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tripletaker · Nov 14, 2005, 07:51 AM

I'm making a picture slideshow with a little video in it... I was wondering what kind of rules you must always keep in doing a picture slideshow? Tips and tricks? Cool things you can do?

I know you shouldn't overuse the Ken Burns effect by zooming in and out too fast.

Cubeoid · Nov 14, 2005, 09:08 AM

Keep the colors simple, the font size at a nice and readable level. Be creative. All the best with your slideshow!

tripletaker · Nov 14, 2005, 10:01 AM

It's a 90 minute long slideshow... ^_^;
with over 700 pictures. One thing I'm curious about is music: Is there inappropriate type of music for slideshows? What genre of music fits the best? etc.

Peter · Nov 14, 2005, 10:05 AM

dont loop videos
make them play when you mouse click, pause when you mouse click (it sucks to have a video playing whilst you're talking)
No Page Transitions

tripletaker · Nov 14, 2005, 05:51 PM

During video clips should I stop the music or just make it low? So that when the clip ends and it returns to pictures it can pick up where it left off or should it just pick up where it would have been if you could have heard it.

Can anyone recommend some songs that almost everyone would recognize? Some famous theme songs or something. Like 2001 Space Odyssy or Mission Impossible.

awaspaas · Nov 14, 2005, 06:23 PM

Make sure to use the "Time of your Life" song by Green Day or whatever - especially if you have plenty of Ken Burns, even more-so if it's emotional and retrospective.

Oh, and you can never have too many starwipes!

ghporter · Nov 14, 2005, 08:30 PM

Most of the advice above is right. It's important to keep the text readable and not to show off a lot of fancy text transitions-they're annoying and cutsy.

If it's over 700 pictures and 90 minutes long, PUT AN INTERMISSION IN. Seriously, you audience will thank you for it-or at least not try to burn you at the stake as quickly.

The music should compliment any pictures you're showing: Ride of the Valkires is not appropriate for sedate pictures of leaves falling in the autumn, for example. And if there is sound with the videos, end the background music BEFORE the video comes up; I'd fade the sound out with the last slide before the video, then after the video fade everything back in.

I personally think your presentation is way too long, but it's your presentation.

tripletaker · Nov 14, 2005, 09:41 PM

Personally I agree with you that it's way too long. And now it's even longer. Right now I'm looking at 120+ minutes. But believe me the demand is there for it.

People love looking at themselves. Right now I have each picture set to show for 7 seconds minus the crossdissolve overlapping. It seems long yet not too boring enough. There is very little text... Hm.. I really should consider a intermission.

Thanks for the video/music/bg tips. I'll take it into consideration.

The bad part right now is this slideshow is taking up 30.56 GB. And it's only a quarter done. T_T Maybe I should split it into two and keep one on my external HD.

Peter · Nov 15, 2005, 05:14 AM

Originally Posted by tripletaker

During video clips should I stop the music or just make it low? So that when the clip ends and it returns to pictures it can pick up where it left off or should it just pick up where it would have been if you could have heard it.

Can anyone recommend some songs that almost everyone would recognize? Some famous theme songs or something. Like 2001 Space Odyssy or Mission Impossible.

stop the music. 100%, then have it resume after the video is over.

Randman · Nov 15, 2005, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by awaspaas

Make sure to use the "Time of your Life" song by Green Day or whatever - especially if you have plenty of Ken Burns, even more-so if it's emotional and retrospective.

You know that song is about a breakup, right? Right?

Anyway, I'd suggest cutting the presentation by half and offering the full 120-minute opus to the peeps via DVD.

Also, 7 seconds per photo is a v e r y l o n g t i m e .

Randman · Nov 15, 2005, 05:34 AM

Oh, and as far as music, forget movie themes and consider some classical. Mozart is always good and catchy enough for most people. Or stick with a soundtrack such as one from Howard Shore (the Aviator is good).

ism · Nov 15, 2005, 06:03 AM

7 secs is a long time. I'd get bored looking at the same thing for 7 secs. Unless these are really high res pics with lots of detail which you want people to point at and discuss and focus on different areas in which case a slideshow isn't that appropriate.

I'd go for 1 sec max including any zooms and fades. In fact slightly less with overlaps to the next pic, etc. That might be a bit too quick for you BUT why not vary the pace a bit? Have some slides fire through, really punchy. On others slow things down in order to absorb the detail a bit more. If it's that detailed repeat the slide, but focused in on the area of interest.

tripletaker · Nov 15, 2005, 11:23 AM

Hmm that really a great idea... vary the length. I think I'll do that. Thanks.

olePigeon · Nov 15, 2005, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by tripletaker

It's a 90 minute long slideshow... ^_^;
with over 700 pictures. One thing I'm curious about is music: Is there inappropriate type of music for slideshows? What genre of music fits the best? etc.

