Barry Beckham

Isn't this that age old debate, how far does a slide show program move towards being an image editing program? If you add text, then people like me want text styles, bevels, outlines. if you use graduated or solid backgrounds, I then want some control of texture noise etc Masks are easy and quick to make in Photoshop,Elements in almost any configuration and shape you want

Have you been back to Iceland for another trip, or are these other images you shot on your last visit?

why cant the professional just hit control D and slap all his images into whatever size output he chooses. Yes he will have black at the sides but Lin is happy to accept that Of course the wedding photographer making a slide show could do that, but this debate is not about what Lin or I personally like. Its clear that Lin, probably others too, would accept exactly what you suggest. All I am saying is that I doubt that the majority of those employing a wedding photographer with what they charge would accept 5:4 in a 16:9 world. I think we are far enough into 16:9 for the customer to expect that. Am I unique when I flick channels on TV these days and find something that sounds interesting and it pops up on screen in the old TV format. Almost square like 5:4. The first thing through my mind is wow, this must be quite old. Rightly or wrongly it is immediately dated. If I were to be a wedding photographer I would want first to try and provide something that the competition doesn't and if I couldn't do that, do it better. I just think any thought of a 5:4 slide show for a customer now is like throwing in the towel. And on top of all that, its easy to achieve with PTE. It's not a long job

I think we have to agree to differ, big time. No change there then. :-)

I'm not done yet Re professional wedding photographer - Do you really think he is going to crop 200 images to show the client in the slideshow from 3:2 or 4:5 or 4:3 or whichever aspect ratio the show was shot at to 16:9 for the show? That takes way too much time for which he will not be reimbursed and the images in the show won't match the images he delivers to his client in their normal format for printing. Point 1. My Canon SLR shoots video - Its 16:9 My Snappy camera shoots video - Its 16:9 YouTube videos are - 16:9 My PC screens are - 16:9 My laptop is 16:9 My TV is 16:9 PTE defaults now to 16:9 Anyone buying a PC projector of home cinema - 16:9 Yet your suggesting a professional would create a 5:4 slide show for the customer? and you call this person professional? Point 2. If the "Professional" is not going to be reimbursed for the slide show, then don't make one. Don't bleat about how hard pressed for time you are. Either produce a good product or not, but I am the customer and don't give a toss how pushed for time you are. Point 3. There is no need to crop 200 images because with a bit of pre-planning, use of a template and PTE slide styles you can use the 3:2 images from the camera in a 16:9 project. I know this because I have done it Point 4. In Lightroom or Photoshop you can batch process 200 images from high resolution from a typical SLR to 1920*1280 in under 5 minutes automatically. In Photoshop its the image processor. I did 870 images in 15 minutes. Just walk away and make your coffee while its doing it. Point 5. If you did decide to crop 200 images manually it takes about 10 minutes. Open 20 at a time and by using a preset crop in Photoshop, apply it - commit the crop and then saving the image and removing the image from screen ready for the next one. A simple action will do this, one minute to set up and once done its done. It took me around a minute to do 20 images so 10 minutes for the 200, but lets say 20 minutes even. No time at all and if the "Professional" cannot spare that time, they are in the wrong profession Point 5. The stressed Professional, being so hard pressed for time he delivers a 5:4 slide show to the client. The family all sit down in front of the large flat screen TV to watch this and see almost square images covering only a fraction of their screen. Professional? Give me a break . Soon to be unemployed if you ask me

Lin OK, your right. Long live 5:4 I now understand why its so popular. If only I had seen one in the past 5 years

I wonder if you have the wrong end of the stick here, because I am not referring to the shooting of images. I shoot at 3:2 format with my SLR and Infra-Red cameras and with my snappy I use 4:3 because its the largest pixel size. Its not the shooting of images that I care a toss about. I don't have 42 cameras, but wouldn't know what to do with them all if I did. This is an AV forum, so prints don't come into the argument. I just don't think it makes any sense to make a 5:4 slide show when every screen its likely to be viewed on is 16:9. The default of PTE-9 now reflects that too. If you want to use 5:4 go ahead, but I reserve the right to view slide shows at that format as dated. Yes, of course I am biased by my own experiences, aren't we all? And I have a fair bit of experience !!

