Barry Beckham

I think DavyC is entitled to his opinion, but some may notice that I have not responded to him for some time now. I decided that was the way to deal with those whose comments are designed to be confrontational. I think most members can deduce reasonable comment from spitefulness and those that can't,well,enough said. I would not normally ever post a PM,but perhaps this is a time when it would be permissible to do so. Some time ago DavyC downloaded one of my slide shows, grabbed all the pictures from it, then remade that show, posting it back on this forum via Mediafire. I think I had some reason to be a little annoyed at that, but I just sent this personal message to him. (Copied exactly from the forum messages) Davy Its not really the done thing to take someone elses work, change it and then repost it. I would like to ask you to reconsider if it was right and reasonable to do that. Barry Beckham He replied with: Hi Barry, I have the greatest respect for you and your work. I do in fact recommend new members to our local camera club to your site. It was not my intention to cause you any grief. Ihave deleted the post, and deleted the Mediafire show aswell. Happy to post a public apology. Regards, Davy My response was the following and as far as I was concerned the issue was over and no apology was necessary. None Necessary, thanks for understanding. Barry It appears his apology was not as sincere as I first thought, as ever since then his comments on anything I post is confrontational. He has obviously taken a huge dislike to me and responds accordingly. Anyone who thinks it entirely OK to take someone else's work, remake it and then repost it, shouldn't expect their comments to be taken very seriously. I don't because I am aware what the motivation is and I ignore them. So, please do not concern yourselves, allow DavyC to make all the comments he wishes, I am a big boy and the more ridiculous his comments, the less credible they become. Its only a slide show.

I recently needed to replace an old monitor and as I like the Dell 16:10 I thought I would get another, but try as I might, 16:9 was the only format I could get and I found the same with the laptop too.

Eric I do not have any expeprience of this, only the playing of slide shows made with a larger resolution than the projectorsize. In that case they all play fine, but I would expect the following will happen the other way around. Your 1280*1024 slide shows will be restricted to the 800 pixel height of the projector and I would expect the width to remain in proportion. Meaning you would see your 1280*1024 shows OK on that projector, but with black bars left and right. That is not a big issue I don't think, because they are probably less noticeable on projectors than a monitor, because the projected images does not have a plastic edge. Your 1024*768 pixel images will be expanded slightly if you never ticked the fixed size of slide box, but from 768-800 pixels, I think you would find the result OK. Once again you would have bars either side, but not a problem on projectors. IMHO The two mock ups are in proportion and what I would expect to see

Its called Rock Guitar

Greg Thanks, well it was a bit of fun really, an excuse to show some images.

Just some of the images I have completed in 2011 Its fast and furious. Top of the page here called http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/slideshows_3.html

Igor Many thanks, I think your right to deal with the sound editing next Barry

Lin If you don't mind me saying so Lin, your stating the obvious mate. I have said before that it is essential that PTE introduces Video to stay competitive and I agree about us old codgers, but I can't force myself to like it all that much. I am dying to see a sill image AV incorperating video that makes me sit up, take notice and say wow, and I am talking about something the everyday user can create. However, I don't have any enthusiasm to debate the pros and cons of video, too many defensive people here I just want to know what's next?

Lin Well I doubt any software is ever finished, but what your referring to would only be used by a tiny percentage of enthusiasts and if you want that, perhaps Adobe Premire would be more capable. You only have to look on this forum to see little of interest has been created using video. I understood that sound editing was to be improved to look more like audacity, but It's Igors baby so he takes it where we wishes. I just asked for a heads up, so I can pass that info on when asked.

Igor Are you able to give us an idea of where you are going next with PTE. What is your next project now that Video is complete? B

Whether this is the right place to mention this or not, but why do we have to tick a box to stop a sound comment being abruptly stopped when the next slide appears? It makes no sense at all. Can anyone think of one single reason why you would want your commentary/sound effect to be cut off so badly. The default should be the other way reound or that box removed completely.....IMHO

Noel How your slide show is received will depend largely on who you aimed it at. This will give you the best idea on how it's likely to be received. All of us have a visual IQ in our photography. Its what makes one picture great for one person and not so great for another. The same goes for AV. You have entered a competition and now your work is being judged far more harshly than it ever will here. In Audio Visual competition the judges are looking for originality, a flow from image to image, good appropriate music and a story. I can sort of understand why the judges made that comment. A title for a slide show will be read by the audience in less than a second, but in your show it is on screen far too long and with the greatest respect to the Dom, its hard to read, because letters leave the screen and don't build upinto a word. Then, at the end of the handwriting, you give us the title again. Its 1 minute before we see the first image in your showand in my view that's too long. I think you will find that the judges felt that you concentrated more on the presentation techniques than the content. If your going to enter competitions, then whether you agree with it or not, you need to keep things simple and find a story or an implied story. The Photo hierarchy are slow to change and judges can be even slower. Below is what your up against incompetition when you use techniques that are a little different to what they are used to. This relates to including video in slideshows, but its much the same thing. Motion for an AV rule Full motion video capture (above 10 frames/sec) should not be included unchanged from video cameras, however simulated motion by manually sequencing asuccession of still captures may be used in short sections foreffect. As soon as something new appears in photography, the first reaction of the great and the good is to ban it, or create more hoops for us all to jump through. Why 10fps is quoted is beyond me.

