JRR

Robert: For what is worth, I will be loading our 2005 Supercircuit entry (with all its worts ) on Beechbrook in a few weeks. (After our Camera Club has a chance to see it) We were fortunate enough to get a crtique from two of the judges on our presentation and I will be passing that along with other info about it. Our entry of last year was a nature documentary on Turtles (It was up on Beechbrook last year). It did not do well at all....

well said Maureen

Al and his team did a GREAT job. A good time was had by all. Looking foward to next year, (and maybe breaking our record of "zero" score for this year's and last year's entry and remembering not to lie on the floor when Al has his camera in hand !! )

Brian: I think that is the way the counts have always worked. I noticed it in the older version too.

Igor just mentioined in the PTE presentations forum here that ver 5.00 will have the scaling of the Objects feature. Many of us have been waiting patiently for that, well we'll have it soon ! Thanks Igor

Igor GREAT news!!! Can you tell I have been waiting for this for a very long time ??

John: A good number of us have purchased Medwyn's music through Barry. It has proved useful for me, it is one of many sources I have used.

When using OBJECTS with a 1280x960 resolution show, I make sure the OBJECTS will look Ok by using the "PREVIEW" in the upper left hand corner of the OBJECT EDITOR screen. Igor has promised to stablize the OBJECTS with a future release

Ken: Thanks for comments. Yes it is a little long but given the target audience (senior Citizens) it will work well. People ? Do you mean that people live in Ottawa ??? Gee I never realized that !!!!!

Are all the files you are using in the root of the CD ?

Kathy: WinRAR and WinZIP when unzipping, to my knowledge, should not affect the sound track. I assume you can still hear the sound on the previously downloaded ones and you are saying that you can't hear it on the newly downloaded ones? Pls try a new and old one and confirm. Can you pick one that you did earlier and can still hear the sound track and try downloading it again

Michel: The PhotoShop work is minimal: - levels to bring left and right triangle to where bright and dark end of histogram start. Usually I underexpose slightly (old slide habit) so I just have to bring the right triangle down slightly. - curves to correct for the slight underexposure - I do NOT re-size before cropping - crop (see below) and then sharpen with NikSharpener Crop: Out of the camera, the images are 3027x2048, I crop to 1280x960 to fill my screen to the maximum. It also lets me improve my original shot somewhat. The cropping is done either on each slide individually, or by bringing two or more images into a single image in PhotoShop via layers. I line up each layer with the others to get the proper transition I want. (Lower the opacity on the one you are lining up so you can see the other one) PhotoShop's UNSHARP MASK did an acceptable job for me (with much playing of the settings), but I find NikSharpener does a better job - but I need to back it off slightly when I have a lot of detail such as grass, leaves etc etc Hope that helps PS: Appreciate your advice on RAW

Andy: Thanks for the comments and feedback. Much appreciated. The lighting designs on the buildings (our Parliament Buildings by the way) is an annual "sound and Light show" that is put on for the tourists. It is quite a feat to see what the producers can do ! Yes I have cloned an object and moved it around on another stationary object before. It does solve the problem of lining up, but it was not possible in this case (ever tried selecting a squirrel's busy tail and have it look real ? Sorry it did not work flawlessly on your computer. I made it 1280x960 as that size works well on my computer screen and I am getting ready for the next generation of digital projectors that I was assuming would be going to 1280x960 but I see they are going even larger !!!!!! I have too many shows at 800x600 !! 78mb is certainly very large for some people, but I have seen larger. The issue is the number of images and their size (Around 400kb each) Dropping the size to 1024x768, or shortening it, would give a smaller file no question about it. 14 minutes is a little long for most occasions, but it is the right length for my target audience (Senior Citizens in a retirement home) You were almost at the end when you had to leave

Oui Michel, en hiver les gens patinent aux travail (pardon mon français) Yes in the winter, you can skate to work on a 7km long rink that in the summer is the boating canal. On the weekends it is VERY crowded with people out for a skate during the day. All those pictures were shot in jpg (I rarely use RAW unless I am unsure of the lighting conditions). The lens used most of time is a 28-135 Canon lens. For the wider angle shots I use a 17-28 Canon lens. I also use the 100-400 Canon lens too, but I don't think there were many shots in the show taken with it.

