Barry Beckham

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.

Jill I raised that issue as well some time ago. I cannot see the point on putting buttons you use all the time at the bottom right of the screen. The F6 toggle is OK, but I still keep going for the project options too and I miss the F6 key at times and hit F5 and get a preview I didn't want. There is lots of blank space at the bottom left of the screen for the Time Line/Slide List toggle button and also the full screen File list and full screen Slide list buttons too.

Igor I have not been following this thread, far too much to read and digest. However, for what its worth I have probably put together more demos in the past few weeks than most and I find the software is working OK for my style of work

Igor I notice that when I select a video (Canon 5D Mk2) PTE give me the optimize screen, but when I click OK, it always opens the optimization screen behind the PTE main screen. Until you know what is going on, nothing seems to be happening. It does it on both my PC's and It did the same on a friends PC when I was showing him how it worked. Its not supposed to do that is it?

Peter Yes it does and why did I expect to see a hyperlink. So used to others programs that have the text highlighted in blue that I never tried. Well your never too old to learn, thank you B PS

Igor While creating a number of demos I found myself wishing I had a reset option alongside the animation values in the O&A as per the attached.

Gary Lin has explained what the issue was, its the price we have to pay for our virus protection. If we have a guy fit 5 padlocks on our door and he gives us 4 right keys and one wrong one, we can't get in. Its just an error, but nothing we can do will open that last padlock. The Virus software programs in their efforts to protect us sometime make a mistake with the list that drives the virus programs. They all have at one time or another so there is little point in changing virus programs when this happens. You just keep your head down, don't panic, but just be aware of the issue, but usually the virus definitions will be updated daily. The part that caused the false positive is put right and the problem ceases on its own.

The hardware to create slides shows and project them cost us about £1200 in 1980. Now, we can do the very same thing, better, for a few dollars with PicturesToExe. In fact we can now achieve much more than we ever could using film, and with a greater flexibility too. There are few better ways to view digital images, than on a large screen in a darkened room, or a large modern Computer screen. Others must think so too, because our tutorials video disks for PicturesToExe are our best sellers and have been for some years now. The reason PicturesToExe is so good, is that it appeals to all photographers, from the causal snapper, to the serious amateur and professional. All have a need to present images and there is no better way than with PicturesToExe. You can stay traditional in your slide shows with still images, add animation and/or use video if you wish. Create a simple soundtrack, or one worthy of the BBC, it's all possible with PicturesToExe software. Digital Audio Visual via PicturesToExe is a great partner for our general digital photography, giving us a way to use and present the images we shoot. All the serious AV workers we know, use PicturesToExe. Why? Photographers gravitate towards it for the same reason they do with Photoshop, because its the best. Barry Beckham UK/Australia