GETTYSBURG, PA

[breh888]

I've attached a new slideshow of our trip to Gettysburg PA in October 2008. Photos were taken with a Nikon D60 with the kit lens. Shown are the town, the battlefields, and the Eisenhower farm. I've had ProShow Gold for about a month now and this is my sixth show. In it I've held back on my use of motion and all the wonderful styles available with the program. The show lasts about 10 minutes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Herb

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3121738&alb=0

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

Herb - We keep talking about going to Gettysburg and your show was exactly the reminder I need to visit this fall. It didn't look very crowded and fall is a beautiful time to view the valley.

Your show was enjoyable for the most part, but I think it could use some tuning up.

I felt it was some what disorganized. You started with a picture of the hotel sign but included no pictures of the hotel itself at that time. You had pictures of the town in the beginning and then later after you visited the Eisenhower Farm. There were what appeared to be the same pictures or nearly identical pictures at some point in time. The duplication was some where between the battlefield, National Cemetery and Devil's Den.

There were quite a few pictures that were extremely pixelated because you zoomed in so far. I wouldn't have thought you would get that with pictures from a D60. I would reduce the zoom to avoid that situation. Although you said you held back on the motion, I thought you had too much for absolutely no reason. There were a couple of slides where you zoomed in on one and zoomed out on the next. They crossed paths so I saw two pictures moving at the same time. I don't know how Gold works, but I would like to see the first picture have a small period of rest before the next picture comes in. There were also some pictures that I would have liked to have been able to view without them zooming. Motion should be done for a reason, not just because you can. You had a picture where you zoomed in on the opening of a barn and then immediately went to a picture of a room. Did that barn contain the rooms you displayed? A couple of slide styles here and there would have been an ok addition.

Many have never been to Gettysburg so a few more captions would have been appropriate (The Gettysburg Train Station, David Wills House etc).

Although shopping was part of your trip, the pictures at the Gettysburg outlet seemed rather out of place.

I didn't care for the ending. If the music and the pictures end at the same time fading out, I know it is over. The music carried on much too long with nothing happening.

There is a picture of the sun setting over the battlefield at around 4:27. What is that blue line running across the entire photo?

Something else I want to mention, athough this is a little nit-picky, Gettysburg is located in Adams County and the local newspaper is The Gettysburg Times. The Patriot-News is from Dauphin County. Maybe you used the paper to remind all of us how much money we've lost?

Thanks for posting your show.

Kathy

[breh888]

Hi Kathy.....

Thanks for the time you spent critiquing my Gettysburg slideshow. It's always great having experienced eyes looking over one's work. Your suggestions were extremely helpful to me and I appreciate all you've done. I agree with all your comments and have completely revamped the show. Below is the new version:

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3121965&alb=0

Gettysburg is indeed a nice place to visit in the early fall when the temperatures are a bit cooler and the crowds have left....although not completely. The main parking lot in the visitor center gets filled early on and we usually ended up in a more distant lot, and the restaurants get booked up early too. But well worth it nonetheless.

Herb

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

Herb -

The new version is a greatly improved over the original. I still think there is too much zooming in and out, but that might just be me. There are a few places where the black blank slide lingers on a bit too long and it too obvious. Try shortening those down to a fraction of a second. If you need to add some time elsewhere, try adding it to the slide where you are panning from left to right (I can't remember what you were panning on but I remember there was a white house or barn on the left).

The captions helped tremendously and the show flowed in a very orderly fashion.

The update version was a pleasure to watch. Thanks for posting your show.

Kathy

[iknowwhereitis123 Profile Private message]

Hi Herb,

Thanks for sharing your show! I wont critique it since Kathy went through it pretty darn well, but I will say it looks like a great trip and that you really enjoyed yourselves.

I really enjoyed your trip too! I have never been there but I love history so it's a place I would love to visit.

Thanks again for sharing,
Sue

[climax Profile Private message]

Hi Herb !
You have some really really nice pictures in this show !! And the second version of your show is indeed much more pleasant to watch. It is a very good show!

Regarding the movement on the slides, I'll have to agree with Kathy and say that, it is still a little bit too much.
When I was beginning to play with PSG I also used to have agressive zooms and panns all over,
This is so normal in our first shows !!
Don't worry... the idea of less movement will "grow on you" with time.
I use to say the zooming and panning is like make up... less is more, got it !?
If you don't use movement all the time, the effect you'll have when you do use them, with a good purpose, is
amplified 10 times !
Another suggestion I'll give you, is to make smoother movements. For example, if you are zooming a pic. go from 100% to 115% tops (in most of the cases I use only 5% difference in position). This will prevent the viwers from getting dizzie. And your wonderful pictures will be properly appreciated.
I'm not such an experienced proshow enthusiast, and I still make lots of mistakes myself, but I do feel confortable to give you these suggestions because I've been there where you are now, producing your very first shows.

Can't wait to see more shows from you.

Cristina

[breh888]

I want to thank you all for your thoughtful and knowledgable suggestions about my Gettysburg slideshow and for the time you took to draft and email me your comments.

