Italy Slideshow

[RalphTomaccio Profile Private message]

Hello Everyone,

I'm hoping you'll take some time to constructively critique my slideshow, my first with PSG. It's from our recent vacation to Sicily (14 days) and Rome (4 days).

I'll warn you upfront that the Sicily show is looong, just shy of 35 minutes. The Rome show is 15 minutes and the Statues show 3 minutes, 40 seconds.

I'll begin the critique by saying that I know the Sicily show is too long for most people. I found it extremely difficult to edit down my over 1100 images any more than what I ended up with, 346 slides plus the images used as layers, so I'm estimating about 400 images.

This show does not contain material that might be considered objectionable.

http://www.photodex.com/share/rkorday/b4k7cmg4

[ginger Profile Private message]

Hi,

Tried to watch your shows several times, but never could get past the buffering time. I see you've output it to a flash file, and are hosting it on your own site. You might try putting it on the Photodex site, and seeing if that helps. You could either use the Share option or Create Web Show (which will give you better resolution). With first option, it uploads directly to your account on the Photodex site. The second option creates a file on your computer. Then you need to go to your account on Photodex and upload it from there. (The 2nd option lets you control the quality of the output. The first is more compressed, but loads quicker.)

Both of these assume you're on a Windows machine, because the Presenter plugin doesn't work with a Mac.

ginger

[RalphTomaccio Profile Private message]

Hi Ginger,

Thanks for your suggestions. I now have the show in my account and can be accessed at:

http://www.photodex.com/share/rkorday/pcx7cmg4

Looking forward to your critique!

Ralph

[ginger Profile Private message]

Thanks. They're much more accessible now...loaded much more quickly.

I only had time to watch one so far, and I watched the "Rome" show. Looks like you had a wonderful trip and some outstanding photography! I really enjoyed your show.

Only suggestions I might make are (in most cases) slow down the zoom, and consider the fill frame option when possible rather than having the black edges. If you consider this while shooting, you should be able to use the fill frame feature without losing anything important.

Very nice show, and enjoyed the credits.

Welcome to the forum!

ginger

P.S. You probably should consider updating the first thread with the photodex link. Otherwise people may give up on the long buffering times at the first link.

[RalphTomaccio Profile Private message]

Hi Ginger,

Thanks for your comments.

I agree with you regarding the black boarders. The show was designed originally for viewing on a widescreen TV. My specific TV does what is called "Overscanning", where it actually enlarges the image to make sure it fills the screen. To make certain everything I want seen of my images appears, I have to make the images even slightly smaller than the safe area in PSG.

So, what I did for sharing in my gallery was to go back into PSG and save my shows under a modified name and set the background of all the slides to white. I thought this would work but if you go to my show, which I uploaded after making that change, you'll notice that the images have white on the top and bottom, but there are two black bars on the left and right sides. Have any idea how I would eliminate them?

Also, I know the show would have been better had I shot everything in landscape, but I feel many images lose a great amount of impact if not shot in the format that best suits the subject matter. Besides, a number of these images will eventually be printed. As a retired photographer, the image is more important to me than proper orientation in a show a handful of people will see. Personal choice.

Here's the new link:

http://www.photodex.com/share/rkorday/b4k7cmg4

[ginger Profile Private message]

Hi,

Maybe you fixed it, but I just took a look and didn't notice the black bars you referenced.

I know the show would have been better had I shot everything in landscape, but I feel many images lose a great amount of impact if not shot in the format that best suits the subject matter.

I didn't mean that you should shoot only in landscape mode. I was trying to say that if you allow a little extra room around your subject when shooting (landscape or portrait), then all of the important parts of the photos will still be onscreen using the fill frame option (for landscapes of course) and the 16:9 format for slideshows on widescreen tv's. Doing this also gives you more flexibility for cropping to different aspect ratios and/or zooming in and out in your slideshows.

You might also find this thread interesting: http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewt ... =9&t=17697

Thanks for sharing your show.

ginger

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ralph,

I took a gander at each of the shows. There's a common theme between them so the comments apply at large to them. The shows themselves were pretty decent.

While there’s nothing wrong with a black background, it’s a major contrast with the images. The same thing would apply with an all white background. You might want to try experimenting with colors that coordinate with the slide content. Use the all black or all white background where it’ll make an appropriate statement. You did a little of that with a few scenes in the Rome show I noticed.

It seemed to me that, by and large, all of the images were the same amount of time and the transisions were all basically the same amount of time. There’s nothing wrong with that either. However, you might also break it up a bit so change the image on or between beats. That way it doesn’t look like music attached to a show (which anyone can do). It helps make it a more enjoyable experience.

I don’t know if you have an old version of Gold or what but, if you’re using a newer version, you’ve shut off the time bar so it makes it difficult to go drag the cursor back to an part just viewed.

You handled the transitions well. Many people try to use as many as they can and that often distracts from the show itself. You did really well with the captions too. They worked really well for the content. On your zooms, you might consider working a light change. There’s something to be said for zooming in or out on a scene and then holding it. In Gold that just means coordinating the end zoom of the previous slide with the zoom of the static version. That can add a bit of depth to the show too. There’s nothing wrong with what you did ... this is just another technique to work with. The zoom speed should be relative to the pace of the show. In general, I didn't see anything that was out of line.

None of the images, that I remember, had a border to offset them from the background (those that didn't fill the screen). You might check out the freebie styles on my site for Gold. I don't know if you'd like them but they have their uses when you do use Gold. Unfortunately Gold doesn't let you create a gradient or solid color layer (only Producer can do that), so other techniques are required. The Proshow border is ok, but isn't always what you want (and it's size limited).

For more information, you might check out the Video Slideshow Tips on my website (http://FenimorePhotoVideos.com). For the most part you seem to have a good handle on things tho.

Good work!

Enjoy!

Dale

[RalphTomaccio Profile Private message]

"I don’t know if you have an old version of Gold or what but, if you’re using a newer version, you’ve shut off the time bar so it makes it difficult to go drag the cursor back to an part just viewed."

I have the latest version. I'm not sure where the time bar is or how to turn it on. Is it similar or another name for a "progress bar"? If so, when I play the show in my gallery and place the cursor over it, the bar with a slider appears. If this is what you're referring to, I wonder why it doesn't show up for you. If it isn't, then please clarify.

"On your zooms, you might consider working a light change. There’s something to be said for zooming in or out on a scene and then holding it. In Gold that just means coordinating the end zoom of the previous slide with the zoom of the static version. That can add a bit of depth to the show too."

I did what you suggested a few times, but I probably could have added a few more, or maybe stayed on the static version a bit longer. Also, I think I'm going to add a style where it starts with a B&W image and then turns to color of the same image. I think that effect will be interesting.

"None of the images, that I remember, had a border to offset them from the background (those that didn't fill the screen)."

I'm not a big fan of borders unless, like you say, they really help separate the image from the background or other images. Some of the effects slides I used had them as I remember. Good suggestion though. I'll consider using them more often.

Dale, I appreciate you taking the time to view and critique my shows. Excellent comments!