Slide show Is this what I need? really need help

[Sharlene]

I haven't done anything with photos on my computer so I am totally a beginner but I believe could catch on quickly. So I have this great idea that I would like to scan in old pictures of my family and make a slide show with music for my Father as a Christmas gift. But.... where to begin???? and my biggest question is.....is that he does have a computer but not sure what software he has on it. If I create this slide show with this software and save it to a disk, wouldn't he also need this software to play it? I have not purchased anything yet for photo slide shows and just want to invest my money wisely. Do I need to buy two software programs?

Thank you for your time

[Cmcburnett]

I made some VCDs for my family last year and everyone loved them. If you have photo elements you should be able to write from you PC and play back on your DVD on your TV. I use another program other than Elements to write my VCDs because it was easier but PSE can do the same thing. What version of Elements do you have? The earlier version of PSE was not good at all for writing/burning VCDs. But I have heard that the later versions are better. I have PSE4 now and it has more features for writing than the earlier versions. They are quite easy to write and everyoune loves them. I have made about 50 for family members and churches. Its a great way of viewing old photos.

[Barb O]

I made some VCDs for my family last year and everyone loved them. If you have photo elements you should be able to write from you PC and play back on your DVD on your TV. I use another program other than Elements to write my VCDs because it was easier but PSE can do the same thing. What version of Elements do you have? The earlier version of PSE was not good at all for writing/burning VCDs. But I have heard that the later versions are better. I have PSE4 now and it has more features for writing than the earlier versions. They are quite easy to write and everyoune loves them. I have made about 50 for family members and churches. Its a great way of viewing old photos.

Sharlene, I did not want you to spend a significant amount of time making a slideshow only to be disappointed.

My observation is that most people who have made VCDs from Photoshop Elements are not satisfied with the quality of image when it is played on their TV or their PC. Sometimes it depends on the amount of detail in the photo - example is with photos from a five year old's birthday party, a photo of 1 child was barely ok but a photo of 8 five year olds was so bad that I decided it was unacceptable. However, my experience is that none of the photos were really good on a PSE VCD.

Using a DVD burner on your PC and a different program will give you much better results. One of your options is to use Photoshop Elements 5 AND Premiere Elements 3 - but there are also other slideshow programs that will be simpler and may require less computer power than Premiere Elements, which is a video editor.

Perhaps someone will recommend a slideshow program that they use.

[mom to 4]

Sharlene:

I use Pinnacle Studio 10 for my slide shows, as does Marieboyer. We both love it. I got my edition in September from Target on sale for $50. I did create a slide show in PSE5, and it also was ok, marie said the quality of it was not up to Pinnacle, however. It all depends on how often you are going to be making slide shows as to if it would be worthwhile spending $50 on another program. PSE5 is easy to use, but I don't think it is really terrific, but if you are only planning on doing one for your Dad, I might use it. It is easy to use and of course, since YOU are doing it, your Dad will love it!!!!

If I can be of further help, just yell!

[TonyW]

Barb: I agree with you - VCD's are usually a disappointment and they won't play on a lot of DVD players. I have used PSE5 to make the slideshow (as a wmv file) and Sonic Digital Media (which came with my computer) to do the conversion from wmv to dvd-video and that worked quite well but I must admit that my preference is to do the image editing in PSE and then use ProShow Gold to create the slideshow on DVD. I guess I usually find programs that are designed to do just one thing (like create slideshows) better than ones that try and do everything.

Tony

[NickLewis]

Sharlene,

Another possibility that exists if you buy PSE5 is to output a slideshow to a Adobe PDF file. Anybody with a PC will either have, or can obtain, Adobe's free Reader software to view it.

Some effects and slide transitions are not possible, but a basic slideshow with music certainly is, and it would allow you to experiment knowing that your Dad will have no difficulty viewing the result.

The slideshow can be saved at resolutions supported by all common monitors, so quality shouldn't be an issue.

He would need Reader v6.0 or higher, I believe, but as I say, it's a free download, so that's not a constraint.

I don't know how good the facility is in PSE4. In PSE3 the facility was very basic. (I don't think music was possible for example.)

Scanning in and building the slideshow is a reasonable amount of work to be going on with for a beginner - I'd recommend not steepening the learning curve any further by introducing too many complexities.

Nick

[TonyW]

Nick: Good suggestion - and it is possible to add music although you may have to do it in Acrobat Reader rather than in PSE. In PSE5 the pdf option is really quite capable and the only thing you really miss is pan and zoom.

Tony

[NickLewis]

Tony - I haven't much experience of it yet, but I have managed to add a simple music background in PSE5. The only problem was that Reader put up a dialogue box asking for permission to play the multimedia content (i.e. the audio), but once I accepted that, everything seemed fine

Nick

[Cmcburnett]

Sharlene, so many people have responded to your questions about slideshows, some for and agianst VCDs. If you have the time, I think it is worth giving it a try. I have the Pinnacle program that a couple of people suggested and that program works, but I found a program that is easier, for me anyway, its called Greeting Card Deulxe and it has a program on the installation disk called Picture to TV, very easy to install and use. Sometimes you can get the program free after rebates if watch the sales ads. Maybe Adobe will work on a better program for writing VCDs for slideshows, I like videos, but slideshows seems to add a different touch. Good luck.

[mom to 4]

I guess I usually find programs that are designed to do just one thing (like create slideshows) better than ones that try and do everything.

Tony

Tony:

that's what I was trying to say, only I did it an a really round about way!

