Slideshow & Movie shared by e-mail

drcarl

Greetings fellow shooters and lovers of art.

I know ~The Answer~ is probably right on the next page, yet, with tired eyes, I post hoping for your expert experience and input...

I would like to assemble a slideshow and distribute it by e-mail. Let's say 35 slides, 5 MB or less, with tasteful transitions, text with transitions, and, (drum roll), perfectly timed to music! --and without the viewer having to download any extras-- Oh! And, needless to say, VERY professional/perfect.

I've received some of these by e-mail so I know it's possible. They are usually PowerPoint shows, but without varied, deliberate, and perfect transition timings recorded within the show. (They usually have the same number of seconds per slide view).

I understand that placing it on a site and sharing the link has many advantages, yet, this e-mailable show is what I want to make.

I'll do the hard work so that it's EASY for the viewer. It should open and run within commonly installed programs such as is the case with QuickTime, Flash movies, and Adobe Reader...even PowerPoint will run within some browsers (IE7).

I would also like to learn to do this with a movie application.

Here's what I know:
--I can trick PowerPoint into ~embedding~ an .mp3 (not linking to an outside file. I also still have other challenges with that program; my lack of knowledge no doubt).
--.wav audio files are limiting because of giant file size.
--shots must be compressed correctly (orig-> .png -> .jpg?).


I own quite a few programs. Some of which I am afraid to even open because I know that, like Photoshop, they are SO awesome (and resource hungry) that I'll be lost to the rest of the world for a week or more. Still, I have courage... and once convinced, I'll open it/them and learn...

Programs I have on my PC:
CS3 - the entire suite
InDesign
Distiller
Bridge
Flash
Dreamweaver
PowerPoint
SwishMax v.1
(and a bunch of lesser freebies and cheapies)


Which ones to learn? PowerPoint? InDesign?

I'm probably over-complicating an easy thing.

I look forward to seeing your suggestions (and work).

Thank you.

drcarl

ziggy53

Except for the "perfectly timed to music" and the "VERY professional/perfect", it "is" easy (not).

I used to have a program called "Instant Music" that could create custom musical licks and riffs of my desired length. Without something like that, you would have to find a musical background of the right length for your image compilation, or trim the images length, or time compress the image compilation.

If you have a particular musical background in mind, you might also use a music sequencer to take musical segments and organize them into pieces of fairly specific length.

There are some pretty awesome slideshow production software packages out there, so I'm probably behind the times with what may exist. I don't see anything in your existing software lineup that will make it easy on you.

drcarl

slidewshow custom timed to music for e-mail
Thanks for your input.

I'm not looking to do anything elaborate with the music. (I have other software, musicians, and microphones for that).

What I have in mind is more like: using a 3 minute (mp3) song and putting photos to it....with simple transitions and effects (cross-fade) and with my custom timing...some shots up for 3 seconds, some up for 5...transitions exactly in time with the musical background.

Even if it's not easy, I just want to know which program(s) will do it effectively.

Thanks again,

drcarl

dank-photo

drcarl wrote:

Thanks for your input.

I'm not looking to do anything elaborate with the music. (I have other software, musicians, and microphones for that).

What I have in mind is more like: using a 3 minute (mp3) song and putting photos to it....with simple transitions and effects (cross-fade) and with my custom timing...some shots up for 3 seconds, some up for 5...transitions exactly in time with the musical background.

Even if it's not easy, I just want to know which program(s) will do it effectively.

Thanks again,

drcarl

I think Final Cut pro would do it for you...I don't see that on your list. Maybe even final cut express (not sure if you'd be able to, but this is much cheaper than pro) I haven't used this program since I was in school, but you can control your images and music by a timeline where you can cut in, add-on, or delete sections of music. You'd have to line up the music and stills yourself by listening (or looking at the music frequency), but it would just take a couple of tries to get it spot on. I believe you can create fades and transitions in FP pro too, but again, I haven't used it in a long time...there's my 2 cents. Good luck.


-DK


www.dank-photo.com

drcarl

Final Cut Pro

dank-photo wrote:

I think Final Cut pro would do it for you...

Two things...I don't have Final Cut Pro, though I have hear it's quite the program, and I am on a PC...FCPro is only available for Macs.

Thank you!

drcarl

ziggy53

There is a software called "SoundSlides" that gets pretty good reviews.

http://www.soundslides.com/

Even Rob Galbraith has a page about it:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-7899-8616

drcarl

Still hunting for The Answer

ziggy53 wrote:

There is a software called "SoundSlides" that gets pretty good reviews.

Thanx...good info. I've been digging into my programs only to find that there is usually a dealbreaker limitation. Bridge, Lightroom, and even (I think) Photoshop can create a slideshow. I can add an mp3 to the one in Bridge, but the transitions are set...not 'rehearsed and recorded' as in PowerPoint.

Soundslides looks very interesting, yet, if it exports a Flash movie, and I already have Flash (and Swish), perhaps I should just learn Flash!?! I wonder how big the file sizes are with SoundSlides as compared to Flash, PowerPoint, and the others.

I'm still on the hunt for The Answer.

TIA

drcarl

photodoug

Microsoft Photo Story.....easy to use, easy to play, powerful enough, free

drcarl

Photo story - WAY too easy....

photodoug wrote:

Microsoft Photo Story.....easy to use, easy to play, powerful enough, free

Thanks photodoug...but, um, Photo Storydoesn't even come close...unless you can tell me how to do perfectly timed custom transitions...say, to the beat of a song? --and various lengths for each slide?

Maybe I'm missing something?

photodoug

drcarl wrote:

Thanks photodoug...but, um, Photo Storydoesn't even come close...unless you can tell me how to do perfectly timed custom transitions...say, to the beat of a song? --and various lengths for each slide?

Maybe I'm missing something?

then you'll be spending some $$ for pro software....good luck with that!

dank-photo

drcarl wrote:

Two things...I don't have Final Cut Pro, though I have hear it's quite the program, and I am on a PC...FCPro is only available for Macs.

Thank you!

drcarl

I keep forgetting that...it seems like it should be part of the CS3 suite that's available for all...

-DK

BradfordBenn

Flash will do what you are describing. I am not an expert at it but have done it a few times.

Insert and Audio Track
Insert a Key Frame of duration that you decide and include the image you want (I recommend doing the resize out of Flash first)
Insert another Key Frame on another timeline as well
If you want to do a cross fade it can be done but I am not an expert at it.

Hopefully that helps some.

GJMPhoto

Another Option
Another option is Pinnacle Studio.

Pretty simple to use, not all that expensive and it works. Produces Mpegs 1-4, AVIs, DVDs, etc...

- Gary.

drcarl

Slideshow makers
Although I am still undecided, and after days of research, there is one that's rising to the top.

It's "ProShow Gold" from Photodex; $70.

Here's a list of the others...as well as a couple of comments.


ProShow Gold from Photodex (best so far)
MySlideShow Gold from Anix (was promising, but the interface sucks, I mean, is awkward)
Pinnacle Studio (part of Anix)
ProShow Producer from Photodex.
ProShow Standard Photodex (the Gold has some valuable features)
Showitfast (looks like a great program, but $200 is a bit steep for me now)

SoundSlides (AWEsome shows, perhaps more for photo/audio journalists)
Imaginate 2.0 from Canopus

Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe PS Elements
Adobe Premiere Elements
Adobe Flash (steep learning curve, may be too time intensive)

Photo to Movie
PicturesToExe
MS Photo Story (too rudimentary, useless)
MS PowerPoint