I have a great idea, lets ask Igor to start a nostalgia forum dedicated to 5:4 slide shows. We could even create a special section on slide show club for the tons of people out there who are using this format. Then we could then sit back and enjoy all the 5:4 slide shows published by authors who must feel a bit depressed in the 16:9 world. Anyone want to bet how popular this would be ?

Prints are not AV and the question was asked on an AV forum, so it's reasonable to assume that is what it relates to. I can't see a great point in making a 5:4 slide show when every screen and projector around is 16:9. A 4:3 or 5:4 slide show immediately dates it and the author.

4:3 was bad enough, but 5:4 is dead. If not dead, very seriously stunned.

Nice Demos

Demos need to inspire

I used the sound of a camera shutter, which opens some ideas

I thought of this a while ago for the sound of a camera shutter, but I never thought of making the sound effect into a video and applying it that way. I was thinking more as a suggestion to add on to slide styles.

Surely common sense states that if the stats are derived from the wnsoft web site. They are likely to reflect a pretty accurate figure of those who would have an interest in PicturesToExe. I recall in the early days of digital looking at my web site stats and seeing only 2.3% of visitors were mac users. I wasn't a bit interested on whether that reflected their share of the market at that time, but I felt it accurately reflected how many digital enthusiasts were using macs and PC's.

Look at the bottom right corner of the thumbnails in the slide list and you will see the side duration. Highlight the slides you want and change that slide duration on one of the selected slides and the rest will follow

Does your slide show contain video Mark ?

I am trying to find that out, but so far have assumed PTE8

The product key error is dealt with its the error on launch that I have no experience of. She is using W7 Home premium, 64-bit – 2.3 GHz – 8 gig of ram on a laptop

I have had an email request with the following question. Can anyone help please because its not something I have ever seen. All I know at the moment is that the lady in question has had to do a complete re-install for the product key to stop putting the trial banner across a DVD she was creating. She now says:- I have is difficulty when trying to initially start PTE from desktop icon – and I keep getting this message WnSoft Exception “EStream Read Error”

I have been asked this question a dozen times and each time I wonder why the off switch is In a place where it can be accidentally turned off

Well, that is the problem with some of these ideas. They sound good in theory, but as you say, they can look less than appealing in practice.

Do we get to see the result?

Mike Take a look at this slide show as it has something close to what your asking for. Its Called Schools out Surf's Up and here the sun comes up. What your asking is not impossible, but its not something that is easy to explain in a short post. If you have the need to ask the question then it does indicate that it would be difficult to convey how to do this, but i'll have a go. 1. You will need an image editor and you will need to be familiar with layers and how to make a cut-out. You need to cut out the buildings from the sky. They should be saved as PNG files. The sun can now be made to sink behind the buildings, but if the cut-out is not really good, it will look a little amateurish. 2. You need a second copy of both these parts and they will need to be manipulated in your image editor to achieve the effect of lowering light levels as the sun goes down. They should be PNG files too 3. You would need to link the two skies and building together in the Objects and Animations window as parent and child. 4 Add Keyframes to the child objects so as the sun sinks you can reduce the opacity of the bight sky and buildings to the ones looking more like a sunset.

Hallwoody There are obviously problems with DVDs as the many people who contact this forum and some of us privately indicate. The technology is now old and most have moved onto MP4 videos because they can be played in most modern TVs and are better quality DVDs reduce the resolution of our slide shows and destroy the quality we carefully create. They are only 720 pixels wide. Then as PTE moves forward with its development, particularly thinking about Mac capability, who pays for the development of something that is dead, or if not dead, certainly on its last gasps. There has to come a time when the plug is pulled