[PantsonFire]

I do large slide shows with PSE 4.0. DVD format if the way to go since most people have dvd players now and they can just slip it in and play wo a computer. You do need to have Premier Elements to make dvds however (altho you can use other video editing programs to turn slide shows into DVD video). I have tried some other SS software and found they all have features which are nice, but deficiencies which rule them out. I have found PSE 4 to be powerful and relatively easy to use if you are competent in file management (you must be able to find photos on your computer and track edited versions, etc). The biggest advantage of PSE is that you can edit your photos extensively in the PSE editor (which is a separate learning curve in itself), such as adding speech balloons to people and adding funny text to the balloons, which is a comic touch which I do for laughs when sending out slide shows. PSE 4 also allows entry of text and graphics directly from the SS kernel without having to enter the editor kernel, which is convenient. I have not found another program that allows the degree of editing of the photos that PSE allows. You are using the PS kernel which is professional all the way. Also PSE aallows you to set the time duration of each slide. Most other programs make you set the time the same for all the slides. It is also easy to add music files.
The one deficiency in PSE 4 that I hate is that it is hard to change the order of the slides. After editing in PSE I typically drop 50 to 100 photos into the slide show kernel. They usually are completely out of order. So I must move many slides around to get them in the play order I want. PSE's ordering interface is via the storyboard panel at the bottom of the screen. That scheme has the disadvantage of allowing only about 8 or 10 slides to be in view at the same time. The thumbnails are also tiny and sometimes it is hard to tell the contents of the photo. Trying to move one slide or several from the beginning of the show to the end is a time consuming, quirky chore. Its ok if you are dealing with 20 slides but some of my shows are 90-120 slides so it is a huge problem for me. The program has a submenu called "quick reorder" I found to be buggy, unpredictable and unusable. Moving slides around in the storyboard is so cumbersome that I try to acquire photos in small batches that have been presorted so I don't have to move them around in the slide show kernel very much. I do this by file naming a series of photos that I want together in serial order. This is cumbersome at best.
CD & DVD Picture Show Deluxe by Ulead Software, has a very easy to use interface which show 25 or 30 slides at a time and allows easy shifting of slides from one place to another using drag & drop and it works great. Unfortunately everything else about that program is subpar. It is for people who just want to send 20 photos to their family in a pretty little package with a cute album cover, with little editing. In that sense it might be better for a beginner like Sherry above. If anyone has had experience with PSE 5.0, specifically the moving of slides around I would appreciate your feedback.
I also found some bugs in the music feature. If you add more than 3 or 4 music files the program seems to get confused in which order to play them. I am hoping this has been fixed in PSE 5. In short if you want a powerful slide show program that allows all the power of PS photo manipulation, and are willing to put up with some quirks in the slide show kernel then PSE is good IMHO.

[DPF]

I have created a slideshow in Photoshop Elements 5.0. About 25 minutes, 278 photos with music and a few pans & zooms. Tried burning it to a VCD in 5.0; wouldn't play on my DVD player (it tells me there's no disc at all). Installed Premiere Elements 3.0. Folowed directions to Output the slideshow from PSE 5.0 to PE 3.0 to burn to a DVD. Every time I try to actually burn it to a DVD in PE 3.0, I end up getting a message saying something to the effect that it's too high of a "bitrate" to burn to a DVD and that I need to lower the "bitrate," which, of course I have no idea how to do. Anyone have any ideas about what I'm doing wrong? If I import all the same photos into PE 3.0 and create the slideshow there (much harder to work with than in PSE 5.0's slideshow creation feature) rather than in PSE 5.0, I can burn a DVD successfully. But I can't do the pan and zooms and title slides --- at least I haven't figured out how to do that in PE 3.0. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks, David :(

[Barb O]

"Every time I try to actually burn it to a DVD in PE 3.0, I end up getting a message saying something to the effect that it's too high of a "bitrate" to burn to a DVD and that I need to lower the "bitrate," which, of course I have no idea how to do"

David, I had written a more detailed response - but this site keeps dropping me and this time I lost that response. So now I will try a shorter response so mayb you can see something.

When you make the Burn to Disc - DVD choice you also need to choose the size of DVD- NTSC or DVD - PAL according to your country TV standard. If you choose something else like 800x600 not all the data is in the correct format and that may be the cause of your bitrate error.

[Diana]

I use Pro Show Gold for creating DVD photo slideshows and love it. It does panning and zooming and has a gazillion transitions as well as adding a soundtrack.

Diana

[gcherry]

Before you spend money on something you may only use once, check out a free program from Microsoft called PhotoStory. It creates great slide shows, has pan/zoom capabilities, and will let you add text and music. It will even create the music for you! The only downside is that you can't burn your slide show to DVD without having some other software. But you will be able to create a file that you can share in a variety of formats. Did I mention that it's FREE!?

http://www.microsoft.com/photostory

[DPF]

Barb O.: I think I've been using the right DVD standard. It worked okay when I imported the individual photos into PE 3.0 and created the slideshow there, but didn't when I created the slideshow in PSE 5.0 and imported it into PE 3.0.
But I will check when I try again.

Diana & gcherry: Thanks for the suggestions about other software programs. I had tried Windows Movie Maker, but it stalled at the exact same place every time (Having looked it up on Microsoft, it sounds like Windows Photo Story might be better for creating slideshows than Movie Maker since it is designed expressly for that purpose). That's when I bought and installed PE 3.0., which wasn't cheap, because it supposedly integrates and works with PSE 5.0. Having invested a fair amount of money in PE 3.0, I'd like to be able to get it to do what it claims it will do without having to download or buy and install yet another program. But perhaps the less frustrating path is to give up on PE 3.0. Thanks, David

[Cmcburnett]

It's interesting how so many people are writing photo DVD's. Good luck.