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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Slide Show Software
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 06/03/2004 09:50:28 AM · #1
I am doing my daughter's crew banquet slide show again this year. Since I just hosed the firewire on my Video camera, I guess it will be all slides this year. So I wanted to jazz up the still slides.

I've recently become enamored with the Ken Burns effect in Slide shows. This effect shows your photos as though it were shot with a video camera, and during the slide show the camera pans around or zooms in and out of the photo. This can really bring a single photo to life, and seems to me much more effective than the fancy transitions of most slide shows.

After reading Maximum PC, I tried the trial for MemoriesOnTV and like it pretty well. However, to use it I have to cough up $50 with the required MPEG2 encoder ($40 without). I also found a free tool SSMM, which is a lot more work to setup each show.

I also found that MS Plus Digital Media Edition has PhotoStory, which does Ken Burns effects. Yet, I don't really like installing MS software anymore--in the end it usually disappoints and puts a lot of system files on which can trash your Windows installation, so I was wary of installing the free Limited Edition (which as it turns out it requires that you also install media player 9, point proven!)

To make a long story/question short, has anyone found an inexpensive or free slide show program that produces jazzy slide shows and includes the Ken Burns effect?

Thanks in advance!

06/03/2004 10:12:41 AM · #2
Let's consolidate this into this current thread.
 06/03/2004 10:42:13 AM · #3
Just finished a twenty minute slide presentation with effects and music for my nephew of his wedding, their child's birth, and his wife's graduation from veterinary med school along with the parties that followed. I realize this is no help to you but I used Mac's iMovie. Found it to be extremely sophisticated. Was able to do a number of things with it. However, I did learn somethings from producing these presentation (my fifth already) that may help:
First, the Ken Burns effect is nice but I found using it sparingly was to be more effective. Out of the twenty two minutes, I employed the Ken Burns effect on only three photos. I remember a writing teacher once telling me to use a phrase only once in a short essay because any more in such a short work is redundant. Same holds true in a picture essay.
One thing I overlooked on early productions which I used heavily in the later presentations was the Quick Time capability of my digital camera. I switched over to the movie format and incorporated several little one minute action programs in the presentation. This I found to be even more effective than the Burn's effect. What is nice, it has the sound with it.
Finally, what I found to be even more effective in the presentation was the music I selected to run along with the selected slides. There were a number of sighs and oh and ahs when the baby photos appeared along with Puccini's, Humming Song from Madam Butterfly. [By the way, you can create somewhat of a Burn's effect by cropping the same picture several times an then putting them up different lengths of time.] One more thought. The Burn's effect with my program does have a tendency to distort the image as it pans in or out. This causes some parts of the image to shimmer. Fine if it is water but distracting for some other features like someone's nose!
I guess I did a good job because I got a vigorous round of applause ( and some tears of joy) from the family at the end of the show.
I realize this was not a direct response to your question but hopefully I gave you some things to think about.

Best of luck with your own project!
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