Copyright 2005 - Michelle Fontaine

Not a computer guru? You can still put together amazing digital slideshows. Simple software programs, ranging from free to minimal costs, can help you turn your photo albums into electronic slideshows that can be watched on your TV, posted on a website, emailed to a friend, shared with loved ones. Let’s explore if this is a good fit for you! 

Why would you create a slideshow?
Transitions
Timing
Motion 
Sounds - Background, Voiceovers and Audio Clips
Title Slides
Segmenting or Sequencing
Branding Yourself

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Why? 
There are so many reasons to create a slideshow. Are you excited about photography? Looking for ways to share that passion? Looking for ways to share your memories in general? Trying to become known for your work? Do you have lots of good story-telling pictures? Are you wondering what you can create for a special gift to a loved one? Yes?? Then slideshows are perfect for you! 

Let’s get those pictures out of the closet or CD case. How about pictures of your children from babies to adults, how about the latest ones you took of that parade in town or the Special Person’s day at your grandchild’s school? How about those shots you took that emphasize the beauty around us in New England, or that vacation you took in Europe. You now have a perfect tool to entertain, evoke emotions, be informative and record important events. And, with the right timing and effects, you are guaranteed to delight, not bore, your audience! This is not your old vacation slideshow that was guaranteed to bore everyone except those who took the vacation.          

So, what makes a good show? It’s all about flow. Flow is having a beginning, middle and end that fit together logically. Think about what you want your audience to feel…calm, relaxed, happy, sad, thoughtful, emotional? Lead them through your show, from beginning to end, with correct timing, transitions, sounds and titles. Think about movies and how we aware of the end approaching. Try to incorporate those types of clues into your shows. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. 

Transitions are bridges
One of the major features of sophisticated film slideshows and the new digital slideshows are transitions. A transition is used to bridge one slide to the next, it’s a visual clue to the viewer that a change is happening. Transitions create moods; a 'gradual fade-in' is relaxing and softly moody, a ‘curtain-opening’ creates a more heightened sense of anticipation, a ‘fly-in’ transition creates a feeling of excitement, and, in the wrong place, anxiety and distraction. Above all, remember, less is more. Just because you have 200 transitions to choose from doesn’t mean you need to have fly-ins, checkerboards and heart-shaped zoom-ins in one show.  Transitions should serve a purpose, not be decorative. They should enhance your images so viewers anticipate the next image, not the next transition. Here's a tip, refrain from using the 'random transition button'. It's easy to use in ProShowGold, but you'll end up with a slideshow with a different transition for almost every image! 

Timing - how long is right 
Timing is also an important tool. How long should a slide remain on the screen? For ProShow Gold, the default is 2 seconds. Two seconds doesn’t seem like much, but for an image with no motion, it is enough. You’ll have some kind of transition before and after each image. Most likely it will be a gradual fade-in so the image is really on the screen for up to 3 or 4 seconds if you include the fade-in and fade-out. If a slide is especially important to your show, then give it the time it deserves. Good timing is extremely effective in telling the audience this is an important part. 

I produced a show on an athletic event called the Greenway Challenge. This event involved 7 segments of biking, paddling and running. The start of the event was near a church in Grafton, MA. As the athletes stood behind the start ribbon, a clergyman gave a blessing. I stood where I could photograph not only the athletes and the clergyman but also the whole church right up to the steeple. In the show, this was an important image. I started the motion effect as a close-up on the athletes, the start ribbon and the clergyman. I very slowly panned out until the whole scene presented itself. The music was also chosen to be soft at this point for the proper effect. The timing on that slide was about 10 seconds and worked well.    

Timing is also about how long a show should be. Unless you are producing a show that is supposed to be long, try to keep shows under 10 minutes, better at 5 or 6. You can easily show 200 slides in 10 minutes! When I first started making shows, they were longer. That's OK for family, but if you want to show them at, say, a camera club, then you really want to get that show down to your best shots. It's a good exercise to play the stern editor. In a sequencing slideshow, if an image doesn't add to the story you are telling, out it goes. Never mind what a great shot it is. If a point can be made in one image, don't use two. Keep only the best in. In a segmenting slideshow, each slide needs to be special, your personal best!   Remember, entertainment turns to boredom very quickly!  

Motion
Some slideshow creators choose to use no motion at all on the images. I believe it adds interest, but I admit at first I made every image move, even if just a tiny bit. Over time I learned that leaving some still can add drama. If motion is added, time for that image must be increased. Not sure how much to increase? Let the slide play and be alert to how you feel. Are you just a tad anxious? Just a tad unnerved that it’s too fast? Trust your intuition. Either decrease the motion or increase the time. 