Pick a death metal song and flip sides during the beat. During the drum solo, you could flip through those 700 slides in about 4 seconds.

JoshuaZ · Nov 15, 2005, 06:24 PM

Hmm... if you want help on presentations, of any sorts, look to the master.

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/

One of the coolest guys I`ve ever met, and his presentations are crazy good.

Salty · Nov 15, 2005, 06:29 PM

7 seconds is too long. I did a three minute slideshow of grad photos with Keynote for our church, the transitions went over really well and all that... but 120 minutes!? That's two freaking hours!

awaspaas · Nov 15, 2005, 07:40 PM

Sorry, I forgot to use the [sarcasm] tag.

Originally Posted by Randman

You know that song is about a breakup, right? Right?

Trygve · Nov 16, 2005, 01:16 AM

We've put together a slide show of our seven month long trip from Prague to New Zealand with a few side-trips thrown in to give more continuity. Slides are from about 20 countries (everywhere from Democratic Republic of Congo to Laos) and each country is set to its own music. They are all subtitled as well. 400 slides with 9 seconds (total 1 hour) including the transitions. it has gone over well the times we have shown it to groups.

tripletaker · Nov 16, 2005, 09:36 AM

Wow 9 seconds is a long time... I'm surprised it didn't drag on... well I guess as long as the contents good. ^_^;

Did you use iMovie to make it? And why did you need subtitles for? To explain the pictures?

Trygve · Nov 16, 2005, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by tripletaker

Wow 9 seconds is a long time... I'm surprised it didn't drag on... well I guess as long as the contents good. ^_^;

Did you use iMovie to make it? And why did you need subtitles for? To explain the pictures?

We used iPhoto's export to QuickTime since it outputs JPEGs with A/B transitions rather than iMoies putting 30 frams per sec of the same image (far lower quality). The images were actually up for about 7.5 sec with a 1.5 sec transition. The subtitles were in part to explain what the viewer was looking at (or more often where)... or to explain an unusual situation... e.g. the lava flow and refugee camp in Goma on Lake Kivu, in D.R. Congo.

This was also for (in-part) an audience whose first language was not English and there was no room to put two sets of subtitles in the slide... so having the slide up for a bit longer allowed more time to read.

Plus the content is/was good.

tripletaker · Nov 16, 2005, 05:14 PM

Does anyone know where I can get any free iMovie plugins?

It would be nice to have a splitscreen plugin...

ism · Nov 16, 2005, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by tripletaker

Does anyone know where I can get any free iMovie plugins?

It would be nice to have a splitscreen plugin...

Try the links on here: http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/links.shtml and see what free ones are knocking about. Otherwise with cf/x you can buy single plugins, you don't have to get whole packs

tripletaker · Nov 17, 2005, 09:26 AM

Thanks ^

I have another question... how loud should the music be playing during the slideshow? Normal volume that you would normally listen or low in the background? I have slow soft music in there along with the fast music that will pump people up. =)

Randman · Nov 17, 2005, 10:47 PM

Low in the background if you want people to talk during the presentation, louder if not.

tripletaker · Nov 22, 2005, 07:50 PM

Now I need a lot of help.

So this thing is about 50 gb. I moved it all to my external cause it took up too much space on my PowerBook. But my external was so slow that it wouldn't work. Now I'm thinking of splittle the slidshow up in maybe 5 or 6 parts. I already have different sections in there. I copied the first part and simply made a new iMovie labeled part one and and pasted it. There's no danger in doing any of this is it? When I'm finished with all the parts I can copy and paste everything into one big iMovie on my external?

tripletaker · 12:15 AM

Uhoh ... I've run into my first problem. The quality of the copied slideshow is a lot worse than the original slideshow that I never copied. Unfortunately I didn't keep the copy of the original because it was taking up too much space. Text is coming out pixelated and jagged looking... Why does this happen?

edit: It took me two weeks to almost get it done but now it looks like I'm going to have to redo the whole thing over again. The pictures look horrible now. Next time I won't use iMovie. =(

- - e r i k - - · Nov 23, 2005, 02:38 AM

Why don't you use the built in slideshow editor in iPhoto? It's great and you don't have to spit it out into an external file.