Based on your suggestions, I throttled back on the motion effects, shortened the transitions and black blanks and did some further tweaking of my own.

For those of you that want to see where we're at, I've posted a link to the newest version 3.0.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3122146&alb=0

Thanks for your help in making this show and future ones better.

Herb

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

Herb - Great job! With each new version of your show, I notice new pictures and the removal of others. This version is a winner.

There are a few photographs in your show that I absolutely love - your wife looking in the disgustingly dirty window, the picture overlooking the battlefield and the last picture in the show. There were others but these stood out for me.

I've been meaning to ask, did you do the bus tour or a self-guided tour?

If I were you, I'd burn a dvd, put it in the dvd player and sit back and enjoy your show.

Kathy

[tdew Profile Private message]

I enjoyed your show very much.
It's been more than 25 years since I was there, and I think I need to go back again.
Thanks.

[breh888]

Hi Kathy and TDew....

Thanks for your kind comments on my Gettysburg slideshow version 3.0.

You asked whether we took a bus tour or a self-guided one. There are two versions of self-guided CDs available in the visitor center bookshop for doing your own tour. The one we bought was well narrated with lots of information and easy to navigate We opted for the self tour because we wanted to be able to stay for as long as we wanted at the different stops both for absorbing the sights and to be able to spend time taking photos. I believe the bus tours last only two hours with two companies offering tours. On our own, we spent that much time just climbing around Devil's Den and Little Round Top while spending a full day on the battleground and we could have spent more time had we not been exhausted.

Also, if you're going, the Gettysburg Hotel is quite nice and well located in the center of the downtown area. We rarely used our car. There's a movie theater next door which we went to one night, ate at several restaurants just steps from the hotel and enjoyed the Lincoln Diner when we wanted only something light.

Herb

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

Herb - Thanks for the information on the tours and where to possibly stay. We will hopefully be able to visit this fall. I'd like to time it for when the leaves have begun to change colors because I think there would be plenty of beautiful photo ops.

Thanks again.

Kathy

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

Herb. I make slide shows for a living and have probably created in excess of 300 since purchasing Producer a few years ago. I am going to be picky, because you asked me to - but I am also going to give suggestions when I feel I might have done something differently. Stickgirl has been a valuable asset to you in previous versions. I am only viewing version 3. But above all, these are only my views and opinions - your way could very possibly be better than my ideas.

Here goes: (I play the show on my left monitor, while typing as I watch on my right one)
1. Get rid of the Proshow Branding intro - there is a check box to leave it off.
2. Your opening screen identifies your production company, then you jump to the magazine covers and title to the show, then you go back to your production company and cast... I would do away with the red curtains, and instead - use the magazine cover image to do it all - fade in the the production company, then the stars, then bring up your show title big, bold and majestic - have it linger into the transition by un-checking the box beside your caption.
3. You are a handsome devil, aren't you? Your wife is adorable.
4. I like the music. But what if you added some battle sounds and canon blasts as a sound effect layer while showing the battle paintings?
5. You have a good sense of pictorial composition. But the color balance is WAY off in a few of the shots.
6. Cristina is correct about the movement - slower and less - then it would appear more professionally done.
7. Were you there a few days - didn't understand the sunset images in the middle of the show.
8. I got lost at the last few minutes - seemed like the show was not moving in a purposeful direction. Then at 10:39 you added your production name again?? Then a still image for a while. The words, "The End" are totally un-necessary. Come up with a less cliche' ending, something like, "We hope you enjoyed watching our trip to Gettysburg" , this has been a Somerset St Prod...
9. Finally, the fading out music ending - all that you did to have us enjoy the show - it lost all professionalism with the ending. We were left feeling "dismissed" and short changed. Make a meaningful ending so we sit there and say, "Wow"!

This show isn't nearly as bad as I make it sound. Actually it was quite good. But these points are my nit pickiest points for you to chew upon.

Blessings, ~al

[breh888]

Al....

Thanks for all the work you put into critiquing my slideshow of our Gettysburg trip. I've been busy incorporating the changes you suggested....and they all work for me. As it now stands, with these changes, I think the show is vastly improved and I've learned a lot from your feedback that I will use in future shows. Your comment on color balance being off, I assume refers to the shots inside the Eisenhower home and perhaps to the early battle scenes in the visitor center.

I am grateful for all your help with this project.

Also, my "adorable" lady thanks you for the compliment.

From what I've learned so far from the various comments made on this forum, good shows need to have a coherent story supported by well composed and interesting photos, timed carefully with appropriate music. Everything extraneous needs to be eliminated and captions can be effectively used sparingly, when needed. The wonderful, at first, motion effects and the variety of available transitions don't count for nearly as much as I first thought and can actually detract from a show....although they're certainly fun to play with and hard to wean myself from.

I've considered moving up to PSP, but it seems I sill have a lot to learn before I've mastered what PSG can do for me to create a decent slideshow.

Herb