JRR

Very nice quick study. Not quite smooth on my machine when there are two effects at the same time (GeForce 2Pro/2GDS card) I hope everyone takes not of your "actually over-using" comment. Your show is a great demo which is what it is intended to be, but I have seen shows from the competition software where they actually did use pan or zoom on EVERY shot for no apparent reason. Lin, what size were the images that you used. Both pixels dimensions and kb size pls thanks

Igor: I think as you say you have lots of feedback re various video cards. I know we will sort it all out in the weeks to come, but what sizes (KB) are the files in the two shows? I realize PTESHOW has larger file sizes (KB) with the 2400x1500 pixel sizes vs the 1024x768 Flowers show. But for those of us who might not be upgrading to another video card for the full dizzying effects it would be nice to know where to start our experiments with file (KB) sizes CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks

PC has GeForce 2 PRO/GTS which I put in the poll Laptop has GeForce FX GO 5200

They were all in wild (including the two sandhill cranes who were fully-flighted and could come and go at their will) shot in about 7-8 locations in Florida. Appreciate the suggestion re the sound track

Adri and Daniel: Thank you for your comments. We have shown the presentation to other than senior citizen homes and it has been well received. I mentioned the audience as when I set out to do a show who the targetted audience is one of the first decisions to make. That helps to determine the length and the approach to take. We take many of our shows to retirement homes as well as showing them at schools, libraries, nature groups, photo clubs etc etc. So I try to decide on my main audience for each show. Fifteen minutes is a long show to sit through, but I know from experience that is the maximum length seniors can sit through if they are interested in the topic. I also know they will not be overly critical of the photography so I can include some shots that are not technically quite right (some burned out areas, not quite focussed etc) but that let me tell a story. Birders generally don't want the narration, just back ground music, and if the shots are good and varied they will gladly sit through a longer show with many images up longer than the "norm". Photographers on the other hand generally want shorter shows of excellent quality images. Schools and general audiences will sit through a 5-8 minute show that tells a story (if it captures their attention) before moving on to another presentation.

Ruth: Al is right, sorry I forgot that I registered to get to that page. SORRY !!!! Al: I am not sure, but I know Chris Cox is. I am surprised no one seems to have picked up on his comment that there is a colour change with all conversions to jpg. (see my post #2 above)

Ruth: Click on the "Adobe User Forum" in my posting. It will take you directly to the particular thread on the User Forum

Now that Bill has his latest set of problems resolved (thank goodness Bill has such great dedication !! You'll notice a new presentation is available: Floridian Feathered Friends. This show combines images taken by my wife and myself on a trip to Florida this past February. We were overwhelmed with the variety and aceesibility of the birds. The show's primary audience is senior citizens in retirement homes as well as general audiences. Had I been aiming it at birders, or photographic audiences, I would have likely put the show together slightly differently. The show uses one background music mix, the voice-overs are individual sound bites inserted by the SOUND line. This has its pros and cons. One con being that you can't hear the sound bits when reviewing the show on the TIMELINE. I think (hope) Igor has this fixed in Ver 5.0. I have not reduced the background volume behind the voice overs as they seemed to be OK, but your views would be appreciated. Any and all comments are welcome.

Ronnie: Interesting observation that I was not aware of. I decided that I had not looked closely enough before. I don't have CS2, but I use the same script in CS via Russell Brown (see other thread re "multiresize or CS2") I ran some tests and still did not see a difference, but I checked the Adobe User Forums and came up with this: Adobe User Forum See the reply from Chris Cox at the bottom. Chris works for Adobe. Essentially he says any conversion from PSD to jpg can cause a colour difference......

Ruth: I sharpen each image as I see fit, less sharpening for more detail usually, but sharpening is a WHOLE other subject. BTW, save your images in sRGB and they will usually look better as PTE is not colour managed. PS: Wait until you get to the point that you will crop and re-size each image individually so as to get the best transformations possibles vis-a-vis having the prior image's contents line up (or not) as desired with the next image....

Gilbert: You might want to use the TEMPLATE option FILE>TEMPLATE>CREATE TEMPLATE for this show This will create a folder for you with the PTE file, the sound file and the images used in the show. (It will not copy the exe file though) Unless you tell it otherwise, the template folder is stored in the PROGRAM FILES with PTE. This is how I back up my shows. You can copy the contents of the template folder to a CD

Your quote is the real issue with pan and zoom as far as I am concerned. I have seen too many shows using other software that OVERUSE the P&Z to the point that I am not sure I will ever use it in PTE (I know I will, but...)

