program to make slideshows from stills

I have been looking through the posts on image editing, but do not seem to find the answer to my question (problably there, but eyes do not work to well some days). I have Photoshop Elements 5.0 right now. I am getting ready to add Lightroom to my arsenal.

I cannot determine if Lightroom is helpful in anyway with making slideshows of my stills. Sometimes I get happy with things after a dive trip and want to share with friends in a slideshow. I do not like the long protracted process that you have to go through with elements - and then it does not do a good job and does not make a DVD, only VCDs - which can be very grainy in my experience.

Any suggestions or feedback on this appreciated. This whole editing process has been a huge learning curve for me. I got a new Nikon D90 and took it to the Keys in Sept. I got frustrated with trying to figure out how to convert the files so I could use them in elements. I will be glad to get my Lightroom program based on everything I have been reading on here about it.

Thanks - DiverPam

Hi Pam,

For the money for nice shows to show your friends ProShow Gold is the best I've found. Easy to do simple edits with music, simple to understand, just drag and drop your images. If you want to get even more fucntionality you can go for ProShow Producer.

My 2 cents,

Steve

Yep, Lightroom does it brilliantly. You can do all your editing within Lightroom and then select the Slideshow option. There a number of tabs to select various options such as timings, music, frames etc. Then hit Play. Works a charm. I used it for the slideshow we had on the KBR booth at DEMA. 350 images of Lembeh Straits critters fading in an and out randomly.

For Mac, FotoMagico by Boinx adds a lot of functionality - can add video, music, export to web etc

Yep, Lightroom does it brilliantly. You can do all your editing within Lightroom and then select the Slideshow option. There a number of tabs to select various options such as timings, music, frames etc. Then hit Play. Works a charm. I used it for the slideshow we had on the KBR booth at DEMA. 350 images of Lembeh Straits critters fading in an and out randomly.

Can you make a DVD from the lightroom slideshow? Or do you have to run the slideshow from lightroom on that computer only?

As you can see...I am not a tech person.

Thanks for the replies and help so far. I checked out the ProShow Gold online last night and liked what I saw. But if I am going to get lightroom, do I need the additional program?

DiverPam

I use Nero and it works great for makingDVDs.

Can you make a DVD from the lightroom slideshow? Or do you have to run the slideshow from lightroom on that computer only?

As far as I can see it cannot be run stand alone - I.E. it has to be run from inside lightroom.

Paul C ( who would love to be corrected if wrong ).

ProShow Gold provides a great price/quality ratio. You can now burn Blu-Ray at 1080p. Tested it and it does a great job.

FotoMagico for Mac is also a great program.

Both perfectly suit the needs of most presenters. Price point is unbeatable.

Only caveat: ProShow does an OK job when you want to put your soundtrack on. There is a basic built-in fading tool for soundtrack and you can add comments on specific slides or portion of your slide-show.

Having said that, if you want to do a good job with your sound, try Reaper. This is a pro-level digital audio worstation program that costs very little once you are done with evaluation. We use it to produce commercial presentation soundtracks and they sound incredible. It does for audio what Photoshop does for photography... and as it is the case with Photoshop, it takes a little work to master the tool.

Michel

Hey Pam

Paul is right, LR is the control program and uses the pics in, effectively, its database to make the slideshow. You could output the images to files to burn on to a DVD but then you'd need a progam to run the images.

Thanks for all of the info guys. Sounds like ProShow Gold fits my needs. And I like the price of it.

Do you think that trying the 15 day free trail would be beneficial? Or just jump in and get it.

DiverPam

proshow gold gets my vote, it is very versatile, use it a lot.

Too bad you don't have access to a Mac. iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD all do a great job at this, and come free with the computer!

Too bad you don't have access to a Mac. iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD all do a great job at this, and come free with the computer!

Do they produce exe's that run on a PC or is it a mac only affair?

Paul C

Do they produce exe's that run on a PC or is it a mac only affair?

 

Paul C

They can output to self-contained video files that play back in QuickTime on any computer (you can output to any resolution you want, here from cell-phone compatible postage stamp size up to full HD glory), or output to DVD, or whatever you want. They can't do BluRay yet, however, so ProShow has an edge there.

