Help with Creating a Slide-Show

[DJett]

My objective is to create a slide-show for my son who is graduating from high school that will be burned to a DVD. I'm looking for some simple step-by step instructions. The more I have read on the forum, the more confused I have become (I'm obviously a newbie).

What I have done so far is edited the photos I wanted to include in the slide show (around 150 -a combination of scanned and digital photos) and tagged them in PSE6 to an album. I was planning on using the "create slide show" feature in PSE6 and then importing it into Premier Elements 4 to burn.

I now read that I need to re-size the photos before bringing them into Premier. Although the batch-processing option sounds great, the photos selected are located in numerous directories and this will be a tedious process (is there a better way?)

So, some basic questions: (1) Am I better off creating the show in Premier, including adding transitions, music, etc.? (2) What is the recommended size to use if output is intended for a current model HD TV but not utilizing blue-ray or HD DVD player? (3) Once I re-size the phots, is there an advantage of creating the show in PSE 6 vs. PE 4?

What I would think would be a very common method of presenting and sharing photos; appears to be very difficult to achieve

All tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[ATR]

Have no fears. We shall get through this together.

First, what are the pixel dimensions of these edited photos? Is the pixel dimensions greater than 1000 x 750 pixels? If you are unsure, take one of the images into Photoshop Elements 6 Editor, Image Menu, Resize, Image Size and look at the pixel dimensions in the dialog box. Also, are your images landscape or portrait oriented?

I am thinking that the Premiere Elements 4 preset of NTSC DV Widescreen 16:9 should be OK for viewing for the conditions that you described. But, let us do a mini run before the grand project.

1. Create a slideshow in Photoshop Elements 6, using maybe 5 to 10 images (probably better resized, but OK for now as is). Output this slideshow to Premiere Elements 4, using the Send to Premiere Elements output option. Forget about creating menus for now, just go to Share/Disk/DVD and burn to disc to create a DVD-VIDEO. See what that looks like on your TV.

Oversized photos (and a lot of them) can be an issue in Premiere Elements as well as Photoshop Element.

First, let us deal with the resizing and getting quality playback of your slideshow in DVD-VIDEO format on a DVD disc. We are also going to have to do a check on your system resources to make sure that they are up to the task...Windows XP or Vista, RAM, free hard drive space, optimization of computer, no unnecessary programs running in the background, and so on...

ATR

[DJett]

ATR,
Thanks for getting back so quickly. I really appreciate your guidance through this project.

(1) I looked at one picture that was taken with my digital camera and one that was scanned. The digital pic is 3264 x 2448 and a resolution of 180 pix per inch. The scanned image is 1181 x 787 with a similar resolution 197.

(2) Re-sizing Photo's: For a 16:9 for widescreen image (i.e. TV), what re-size spec's should I use for landscape and portrait images? Any quick way to do this if pic's are random selections contained in numersous different directories (current organizatio on hard drive is a new directory for each 100 pictures taken)

(3) So if I understand you correct, you would create the slide show (i.e. transitions, music, etc) in PSE6 and use Premier for creatng the menus etc. Correct?

(4) System spec's should be good. A new Dell Insprion 530 (Quad 6600 2.4 Ghz) runnig Vista, 4G RAM, 320 Hard Drive

[ATR]

Check out the following FAQ from Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe. It is a classic on What Resolution Should Still Photos Be.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb8822c

This is what I am suggesting that you do:
A Mini Run of just a 5 to 10 image Photoshop Elements 6 Slideshow.
Images Resized to 1000 x 750 pixels. The plan is to resize the landscape oriented photos separate from the portrait oriented ones. You will use the Send to Premiere Elements output option to get the slideshow in Premiere Elements which ahead of time will be set up:
1. Project Preset: NTSC DV Widescreen 16:9 (Are you in a PAL area instead?)
2. When in Edit Mode, Edit Menu/Preferences/General, "Default to Scale to Frame" should be checked.


Resizing Operation
1. Create two folders on the Desktop, one named Original Size Landscape (you are going to start with COPIES of your originals here) and another folder named Resized Landscape which contain the resized images after Process Multiple Files.

2. File/Process Multiple File: In Source, browse to Desktop and designate the Original Size Landscape folder; In Destination, browse to Desktop and designate the Resized Landscape. Go to Image Size area and make sure you put a check mark on Resize Images. Use Width 1000 pixels, Height 750 pixels, Resolution 200. Where it says File Type, check Convert to and designate JPEG HIGH QUALITY. Whatever I did not mention, just leave blank. Let us see how that turns out. We can get into cropping as well as resizing later if necessary.

It would have been nicer if the scanned photos had maintained the 4:3 aspect ratio of the photos from the camera. So, you may want to do them in still another separate batch resizing operation.

The goal of this suggestion is to see how your images fare in the resizing process and get an idea of the DVD-VIDEO quality going this route.

To be continued...

