Import Layered Photoshop Files in Adobe Premiere Pro

Unlike “normal” still images, working with a layered Photoshop (PSD) file in Adobe Premiere Pro provides a variety of options that can be useful in a video edit.

Premiere Pro imports attributes that were applied in the original file, including position, opacity, visibility, transparency (alpha channel), layer masks, adjustment layers, common layer effects, layer clipping paths, vector masks, and clipping groups. Photoshop exports a white background as opaque white, whereas it exports a checkerboard background as a transparent alpha channel when exporting to a format that supports alpha channels.

As well, Premiere gives you import options that don’t exist with any other clip. Let me illustrate.

Here’s the image in Photoshop. It consists of four layers:

• Layer 1 – River background with text
• Layer 2 – Fishing village with text
• Layer 3 – Balloon with text
• Layer 4 – Title

To import a Photoshop file, like any file, type Cmd + I (Control + I on Windows), or use the Media Browser.

This opens the Import Layered File window, with four options:

• Merge All Layers
• Merge Layers
• Individual Layers
• Sequence

MERGE ALL LAYERS

This converts the separate layers in the document into a single, flattened PSD image. This is a good choice when you need to be sure that the entire image is displayed.

MERGE LAYERS

Like Merge All Layers, this creates a single, flattened PSD image, but you chose which layers will be combined. This is a good choice when multiple versions are stored in the same image.

NOTE: Most Photoshop images contain dozens of layers. The buttons on the right simplify checking, unchecking or resetting the status of all the layers in the image.

INDVIDUAL LAYERS

This imports each layer as a separate image into a bin containing one clip for each source layer. This is a good choice when there is no relationship between the layers and you need to manipulate each layer separately.

NOTE: When you import one layer as a single clip, its name in the Project panel consists of the layer name followed by the original filename.

SEQUENCE

This imports the image as a sequence where each Photoshop layer is a separate layer in the sequence and stored in its own bin. This is a good choice when you want to adjust timing or animation of each layer separately, while still keeping them together in a single place.

This choice also provides two additional options:

• Document Size. Changes the frame size of the clips to match the frame size specified in the Sequence Settings dialog box.
• Layer Size. Matches the frame size of the clips to the frame size of their source layers in the Photoshop file.

NOTE: Remember, Premiere allows nesting one sequence into another, so it is easy to add a Photoshop image sequence into the rest of your edit.

EXTRA CREDIT

Adobe’s Help files for still images provide these additional guidelines:

• Make sure that the file format is supported by the operating system you plan to use.
• Set the pixel dimensions to the resolution you will use in Premiere Pro. If you plan to scale the image over time, set image dimensions that provide enough detail at the largest size the image has in the project.
• For best results, create files with a frame size at least as large as the frame size of the project so that you don’t have to scale up the image in Premiere Pro. Scaling an image larger than its original size can cause loss of sharpness. If you plan to scale up an image, prepare it at a larger frame size than the project’s. For example, if you plan to scale up an image 200%, prepare the image at double the project frame size before you import it.
• Crop the parts of the image that you don’t want to be visible in Premiere Pro.
• If you want to designate areas as transparent, create an alpha channel or use the transparency tools in applications such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
• If final output will be shown on standard television screens, avoid using thin horizontal lines (such as 1-pixel lines) for images or text. These may flicker as a result of interlacing. If you must use thin lines, add a slight blur so that the lines appear in both video fields. See Interlaced video, noninterlaced video, and progressive scanning.
• Save the file using the correct naming convention. For example, if you plan to import the file into Premiere Pro in Windows, use a three-character filename extension.
• When you prepare still images in applications that support color management, such as Photoshop, colors may appear more consistent between the application and Premiere Pro if you prepare images in a video-friendly color space, such as sRGB or NTSC RGB.

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