Alan Lyons

Hi, Ok Ron we should go with ratio but I think the 320 across the top is big enough. On a theme lets try keep it as open as possible so I would use one of the following: 1.Landscape (seascape) 2.People 3.Wildlife 4.Architecture 5.At work As this thread was started by The Image Studio I suggest the topic should come from there, Alan

Great news Bart, let the tournament commence! Now about image size, as I said best if we keep them small for down loading I suggest 300 pixels across the top and all in landscape format. The one format allows for better third images. Are we all happy with this?, Alan

Hi Brian, Welcome to the forum. Lets start with the obvious. 1.Have you checked the "use customised settings" box in the options tabs? 2. Are you costomising an individual slide or the whole project? Customise slide only effects one slide. Customise project effects all. 3. In the effects tab have you only one effect checked? All are checked by default. You can clear all with the button at top right. 4. Have you set times for the effect? Bottom of the tab set in sec and m/s. 5. Rember save and save as only makes a project file you neet to create or create as to get your .exe file. See where you are after this and then get back to us, Best of luck, Alan

Waht have we started here! Great to see the fire burning under so many people. Thanks to Bart for agreeing to host. What I think we should do now is have a folder where between now and say, 1st March we each submit 3 images. Then over the month of March we all take the images supplied and create a show. This way we all use the same images but the secquence, and sound would be up to you. There should be no winners in this exersize, but we would all benifit from seeing how others deal with a group of images. We should use all images and not just the ones we feel go well together. Lets keep them small too, so the file can be downloaded easily. If we find a master piece we can always go back to the big pictures, looking forward to the crack, Alan

Hi All again, We seem to have set a few sparks flying! I wonder would any forum member be willing to host a file of small images which others could download, create a show, and post the result? This would allow all to see the results and perhaps start a " is that the best you can do? well watch this" competition. There is a rude name for this type of competition but I will not use it here Hi Maureen, glad to hear you are back on your pins again. We could have done with a safe house the weekend as we were hiding from a 70 year old aunt so as not to ruin a surprize. Next time the bailiffs say we can go on holiday, we may drop by, Regards, Alan

Great to see this topic running on and on. With regard to Contaxman's suggestion I would say if a group either locally or on line could be given a group of slides with out script or music, and each was asked to compile a show from them you would find some very interesting results. We have often used this in Ireland in IPF workshops and it opens up the whole debate about secquencing and show content, Alan

Hi all, Sorry i have not been involved in this thread for a while.I'm just back from a weekend in Southampton. Anyway, I agree with Ed that the third image is a concept which needs to be thought early on to new A/V workers and if you take the example given by "The Image Suite" of using P2E just to show a group of images, if the user understands what a third image is then most selections can be improved by testing images in secquence to see if a third image exists. I would suggest making a template for a 2 slide show with a long disolve which you can use to compare slides for disolves. Remember in most sequences only the author knows the order in which the holiday / event ran, so why not mix and mach if nessary to improve the look of the show? I personally shoot to a story board and re shoot if nessary to make the third image work, Alan

Hi All, it bodes well for A/V when the creative side of the process generates so many replys in such a short time. As a projectors and prayers worker, I too am conserned for the well being of the third image. All these new effects are great to have in your box of tricks, but remember when you use an effect it has to be relevent to the show. Remember all those awful photographs we had to suffer when Cokin filters first hit the shelves? how many do you own and use now? Alan

Hi Mike, if the timeline goes back to the start, you can speed along it by clicking below the line at the right edge of the window this will bring you this point. I use this to skip to diferent parts of the show. It also works to the left so you can move forward and backward on the line. Alan.

Hi Guido, Good to hear from you, glad to hear all is well. Knowing that our elder statesman is about will help to keep us upstarts in check Best wishes, Alan

Gogs, You hav'nt said if you are running the show from the laptop cd rom. This can cause the locking up you are experiencing. Alas no matter how good the computer is if you play from the cd rom the computer needs to load from the cd and then display. It's better to copy the show to HD and run from there. you can always delete later, Regards, Alan

Hi Sandra, Welcome aboard, I always do as Pete says and combine all sounds into one MP3. This prevents delays in your computer loading a second MP3 while also loading picture files. But you can also use seperate tracks. What you need to do is sellect piece 1 to play from say, slide 1 in the slide options. The following slides should have "continue playing sellected track" sellected. When you want to change to your 2nd track, you sellect " start new track" in the slide option. The following slides should have "continue playing sellected track" sellected. If you combine the tracks in 1 MP3 all you have to do is sellect "play backround music " in the Project options. Good luck with your work, Alan