ATR

[DJett]

Still a bit confused on the ratio's to use for re-sizing. You suggeted 1,000 x 750 for landscape. This is for a TV with a 4 x 3 aspect ratio.

Would your suggestion be different for a 16:9 ?
What would be the recommendation for portrait images?
I have concerns that when Premier adjust these to fit on the TV (especially the portraits) it may strech the proportions to look very bad (or does it leave "windows" on the side?)

Most of my images are either scanned in images at a 4 x 6 ratio or digital images that werer previously cropped to 4 x 6 for printing ( I have since learned not to crop anything until ready for final output and then save that as a different version). For the digital images, I do have the originals, but it would be a lot of work to re-edit all of these to (color correction, etc.) in order to re-set the aspect ratio.

[ATR]

Oh.....a mild setback in my minirun plan....I thought images from your camera were in the majority at 3264 x 2448 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio) and a few were scanned at an aspect ratio of something like 6:4 with pixel dimensions 1181 x 787.

Please clarify: What is the typical final pixel dimensions for what started out as 3264 x 2448 pixels (which is aspect ratio 4:3) camera images and was cropped to a 6:4 aspect ratio? Are these 1181 x 787 pixels also???

If it were as I imagined, I still wanted you to try the plan as described. One thing to keep in mind is that whether you use NTSC DV Standard 4:3 or NTSC DV Widescreen 16:9, the frame size is the same for each, namely 720 x 480 pixels. In Widescreen, it is the applied aspect ratio of 16:9 that makes the difference in encoding. Let us put the portrait on hold until we work out the details for the landscape images.

I have 3264 x 2448 pixels images from my camera. I am going to play with these and see what I can come up with to work with what is. Confirming what you have pixel dimensions-wise and otherwise will keep me on the right track.

Remember 3:2 print...4:3 images....Maybe recheck out that link that I cited previously about image resolution.

ATR

[ATR]

RE: Landscape Oriented Images

When I take my 3264 x 2448 pixels image and do a 6 inches x 4 inches crop, I end up with and image:
Pixel Dimensions 1200 x 800 pixels
Document Size 6 inches x 4 inches

This is what I would like you to try:
Do the minirun with a few landscape oriented images. Resized to: 1000 x 563 pixels, Resolution 200, file type JPEG High Quality.
Output the Photoshop Elements 6 Slideshow to Premiere Elements 4, using the Send to Premiere Elements output option. Beforehand, you should have set up the present at NTSC DV Widescreen 16:9 and had "Default Scale to Frame Size" checked in Edit Menu/Preferences/General.

In Premiere Elements, we want to know what all of that looks like: any black borders, any distortions, etc.

We did all this to avoid Premiere Elements to have to down size a lot of images to 720 x 480 as well as take care of the aspect ratio details involved.

I will go into further details next time.

ATR

[DJett]

ATR,
The scanned images were scanned with the dimensions of 6 x 4 (1181 x 787) and a resolution of 197 and seem to work fine when converted over to Premier and burned to a DVD. (no re-sizing was necessary)

The digital pic's that were cropped to 6 x 4 are 3264 x 2448 and a resolution of 180 pix per inch. I did resize these to 1024 x 768. They also seem to work fine when converted over to Premier and burned to a DVD.

So now the question is: What dimensions to use for portrait prints? The result I'm looking for is for the screen to be filled height-wise with a blank screen to the left and right of the picture (streeching to fit the entire screen would distort the picture dramatically).

Thanks for your help....we are making progress.

[ATR]

I am so glad that your project is moving forward.

I am still trying to figure out how your 6:4 crop of a 3264 x 2446 pixels image resulted in a 3264 x 2446 pixels image with an aspect ratio of 6:4 (Resolution @ 200). I would have thought that the pixel dimensions of your 6:4 crop would have yielded pixel dimension of 1200 x 800 pixels with an aspect ratio of 6:4 (Resolution @ 200). Still thinking about that one.

But if your procedures are yielding the results that work for you, then that is our directive. The principle behind dealing with the portrait oriented images is just reverse the height width values. If with landscape your width was 1000 pixels and your height was 750 pixels, then with portrait your width should be width 750 pixels and height 1000 pixels. If the values that you have been resizing to have worked, then use them, but in the appropriate width height.

When you get to Premiere Elements 4 set up as described previously, you will have a large black border to the right and to the left of the image, but the image will touch the top and bottom.

I think that portrait images tend to be distracting, but.... You might want to consider filling the black area with a color or a background type image. To do this, place the portrait image on video track 2 and below it on video track 1 place a color matte or a background type image. The color matte can be created by going to the Project View/Media. To the far right is an icon for New Items. From the drop down list, select color matte. Best be working in the Timeline view, so you can see what is going on better.

Let me know if that all comes together. If not, we will rethink. But, so far, so good.

ATR

[DJett]

ATR,
Thanks for the tip on portraits to get a color matt on the sides (i.e. track one and track two). You have been a big help in getting me started and hopefully this thread has been useful to other beginners as well.