Bill loaded my latest show "My Town" on Beechbrook yesterday. This is one of a series of shows that I have to be shown at senior citizen homes, schools etc etc. It is large file - 74mb - as it is 1280x960 with typical file sizes of 400kb. I have already had a few "technical" photo questions about it, so I thought I should post my replies. All the images were shot on a Canon 10D, most of them were on a tripod (especially the nights shots <grin>) The squirrel was done hand holding so I had a little trouble getting the slides lined up – they are close but not quite bang on. There was very little PhotoShop work except levels and curves and then sharpening using Nik SharpenerPro. Some of the night shots were put through Neat Image to remove the noise and pixellation in the whispy clouds reflecting the city lights. They were also saved at quite a high quality jpg to keep them “together”. Then I cropped each image in the show individually to make sure they transition as effectively as I can. I quite often put transitioning images into the same file in PhotoShop (via layers) and move one layer around to line up the way I want (reduce the opacity on the top layer so you can see both layers) and then crop saving each layer as a separate jpg.

Jack: I assume you don't have it on Random play. One thing to check is that the end of the transition of one slide to the start of the next is about half a second. If not, you mgith get some hic-cupping that might skip a slide (and different ones if it is set to random play)

Eric: Again I might be missing something but your explanation helps Without trying it myself, here is what I would likely try You would have three .exe files (I know you don't want three but work with me on it ) 1. Slide show "L" This would be set to leave last (only) image on the screen at the end of the show. I believe you already have this show. It is a one image show on which there are two buttons to Launch: 2. Slide show A, images 2-30 3. Slide show B, images 31-48 Why not set both shows A & B to leave the last image up on the screen when finished and make the last image of show A, image #2, and the last image of Show B , image #31. You would then AUTORUN slide show L, the client would choose which button to click on A or B. Depending which one they choose, A or B runs. At the end of the show they would then hit ESC and would be taken back to Show L, from which they could choose the other show if they wanted. You might want to put an EXIT button show L so they don't need to hit ESC Again, there might well be easier/other ways to do what you want.

Eric: Do you want to do it only on the first pass or on every pass ? I assume on every pass. One way I thought of quickly (an Object editor won't work as it has to be clicked on and therefoe is not automatic) is to simply duplicate that part of the show when you hit slide 30. But I suspect I am missing something here

Doug: Look in the forum here for brief description of the LAUNCH approach. (See my posting of April 25) You can e-mail me if decide to pursue it and need more info

Doug: Further to comments already offered, so long as the .exe files are in the root of the CD, I would expect it to be found. Many of us use a "launch" show (a single image show with the other shows being linked via an OBJECT - button or picture) The "Launch show" sould be the auto started .exe file and then your viewer simply clicks on whichever OBJECT to start the desired show. I have never had a problem using this technique. (YET that is...... )

Rick: I use daisy chaining a fair bit and while previewing I get the momentary view of the desktop at times, or even just a flicker of the mouse on a black screen, but when they are shown from the .exe file at the REAL presentation, I have never had a problem. I suually try to leave a .25 second black screen at the end of the first show and the start of the second show (and ditto if more are being daisy chained.)

Thanks for your reply Igor Always there with knowledgable answers for us

I checked. She does not have the français version. All the entries in the dropdown box are in English. Her PC has the same version installed on it, and it reads correctly. Just an oddity I guess !!

I assume that MicroSoft's new colour control, available here will not help us make PTE a colour managed software. Is there a way that Igor can make it happen ? Some people usually work in Adobe RGB and for best viewing results change the files used in their shows to sRGB.

Carol: Lin is quite correct. You can't do it from the exe file. But that is why you should keep a copy of the images and latest .pte file well backed up. When I finish a show I create a TEMPLATE (as has been explained before in other threads) which creates a folder with the .pte, the image files used and the sound file PS: Found a reference for you Carol click here