iMovie '09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

The Ken Burns Effect

The only problem with using still photos in a movie is that they're still. They just sit there without motion or sound, wasting much of the dynamic potential of video.

For years, professionals have addressed the problem using special sliding camera rigs that produce gradual zooming, panning, or both, to bring photographs to life.

But this smooth motion isn't just about adding animation to photos for its own sake. It also lets you draw the viewer's attention where you want it, when you want it. For example: "Little Harry graduated from junior high school in 1963"—slow pan to someone else in the school photo, a little girl with a ribbon in her hair—"little suspecting that the woman who would one day become his tormentor was standing only a few feet away."

Among the most famous practitioners of this art is Ken Burns, the creator of PBS documentaries like The Civil War and Baseball, which is why Apple named the feature after him.

Tip

If you’ve updated iMovie to version 8.0.3, you can also apply the Ken Burns effect to video. You can create very smooth pans and zooms in footage where the camera didn’t actually move an inch. Powerful feature!

Applying the Ken Burns Effect

iMovie '09's Ken Burns controls are totally different from what was in iMovie before. Here's how you use them:

1. Click a photo filmstrip or cutaway.

   A yellow border appears.

2. Press the letter C key, or click the Crop icon on the toolbar, or click the tiny Crop badge that appears when you've already cropped a ...