Ruth: Images of 500-600kb will work fine in PTE so long as the transitions are well spaced out and the computer is fairly recent. (I initially set up my shows with images straight from the camera at 2-4mb - not recommended !!) Images that size (500-600kb) will make your final .exe file quite large. Again not an issue depending what you want to do with it.... Images compressed into a jpg will be sized differently depending on the amount of detail in them. The more (in focus) detail the larger the file. That is why re-sizing to a single quality setting can be a problem at times (but I would not worry about it until you get to be an AV expert (if you aren't now).) I tend to use 300-400kb files for 1280x960 and it will work for most recent (and some not so recent) computers You could re-run your sizing actions and change the quality setting to something a little lower if you wanted. Hope that helps a little

Ruth: I have PhotoShop CS and I use Russell Brown's Image Processer 2.3 as a script Look for Image Processor 2.3 (About halfway down the page) http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html But it is built into CS2. It allows you to save by size (length and height), quality etc It's called the Image Processor. You can access this new version of the Image Processor from within the new Adobe Bridge application. Choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor.

Bob: To my mind there is an advantage, some would likely disagree with me. .mp3 is a compressed file, just like .jpg is. If you work on a jpg, saving it as you try different versions etc, overtime it loses quality. That is why we are taught to always work and save in .tif or .psd and convert to .jpg at the end. (obviously as PTE doesn't accept .tif or .psd I convert to .jpg for use in PTE but keep the uncompressed version until I am happy with the overall effect. The same applies to .mp3. I learned this the hard way in some of my earlier shows.

Charles: We had a somewhat similar issue a few months ago which is outlined on the forum some place. It turned out that when I converted the .wav to the MP3 I accidently used some weird options. Make sure you use stereo, 44,100HZ, constant bit rate and 128kbps (or 96). When I do that I have no problem going back and forth between .wav and .mp3. I do all my initial testing and synching using the .wav file and once I am happy and have finished tweaking the show and the music, I then convert to MP3 and away I go.

Maureen: I downloaded it this morning. Yes there are a few minor "glitches" but a really good job taking images from many different people and melding them into one great show. That is not easy !! Thank you very much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can open an image in our image editing software by CTRL+W, (or right clicking) it would nice if there was some way open a sound clip that is attached in the SOUND LINE of the main page in our sound editor. Or I guess in the MUSIC page of PROJECT OPTIONS.....

I was pulling out what little hair I have left working on a new show last night. Some images were FADING, while others (randomly) were changing as a QUICK transition. Finally solved it this morning... : In a nutshell I had two transition settings for each image, one a cut and one a FADE at 1500ms. In working with the show initially (selecting and sorting images etc) I had set the EFFECTS as all cuts (QUICK), then when I started to work on synching I went into EFFECTS and clicked on FADE, assuming that would turn off the Quick Transitions – it didn’t !! I should have scrolled down all the way the check it. Not sure if that is a small glitch in PTE or it is by design, but just to let others know....

Thanks Igor

Igor: I am not sure this is a request for the next version or not as I suspect it might not be required in version 5 as I understand the OBJECTS will be stay where created with version 5, but just in case... The computer and projector that I use for making presentations to large groups uses a screen resolution of 1400x1050. When setting up the OBJECTS (to line up behind text already on the image) there is no 1400x1050 preview. Grouping the OBJECTS does not help as I am trying to line up to existing text. As I do not have ready access to that computer except at presentation time, and the four computers at home do not have that screen resolution, I can't line the OBJECTS up ahead of time. It would be nice if 1400x1050 were an option... Thanks

Subject to being wrong .png files support transparent backgrounds and I think Igor is allowing them in Ver 5 (even as objects)

Steve: very nice !!!!

Tom: If it works the way you want OK, but you have gone about it a rather unorthodox way. (by the way 250 images is along show, hope you have a captive audience ) Normally we would take the music and link them together in one sound track, via a sound editing software such as Audacity(free) or Audition(not free) ) and add the music through the Project Options TAB and then custom synch the show. I assume you are at least saving the .pte file If you want to create a DVD, then I suggest you go here for further help

Gilbert: If you say you have been successful with mp5's before OK Did you look at Ronniebootwest's and Alrobin's postings of Jan 23 @3:28 and 5:11est several postings above yours ?