VS 9: Creating a Slideshow

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VS 9: Creating a Slideshow

Post by sjj1805 » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:11 pm

Author: Spectre
Before you start, it is a good idea to check all your photos on a good photo editor to correct the brightness and contrast, crop to the right size or make any other corrections that may be necessary.

Once that's done, put all the photos you intend to use on the project in the one directory. It's very simple to add all of the photos as a group. Select all the photos in the folder and the thumbnails will appear under Images. Before you put your photos in the timeline, change the default inserted image/colour clip duration?on the Edit tab in Preferences. The default time is 3 seconds but since this is a slide-show, you probably want to look at each photo longer than that so set it for a time of at least 7 seconds. You could even make it as long as 20 seconds, particularly if you have photos of people or plenty of detail where you need time to absorb the information. You can change the individual image times later once they are in the timeline.

You can add photos to the timeline individually but I find it easier to select and add all of them again. Once you have all the photos in the time line, it is simple to rearrange the order or delete any that don't suit. Try to group photos of a type together without becoming too repetitious. In a slideshow of a diving trip, I started with some underwater shots, then some landscape shots of the island where we stayed, back to underwater, next some people shots.

If you want to add music to the slide show, it is a good idea to consider that now if you want the slide-show and the music to finish at the same time. The approximate length of the project should be apparent from the collective image times so you can select some music of suitable length. If that is not important, you can fade-out the music at the end of the slide-show. Otherwise, you can adjust the length of individual image times so that the slide-show time corresponds with the music. If you are really clever, you may be able to have an image relate to lyrics in the song. Sound effects can be a lot of fun. Put the sound of fireworks under a fireworks image or add the sound of paper crinkling or children laughing under an image of unwrapping the presents on Christmas Day.

A static display of photos can be tedious but using Pan & Zoom, you can add a great deal of interest. You can start tight on a face or interesting detail or pan across a group of faces and zoom out to show the whole image. You need to think about what is interesting about that particular image and try to emphasise those aspects when deciding where to pan and zoom. Give enough time for your audience to see what is panning past and zoom out so that they can see everything as a whole. Take advantage of the middle frame on pan & zoom. The middle frame allows you change the rate and direction of the pan and zoom. You can pan across the image on a tight zoom from the start frame to the middle frame, pause for a moment on something of interest then pan back to the centre of the image and zoom out. Pause at the start and end is also available. You can adjust the transparency but that has limited use in a slideshow.

Adding filters and transitions can dramatically improve the interest of the material. I had a series of shots in a panorama so I panned across each one and added a short fade to black transition between each to punctuate each shot. The idea is to add movement and energy where there isn't any. However, don't go overboard by adding every filter and transition you can fit. Think about what filter will enhance your image without being distracting. Use a transition every time if you wish but limit the number of different types of transitions you use. Similar transitions each time will enhance the connectivity between the shots but having too many diverse transitions will disconnect them.

The trickiest part can be narration. It can set the time you stay on a particular image by how long you want to chat about it. If you talk too long, you may have to change your image times, which may push out timing with the music. Relating a particular piece of information about a shot can enhance interest but ranting too long and too often can be tedious and intrusive. The best rule of thumb here is less is more. It's a good idea to write a script for each image. Once you see it on the page, it's much easier to edit it and get it right than talking off the top of your head. Do the narration in parts. Record narration for each image or series of images. You only have to redo a small piece if you fluff it and you can place the audio file just where you want it in the timeline.

By all means, put a title to your slide-show at the beginning and end but resist the temptation to label every shot. Your audience will be paying more attention to the titles than your beautiful images.

In summary,
*Edit your photos before you start
*Change the default image time before you add them to the timeline
*Add music and sound effects
*You can't have too much pan and zoom
*You can have too many filters and transitions
*Consider your narration carefully, if at all
*Use titles sparingly

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sjj1805
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Post by sjj1805 » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:11 pm

pedromenba wrote:is there a way to change the time to 20 images or more at the same time?
Because I find annoying to change one by one.

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sjj1805
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video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 705
sound card: P40D100-4 NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Hard_Drive_Capacity: 8 TB
Location: Birmingham UK
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Post by sjj1805 » Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:11 pm

There is a way to get VideoStudio to synchronise a slideshow so that the pictures change with the music.

The trick is not to use the normal VideoStudio Editor but instead use the Movie Wizard.

Image

In the [Settings] dialog box there are options
  • Fit to background music tempo and duration: Adjusts the duration of each clip and the total duration of the slideshow to fit the background music's tempo and duration.
  • Fit to background music tempo: Adjusts the duration of each clip to fit the background music's tempo.
Once you have completed the movie wizard you are given the option to further edit the project in the VideoStudio Editor.

Image

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