Motion effects come in many styles and flavors. There is zooming in or out, there is the Ken Burns Effect, which often gives life to still photographs by slowly zooming-in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. There’s a way to spiral your picture into infinity and bring back another one in its place. I’ve seen that spiraling technique work quite well. As an example, start with an image of a perfect flower and slowly spiral it back into nothingness, next you can bring in another flower spiraling it to full size again. In a short show, I would not add this effect more than once. Motion, when overdone, can make the viewer feel uncomfortable, even nauseous. Be sure to review your work often and really think about how it is making you physically feel. Tune in to your gut feeling. It’s also a big help to have someone else review it and help you critique. 

Sounds - Background Music
I’m sure you knew this was coming. Sound is necessary. Slideshows without sound are boring! There are several categories of sound. First and basic is background music. ProShow Gold and most other programs allow soundtrack fade-ins, fade-outs, overlapping and the ability to cut the soundtrack at any point. The music must be appropriate and ‘go with the flow’. The one comment I’ve heard the most from professional slideshow creators to the new beginner and everyone in between is that  “Selecting the right music is difficult!” Here are a few hints. First, think about your show. What are you trying to convey? Do you want the viewer to feel happy, sentimental, emotional, moved, inspired, patriotic? There can be multiple feelings in one show and you’ll choose different music for each segment.

In another athletic competition event slideshow, the Danskin Triathlon, over 400 women swam, biked and ran for a total of 15 miles. The first sequence was the preparation for the start of the triathlon. I focused on gestures of support, love, and emotion. The music I chose was soft with a happy, anticipatory yet light feel. At the end, however, these women were running the last stretch, their families were cheering, the announcer was calling their names…this called for dramatic music! I chose an Olympic musical theme. It’s not surprising how much emotion this added to the end. Just look at movies we watch and note how the music affects us in those situations. What kind of music is playing when the tears are puddling in your eyes? 

This triumphant section was set to Olympic music!

Gail Hansche, a respected photographer and slideshow presenter, shared with the Seven Hills Camera Club that when she created her show “Spirit of New England” which was shown at the NECCC 2005 convention, she struggled with the music. She solved that by bringing a huge stack of CDs with her on a long drive to Maine and listened to them all until she found what she wanted. 

I created a digital slideshow from a 4-day hiking expedition I took with 8 family members into the Grand Canyon. That story is here. The show is on the Show page. The bottom of the Grand Canyon is a world unlike any other. Finding the right music to accentuate and emphasize the feeling of spirituality, of untouched desert territory, of feeling unplugged from civilization was a dilemma. As we were waiting at the airport in Arizona to come home, it hit me…Native American music! I found a CD, right there at the airport, called Canyon Trilogy. The beautiful haunting flute melodies were absolutely perfect for this particular slideshow. 

This slideshow called out
 for Native American music

During a program I led on Creating an Effective Slideshow, Mike Goodman, a master photographer, international traveler, and presenter at NECCC, shared his thoughts on background music. Mike shoots film and uses two carousel projectors to create a slideshow. Although the method is more manual than the digital electronic equivalent, he agrees “the concepts are the same”. Mike explained his background musical experience by saying that at first he felt it was more about the images, then he felt it was just about the music, that the music was more important than the images and, without the right music, the images did not have the best impact. As he grew in the slideshow creation arena, his opinion evolved. He now believes that music and images compete at the same level for attention. He does not hesitate to include background music that includes rich vocals to complement his amazing landscapes. He also learned he was  ‘stuck’ on the same kind of music when his wife told him to ‘please try something else!”. He jokes that he learned to experiment with different types of music after that.  

I often use www.freeplaymusic.com to find appropriate music. This website allows searches using descriptors like ‘soft’, ‘slow’, ‘building’, 'patriotic', etc. You can also choose by genre and instrument and tempo. The music is free as long as you follow their guidelines and give the artists credit at the end. If your slideshows are for personal use you can be less cautious about using copyrighted music, but it’s always a good idea to list the music and artists on your last slide. One very interesting thing about the free program Microsoft PhotoStory is that you can create your music on the fly! 

