Hi,
Just wondering what sort of software do you use to present a slideshow of your photos? I am thinking to use LR since it is already part of the workflow. Any thoughts on that?
+1 for ProShow. The gold version will do exactly what you need but if you want more control of individual layers per slide then you will want to try the Producer version.
There is also ProShow Web which is much more user friendly (however this is at the cost of having less artistic control). You can download a plugin that will allow you to upload directly from LR as well.
Depends on how upscale you want this show to be and how particular you are about it.
Animoto is quick and easy and since we're all professionals here doing business, it's inexpensive and well worth the cost. However, it's like sending a memory card to someone else for post processing...you have to go with what it selects.
Proshow Gold and Proshow Producer have a wizard that's almost as quick and easy as Animoto, but each takes a bit of tweaking of the music...and you can go in and make major changes, if you desire.
If you want to make your slideshow a major part of your product line, the Proshow products are what you want. They are limitless in what you can achieve--even blending video into nearly any effect as seamlessly as a still image. In fact, Proshow is 98% of a video editor in its own right.
The difference between Gold and Producer is in certain additional effects, but most importantly, Producer permits using "keystones" in a slide--using several different motions or effects during the slide's time on screen. You can do some of the same things in Gold by duplicating the slide and putting one motion at a time in each slide.
Additionally, Producer adds some business branding capabilities lacking in Gold, such as a watermark that shows in a corner during the show (as you see on television programs) and branding that shows while the show is loading.
However, all those considerations are only if you intend the slideshow to be a major product on your list.
thanks for the inputs everyone! I haven't decided whether to provide slideshow yet. I just want to know what's out there.
I tried using LR. It is simple. Can't seem to re-arrange the image sequence.
Anyways, I output it to h.264 mp4 format. Is this a std format now? It requires special codec to run it. On my DIVX player @720p, there is a bit of stuttering on the top and bottom of the frame. Apart from that, music, slide transition and quality is good.
What about uploading to a website? Would it work well?
I think Spencer isn't asking about slideshow software, rather why would you have one.
If it's a same day edit and you show it at the reception, it really wows the guests and gives you great exposure.
If it's sometime after the wedding, then the couple will forward it to their friends and family and once again, it wows them and gives you great exposure.
One of the most appealing things to me about Animoto or ProShow web is the ability to send a client their own link to a page that only has their show on it. There is no branding at all so it feels as though it is truly theirs (even though most of the shows end up looking very similar in terms of transitions etc). I like that idea. That Fotomagico does look good to though...
I have been using Photo to Movie which works on Mac and Windows PC. It gives you a lot of control over the slide, including the pan and zoom effect. You can also trace a path across a photo.
If you want music, Photo to Movie gives you a lot of control over it, too.
I have written a review of the product at my website with an example slideshow at the end.
hiconc wrote:
I think Spencer isn't asking about slideshow software, rather why would you have one.
If it's a same day edit and you show it at the reception, it really wows the guests and gives you great exposure.
If it's sometime after the wedding, then the couple will forward it to their friends and family and once again, it wows them and gives you great exposure.
Oops. I just realised that the topic starter, Ghost's post was hidden for some reason. The first post I saw was Spencer's, and here I was wondering why everyone was recommending slideshow software when Spencer mentioned nothing about the software.
Anyway, to answer the OP's question, I trialled and actually bought PSG. But I ditched it after using it once..
Functionally, it's a great piece of software, but the deal breaker for me was the need to install a browser plugin if you were embedding it in a webpage.
The plugin is easy to install but I found that many people just couldn't be bothered to install it, or it was too difficult and they would just not view the slideshow instead.
Apparently the client that I used it for had a browser other than IE, and it took a few attempts before being able to get the plugin installed.
Functionally, it's a great piece of software, but the deal breaker for me was the need to install a browser plugin if you were embedding it in a webpage.
The plugin is easy to install but I found that many people just couldn't be bothered to install it, or it was too difficult and they would just not view the slideshow instead.
This is true, and I agree with your point, but that's no reason to have ditched the software. It outputs in as many different ways as any other, more ways than most.
Hosting software to be viewed through clients' browsers is a problem, especially if we're going to eschew flash (which is the same problem as the Photodex installer, except that Flash used to be ubiquitous). I'm struggling with this myself.
It's appearing that using a host like Vimeo or YouTube is the only way to avoid paying a whopping site creation fee and at the same time get decent quality. I'd prefer Vimeo, but their small print prohibits commercial use. YouTube works, but I have not found a way to avoid the links to other videos YouTube tags to the end of the hosted videos...I don't want people being led from my sight to YouTube.
