Looking for Photograph Proofing Software

[mccuthom]

I am trying to find any software that allows me to take still images and show them in color, black and white, and Sepia.

It should be able to create a DVD to be viewed on a television set.

I think pictures to exe is close, but it would be nice to automate the process with many stills.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Lin Evans]

About "any" presentation slideshow software will display images in color, black and white and sepia. Presentation slideshow software displays what you feed it. If the original is black and white then that's what you get. If it's sepia then that's what you get. If it's color then that's what you get.

If you are looking for presentation slideshow software which will change your color capture to black and white or sepia, then PicturesToExe is not that software. The developers believe that manipulating color is a job for image processing software like Photoshop, not a task for presentation slideshow software.

PTE Deluxe allows you to create DVD's to display on a television set in either PAL or NTSC format.

If you could explain what you mean by "automate the process with many stills" perhaps I can comment. I'm not certain what you want to do. You load the images into PTE, decide how long you want to display each image, decide which transitions you want to use, apply animation effects if desired and create your Windows or MacIntosh executable , AVI, MPEG, MP4 or burn a DVD, etc.

Best regards,

Lin

[CreativeIndulgence]

Hi Lin,

I have a similar question/requirement. I have a long series of images, all shot in color, that in P2E (and with a very short display time; e.g. 100ms) animate, as they were shot from a moving car with a high frame rate (12 fps).

While the client likes the look we're creating for him, he would like to see the last 100 or so frames slowly fade from color to B/W, as well as from tack-sharp to very blurry.

While I'm also trying to see if this is something I can automate in Photoshop, I was hoping that there's a transition in P2E to (a) slightly decrease the color sat from one frame to the next, and ( iterate the value of this (since I have some 100 frames to apply this to).

It sounds like this isn't doable, and perhaps will never be, but from your quote above:

"decide which transitions you want to use" wouldn't be violating the design philosophy of presentation software for the look I need to achieve.

Hoping for help/suggestions on how to do this...

Thanks,

Jerry

[Lin Evans]

Hi Jerry,

I know of no way to automate this but to do what your client wants is very easy.

First you need to create duplicates of all photos which you want to apply this effect to and desaturate them in Photoshop or other photo editing software. Next you need to duplicate the black and white photos and apply a gaussian blur to one copy of each. You then place them in PTE in the slide sequence of color, black and white sharp, black and white with gaussian blur and simply use a fade transition between. Below is a quick zipped sample using one images. You could play with the timings to get desired effect. There is a black jpg inserted at end of last slide to fade blurred pix to black

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/fadetobwblur.zip (zipped exe)

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/fadetobwblurpte.zip (zipped PTE file)

Best regards,

Lin

[mccuthom]

I found this service on the web that looks exactly like what I was trying to do.

Here is a link:

http://www.emotionmedia.com/content.php?m=proofing&page=proofing&

I am not sure if Pictures to EXE can do this or not. It may be more trouble than it is worth.

Thanks for your response.

[Lin Evans]

Hi,

I'm sorry, I guess I'm a bit "thick" today, but I still don't understand what it is you want to do. The site you linked creates "interactive DVD's." Is it the animations you see in their promo slideshow that your want to create? Is it an interactive DVD?

If you could explain in detail verbally what it is that you want to do, maybe I can answer your question. PTE will not automatically change your color images to black & white or sepia. You might find that possibility with Proshow Producer from Photodex at:

http://www.photodex.com

Best regards,

Lin

[mccuthom]

I am trying to create a DVD of images that the client can use to select images from.

I have no problem creating images that are B&W, Sepia, or color using Adobe products.

I simply want a way to interactivly let the client view the images.

It appears that pictures to exe is not the tool to use for this.

Perhaps a later version of the software may add this capability, as it appears that no current software supplier makes something that will do this based on my web searches.

I currently use Pictures to exe to create slideshows that my clients can just sit back and watch the show. It is not interactive, and does not let the client easily compare images.

Thanks again for your response.

[JRR]

I am trying to create a DVD of images that the client can use to select images from.

I have no problem creating images that are B&W, Sepia, or color using Adobe products.

I simply want a way to interactivly let the client view the images.

It appears that pictures to exe is not the tool to use for this.

Perhaps a later version of the software may add this capability, as it appears that no current software supplier makes something that will do this based on my web searches.

I currently use Pictures to exe to create slideshows that my clients can just sit back and watch the show. It is not interactive, and does not let the client easily compare images.

Thanks again for your response.

I have used PTE many times as a manual show with the navigation bar in view to allow the viewer to interact to some extent, but if you want to be able to pull up two or more images onto the screen randomly at the same time for comparison, no it can't do that.

I suppose you could set that up to limited extent by making up slides with 2 or 3 images up at the same time beforehand and having them as part of the show. Your clients could navigate to them via the navigation bar.

Another way, would be to have them go through the images one by one, and then have a slide with objects that would take them to (and return from) additional pages that have the various combination and permutations that you think they might want to compare.

Just thinking out loud

Added later:

On re-thinking, my last suggestion might not work as you wanted this as a DVD and I am not sure you could do this via DVD. Maybe you can, but I don't know.

You certainly can with the normal exe file production.

[nobeefstu]

mccuthom,

Did you do a internet search for DVD authoring software ?

Its this type of software/program that is required to author playable/interactive DVD's.

Im sure the features, price ranges, and learning curves in using some of these softwares varies greatly ... so one needs to be well informed/knowledgeable in DVD terminology to use some of these products and what thay have to offer.