According to friend Jeff Davis, "Photo Story is a free program available from Microsoft that makes it very simple to create slide shows.  It uses a wizard-based interface that walks you through each step of creating an effective show.  It even has a feature that no paid program has – automatic music generation.  One of the hardest parts of creating a slide show is picking the music; however, Photo Story will automatically generate a music track for you based on some simple criteria like: Classical – Piano – Sentimental.  This music is royalty free so you don’t have to worry about music rights issues.  This is just one of the many nice features of the product."  

Another option is www.musicbakery.com . This site offers royalty free music, which isn't free but offers a good search method and the music is excellent quality. 

Sounds - Voiceover
Another type of audio is voiceover. You can record your own narration pieces and pull them into the slideshow, attaching this audio to specific images. I was able to really add to the emotional impact of a slideshow created for a colleague who was retiring using voiceover. 

Joan had been with the company for 25 years and many colleagues had known her for decades. I invited her long time friends into my office and we recorded 30-60 second messages to Joan. These audio goodbyes were attached to the picture of that person. 

Audio Clips - Another sound trick I did with Joan's was to add an audio clip of a woman laughing to Joan's picture. You see, she was known for a hearty laugh and I couldn't capture that laugh and keep the project a surprise. So, I went to www.microsoft.com and added the audio of a woman's laughter to her picture. There are tons of sound clips that are free to use as long as you follow their guidelines. This slideshow was presented to the whole company at Joan’s retirement party. I doubt I’ll ever have the opportunity to create something that produced as many joyous tears as that retirement slideshow did! 

How about a slideshow of your children? You’ve got special pictures, why are they special? Tell your daughter through an audio clip as her 3 year-old picture is playing that you ‘loved the way her head was bent as she spoke to Santa Clause.” Give them something very special to remember you by, a piece of yourself.  

Many cameras have the ability to record small video clips. With an inexpensive program like Quick Time Player you can take those videos and separate the audio from the video. I have learned that connecting the audio to still images can be more effective than including the video. 

Title Slides
Usually, your first title slide introduces the show with the name. Here’s a tip. Add one blank slide before your title slide. This allows the music to start and then your first slide fades in. It gives a professional polished look. You must somehow alert your viewers that another segment is starting. This is usually done with segment slides. A pleasing place to use different transitions is before and after segment slides. Provide your viewer with a clue that something is going to happen, make it more important. Your ending slide should coincide with the natural end of a musical piece or a fade-out of that piece. There should be an ending slide that gives credits to the musical artists and photographers. 

One last thought on title slides. If you are trying to brand yourself, if you are a budding photographer, if you just want people to know that you created this slideshow, consider creating two slides called branding slides. One is placed before your first introductory slide and one after the credit slide. The first one should have its own distinct musical piece but perhaps only a couple of notes.    

Sequencing or Segmenting
What’s the difference? Your show will either be a story that unfolds or it will be a series of images.  A story is a sequence of shots, segmenting is putting similar images together. Put your mountain shots together, put your flower shots together, put your racing pigs shots together. Also keep your horizontal (tall) and vertical (wide) shots separated. It’s distracting to the eye to keep switching back and forth from landscape to portrait and back to landscape. 

Branding Yourself
If you really enjoy making these shows, you'll want an outlet as I do. Create branding slides as I mentioned above. Then offer them to appropriate audiences.

Share your shows via the Internet
You can post your ProShow Gold shows on their website at no charge. Check out www.photodex.com. Other slideshow software vendors also offer posting on their sites. I have a few shows posted that you can view. Just type in mfontaine under member name. Try the "What is Photography". It's the smallest file and will load the quickest. You will be asked to download a free plug-in the first time. It is safe to do so.

If you have your own website, you can also post them there. Check out www.mfontainephotography.com/shows.htm . Directions to do this are located on the Photodex site.

Your Local Cable Channel
Contact your town's public access TV channel. The law requires that a public access channel play resident's work as long as it fits certain requirements. Slideshows act as excellent fillers between programs. Here is a .pdf sample of the Millbury, MA cable access form.

If your slideshow is about a school event, send a copy to the school. If it's an athletic event, send a copy to the coordinator. They aren't expensive to create and they have such an impact! 

Compatibility is a Concern
Do be sure you have burned your DVDs on a setting that can be shown on most DVDs players. The highest quality setting is not the best setting for compatibility with many types of DVD manufacturers. I have pretty good luck with the Standard Play setting in ProShow Gold.  Use some friends to test your DVDs in their players. Lastly, when you burn your DVD's, burn more than you think you need. You'll be surprised at the requests you'll get.

I hope you give this a try ... it is quite addictive ;)

Michelle Fontaine