Not if the slide show has substance as well as the effects. You cannot create an interesting slide show with technical wizardry alone, but sadly many people seem to believe you can. By substance I am referring to a show that has a story or at least some theme and contains good quality images. Moving images about the screen or using technical tricks does not do it alone. Those techniques have the ability to grab your audiences attention, but they will not sustain you through a full slide show sequence. You have to do that with good photography and and a good idea. On top of all that, quite often the judges will write off an entry because they see it as not the authors creative work. I don't fully subcribe to that but I know it happens and when you see some work submitted you can't help but ask the question. How much of this was the authors work.. Why not put your mini sequence up on www.mediafire.com and let us have a link to view it ourselves

Fair enough, but you are now sounding a bit defensive and can only point to one example, hardly a landslide is it? Surely its reasonable to assume that the vast majority of people like to see their Images, Slide shows, video seen by a wider audience. I offer this site and Beechbrook as evidence of that. I am sure there is a PSG one and others too. Many of the contributors here make their shows for others to see, some for camera clubs and some not. I think that many people on this site, me included are not really sure what to do with our new video capabilities. We don't want to right it off, ban it or make some silly stand saying "I will never use it" just in case we are just not seeing the light yet. I have to be careful in what I say because I am also turned off by many TV programs because they try to use ginmmicks and fast moving video to make up for lack of interest. Images flashing into negative, jumping across the screen with weird sound effects, then back to the normal video. No video take lasting more than 2 seconds. So perhaps its just me. But if it was, we would surely see some great examples posted here. Have I missed them.

Dave I expect you are right that people in general are reluctant to accept change, but if the comment was aimed at me, you couldn't be further from the truth. I am about to go into battle with some here who want to ban video from AV competitions. Although Video doesn't inspire me, the last thing that should be done is to ban it. However, that is the first reaction of the "photo establishment" who feel they must make rules for the rest of us to jump through, whenever anything new comes along. While I don't personally care for video being mixed with stills much myself I am very careful, not to say "never" I am willing to be converted, to see something that makes me take stock and think again I might be wrong, but so far I havn't seen that from anyone.

Peter. Yes, I think I agree with you here. With the greatest respect to Igor and his team, video is not for me. I have done a little video to create tutorials, but at this present time, I doubt I will use video myself. What appealed to me about AV and always has, is the quality of the images we can use. Video, just doesn't cut it, even HD. As for inserting poor quality video taken from the internet, well, what is the point. There is enormous discussion about video, but is there anything really wow, that is worth seeing. If so lead me to it please.

For those interested we have a newsletter available below. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/newsletter/Nov_2011.pdf

Please don't mention that 4 letter word. I don't do work anymore. We went into Caloundra yesterday, for the sunset, that fizzled out, so we had dinner right on the Pumicstone Passage while watching a dolphin swim just off the shore. Next time you come up, let me know

Where in Australia are you? Anywhere near the Sunshine Coast?

That was one of the best Audio Visual sequences I have seen posted on this site. You must be pleased with that and rightly so. There are broadly two styles of still image AV. Story based and Image based. This is story based and when you get that right it stands out from the crowd. You got it right.

Igor Its OK, just a suggestion. Its a small price to pay for the rest that PTE gives me. I am not really into making Videos of my slide shows, I like the exe quality. The appeal of AV for me is that still images are streets ahead of any video in quality and for me that is the appeal.

I recall some years ago having a telephone conversation with a guy who did not know that when the thumbnail appeared on his TV, he had to click it to start the DVD. This isn't that is it?

Igor I wonder if this is something you could consider for the future. I like to use the option to add blanks to my slide shows, but I find computer generated colour, (other than back and white) unnatural to the eye, it's too smooth. I would like the ability to add Gaussian Monochrome noise to blanks or Rectangle shapes in the O&A, maybe even textures if that is possible. Ideally, I would like the same opportunity to do that to the colour behind the slides and also the colour outside the slide area. If I am not pushing my luck too far, I would also like to be able to affect the colour/Noise outside the slide area in the Customised slide option too.

Igor Not sure if there is anything you could do about this, but if you don't ask, you don't get they say. Since using a large flat screen monitor, I notice that when fading up from black on the first image, you often see a disturbance in the screen. Not sure how else to describe it, but I am guessing you know what I mean. I do find it annoying and it does cause a distraction just when your trying to start off a slide show with a good first impression. Is there anything that can be done about it from PTE's point of view.

When you create a link via a button in PTE to a slide show, the link may be something like this (D being a secondary drive perhaps) D:/photos/PTE_shows/My Slide Shows/A Summers day.exe The important part is the last part A Summers day.exe When you put these slide shows on a disk, you have to adjust the address in the Objects and Animations Common Tab because Your CD will look on the D drive and while it may find the slide shows on your PC, it won't when you put the disk in another PC. The other PC may not even have a D drive ! What you need to see in the address section is this "A Summers Day.exe" (Including the "") so remove all the rest and things will work OK, but make sure that on the CD the files are all on the root of the CD, in other words don't put anything in folders and you wll find your way there.