Hi Ralvis, I was browsing today and remembered I had downloaded your show, so i have just looked at now. Is there any left? You say you are going to redo the show if so i would recomend you loose the title after you start to show the main slides. This is because some slides only partly cover the title and in one shot the poor man is surrounded by the title "Deep Turkey". Can you be "Deep" and be a turkey too? But on the good side this show is an example of the power of P2E in that we all can visit your home and smell the frying . All the best for 2004, Alan

Happy New Year All Here in Dublin, it is wet and windy. 60mph gusts expected later,my new year will be by the fire with that whiskey we mentioned before christmas. Need to get the bottle recycled so someone has to drink it . looking forward to a great year with P2E and the gang on the forum. Keep your eyes on the digital A/V Festivals they are comming thick and fast now/ Best wishes for 2004 and hope the heads dont hurt too much tomorrow Alan

Merry Christmas to all from Dublin Ireland, I have just read through the entries in this thread and enjoyed seeing where all the gang come from. Mabey we should make more use of the location tab as I am sure there are a lot of P2E forum members living near each other who never meet. It would be nice to meet the locals face to face as we can meet everybody else here in the "big lounge". Die some one say Whisky? Yes please. Alan

Hi Jan, Welcome to the forum. i would go allong with Ron, if you think for a moment of your second piece of music as commentary, then i would have the piece on a second track in the sound editor. This allows you to move it up and down the time line in your sound editor. When you export to MP3 it's position is locked into the MP3. You can fade or mute the first track during this period and have it resume after the piece has passed. The benifit of 2 track mixing is that you can move it again and again untill it is where you want it. Most sound editors give you a volume curve some call it a clothes line which allows you to alter the volume at any given point. This makes for a smooth transition between each piece, Alan

Hi Jim, I like you am not up on the DVD thingys and am also an analogue user. But while we wait for the experts to come can I ask you how much you pay for your candles for your projectors, and how you keep your wax cylinders from melting between shows. Your fellow luddite, Alan

Hi Rich, When you make a show each transition point takes the next slide in the list, so add slides at the front could be a problem. Try this, Add the new slides to the front of your list i.e. add to list then click and drag to the top of the list. I expect that the last few slides on your show will not turn up in the show but you then go to the end and sellect add new transition for each missing slide. If the programme does not run or complains about missing slides then you will have to take the list and re name all from 01 to whatever. You will still not have enough transitions on your time line so you may have to sellect add new transition for each missing slide. Hope this helps, Alan

Hello Bert, I use the minolta Dual also and find that it's auto settings usually put you near where you want to be. As you will know scanners will add noise to your image so try Neat image at www.neatimage.com this is a simple little programme which will remove this noise first. No point in sharpening noise is there? Best wishes, Alan

Hi Oleg, I think you may be going in too deep on this. What I do is record voice peaking at +3 db on the out out meter ( just in the red) as the old guys would say. My music would be recorded the same on sepreate tracks i.e. l+r. I then make the seperation at mix down keeping the music peak around -17db (+3 -20). This will give a good sound seperation and means you dont need to power up the sound on long non voice sections. If the voice is been taken over by the music try taking some bass off the voice it may sound thin on its own, but when the music is played with it the top end of the voice will be hidden behind the music and it will sound more natural, are you with me? Alan

Hi Maureen, Yes your right that was me in Dundalk, but I had a highly intellegent and charming pair of judges Sorry to hear about the shingles, I had them a while back, very sore But you see, shingles is a viral attack on the nervious system, so you can be as grumpy as hell and no onecan complain, Regards to all, Alan

To Oleg, I think you need to be careful with normalise when you have a mixed track as it can try to find a general level for the whole track. Abit like when you try to darken or brighten an entire image, you've got to compromise somewhere. Sound mixing is like light exposure you need to read what the meter is telling you and use the info to get the right result, Alan

Hi Gerard, It looks like you have had a sucessful event well done to all conserned. While I'm on, Oleg the best laugh I have had in some time is the translation supplied by Bable Fish which I then had to translate into "the Queens own" English. If you ever feel down, try a translation, it's bound to raise a smile, Alan

Just to say well done to some regular forum members who gained reconition in this competition. They are: 19 Rhondda Grey Ian Bateman GB Mention FIAP (song) 21 Black country Barry Beckham GB Mention FIAP (sound) 32 "Life is life" Oleg Lobachev & Olga Boritsch for sound and "O Boritsch Photographer" I also got a mention Mentions special with best photography for 34 After the rain Alan Lyons. If there are other forum members who have entered or got a mention that I hav not picked off the list please accept my apology Regards, Alan

Hi All, The trick with voice is to record with the peaks at about +3 on your meter you then need to adjust the trebble / bass to clean up the voice dont try to do this on headphones as these can sometimes distort the final sound. For voice over you need to have the misic set at about 20db below the voice track, Alan