe Premier can give you a lot of options.

If you got a current version of Photoshop you might already have the license for Premier also.

If you shot the video at 1080p it won't hurt anything to convert it down to 720p if it's only going on normal TVs or any computer screen.

That being said... what everyone is saying is true.  Most of us dealing with video think 2 gigs is small for a video file!  Dropbox or anything like that will be your friend here.

Also... you can just uploaded to Vimeo and make the link private if you don't want the world to know about it.

Oct 17 16 11:31 pm Link

Photographer

Frank Lewis Photography

Posts: 14492

Winter Park, Florida, US

Thanks everyone. When I tried to post the video to my Tumblr, I was referred to Vimeo. Might do that. I'd like as many people as possible to see the video and know about the very rare airplane.

Oct 19 16 07:17 am Link

Photographer

nwprophoto

Posts: 15005

Tonasket, Washington, US

kickfight wrote:
Attempting to reduce it in size, byte-wise, will inevitably result in a reduction of resolution quality.

I have always found the bit rate to have more of an impact on file size than resolution.

Oct 19 16 07:39 am Link

Photographer

thiswayup

Posts: 1136

Runcorn, England, United Kingdom

Frank Lewis Photography wrote:
I have a video I shot Saturday and I need to know how to make the file smaller. Can I make the file smaller in Photoshop? Right now the video is 127 MB. I'd like to make it small enough to email but not lose too much detail. Shot the video with my K-3, the first time I've ever done this. The video is of the XP-82 Twin Mustang with one engine running.

http://xp-82twinmustangproject.blogspot.com/

Photoshop is for still images. You need to use video editing software or a video file format convertor. Just google "compress video" and you'll find lots of links like this http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/adamweblearn/2 … handbrake/

Oct 19 16 07:55 am Link

Photographer

DespayreFX

Posts: 1481

Delta, British Columbia, Canada

thiswayup wrote:
Photoshop is for still images. You need to use video editing software or a video file format convertor...

That's not accurate.

Photoshop is reasonably capable of handling basic video needs, and does offer several compression options. Having said that, you're far better off to find a dedicated app that is designed for video, you will have many more options, and HandBrake is free and has been around for years.

But if your needs are minimal, and you're already familiar with Photoshop's interface, this might be enough to get you where you want to go.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using … tions.html

I'll also add that I agree with others, your file size already doesn't seem unreasonable for what it is.

Hope that helps!

Oct 19 16 09:05 am Link

Photographer

Leonard Gee Photography

Posts: 18096

Sacramento, California, US

Frank Lewis Photography wrote:
I'd like to make it small enough to email but not lose too much detail.

you can use a service like wetransfer.com or wesendit.com for 2 to 20 gig for free.

if you really need to reduce the size, the question is; how small and how much detail? some of the smaller size limits for email are low as 5mb. while others allow up to 50mb. your video is already compressed. trying for another 50% at around 60-70mb is really going to loose quality, resolution, sound or all of them.

Oct 19 16 10:45 am Link

Photographer

-WB-

Posts: 547

Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Leonard Gee Photography wrote:
you can use a service like wetransfer.com or wesendit.com for 2 to 20 gig for free.

if you really need to reduce the size, the question is; how small and how much detail? some of the smaller size limits for email are low as 5mb. while others allow up to 50mb. your video is already compressed. trying for another 50% at around 60-70mb is really going to loose quality, resolution, sound or all of them.

This: WeTransfer is as easy as it gets.
No account needed, no login. The one you mail it to gets a link to download the file.

Oct 29 16 05:26 am Link

Search