I have both Proshow Gold and PicturesToExe, and my preference is the latter. You can create standalone shows (as Proshow can) in EXE form, and you can also create them for Mac as native apps (in the Deluxe version, and only for Intel Macs). The quality from their rendering engines is superb, and better than Proshow. You have complete control over the synchronization with audio. I create AVCHD disks to play in blu-ray players when it use it in tandem with Nero (I could create blu-ray disks as well, but only have a standard DVD writer at this time). The Deluxe version does support direct DVD creation, but I find (of course) that the HD formats are so much better for my slideshows, I just create AVCHD.

I only wish they supported integration of video clips into the slideshows (planned, but not implemented yet) which Proshow Gold does. I don't use this capability now, but might want this in the future.

I have a Mac and have tried Photomagico (as well as Lightroom, which is okay for limited applications), but this is one of the applications I will run in a Windows VM, because it's so much better than what I can use natively on a Mac. I do love being able to play my slideshows on the Mac, using the PicturesToExe Mac output option, though!

I have many slideshows on my website that can be checked out as examples, but the Mac native app output is fairly new, and I don't have versions of those uploaded for my previous slideshows yet. There are some Flash versions that I've created in the past for Mac playback, and I'll be replacing these with Mac apps as time goes on (or just adding the Mac apps and leaving the Flash versions for those who use Linux).

Anyway, this is my preference, YMMV.

Linda

I have both Proshow Gold and PicturesToExe, and my preference is the latter. You can create standalone shows (as Proshow can) in EXE form, and you can also create them for Mac as native apps (in the Deluxe version, and only for Intel Macs). The quality from their rendering engines is superb, and better than Proshow. You have complete control over the synchronization with audio. I create AVCHD disks to play in blu-ray players when it use it in tandem with Nero (I could create blu-ray disks as well, but only have a standard DVD writer at this time). The Deluxe version does support direct DVD creation, but I find (of course) that the HD formats are so much better for my slideshows, I just create AVCHD.

 

 

Anyway, this is my preference, YMMV.

 

Linda

Can someone explain AVCHD please? What is the difference between that and DVD? I see that it has something to do with high definition, but that is all I can figure out.

Thanks - DiverPam

Can someone explain AVCHD please? What is the difference between that and DVD? I see that it has something to do with high definition, but that is all I can figure out.

 

Thanks - DiverPam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

Can someone explain AVCHD please? What is the difference between that and DVD? I see that it has something to do with high definition, but that is all I can figure out.

 

Thanks - DiverPam

AVCHD is a format that is nearly identical to blu-ray format, with a small difference (tag) in the header. It accomodates storage on mediums other than blu-ray disk, including standard DVD media. Many blu-ray players can also play AVCHD. They can use the same video/audio compression formats. AVCHD is a common format used by disk based HD camcorders.

DVD is a video format that uses MPEG2 video compression (instead of AVC/H.264) and is limited to standard def formats. This resolution difference between AVCHD (HD) and DVD (SD) makes a huge difference in how still photographs look in a slideshow on TV.

I use AVCHD as an output format for my slideshows instead of blu-ray because I can use the cheaper DVD blanks with my standard DVD writer, but create HD versions of my slideshows that will play in a blu-ray player. It means I cannot have a really long slideshow because the DVD blanks cannot accomodate beyond about 15 minutes (single layer) or 29 minutes (dual layer), but in my mind, this is a good thing . Most of my slideshows are 4-8 minutes.

Linda

[Edited to add] P.S. just to be clear about this, while I can create AVCHD disks in a standard DVD writer on DVD blanks, you *cannot* play these disks in a DVD player. You will need to use a blu-ray player that is capable of playing AVCHD (not all do). And if you give these disks to your friends, they will need such a beast to play them back too.

Thanks..Sounds too complicated for me. So how does one go about making the best looking slideshow that is DVD compatible? Almost all of my friends have not moved up to Bu-Ray (including me). I still have tons of VHS tapes.

One of the issues I have with my elements program is that when you output a slidehow into a VCD or DVD is gets grainy, etc. It looks good on the computer in elements, but not afterward.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong or changes I could make?

Thanks - DiverPam