Barry Beckham

Dve Now that looked to be an interesting holiday, the ice flows have lots of impact and here is a spooky thing. Sitting in my WMP is Conquest of Paradise by Vangellis, I was playing it the same day you posted your slide show. I have always loved that piece of music, but never had any images to go with it, you got there first. You ought to remind the PTE forum about your Purton Hulks AV. I bet there are a few who would appreciate seeing that

Eric I wasn't being critical of you or your technique, but it is a problem we all have to deal with and its a shame because these shows offer a great potential for images. I would certainly go to more of them if the same thing didn't occure at nearly every event. However, I can almost hear what the judge would say about the MG, I think most of us would say the same thing if we were judging. People naturally become the dominant part of any image even when they are out of focus. Caravans, people and H&S make a photographers life almost impossible. The best way around some events is to get there when the doors open and sometimes you get an hour or two before the crowds flock in, but with other events of course, the interesting stuff doesn't start when the doors open.

Nice pictures of the show, but your up against one of my pet hates here. Background clutter, nothing you can do about that of course. You know what always annoys me at these events is that as photographers we can almost never isolate our subjects. I know they have to perform for the public in a ring, but I often wonder how hard it would be at outdoor events to have a small space set aside against a nice backdrop. Certainly one minus cars, caravans, advertising hordings and those annoying people in their H&S vests. Civil war battles are a good example as they rather loose their appeal when a huge caravan site can be seen on the background. Car shows and events like this are the same. There is a terrirc car show in Enfield London each year in an enormous park with plenty of opportunity to have a photographers corner, but they never do. At air shows they almost always park the aircraft tail towards the public. Now, what is the point of that? Perhaps its me age and I am just a grump now I have reached 60 Traction engine rally's are the same, all those lovely old engines parked between caravans and tents. When you think that practically everyone coming through the gate at these events has a camera, you would think someone somewhere would think a little more about how and where the exibits are displayed.

The show I just watched wasn't a long one, perhaps you changed it, but I thought it was just about right. Punchy, in time with the music and all went well togther.

I have made a very small test to illustrate what I was trying to say, two images, one with the box ticked and one not ticked. One will be displayed as I created it, (quite small), the other will be allowed to enlarge and the quality issue is then obvious. The test is only about 800k. I have kept the images small so those running a 1024*768 monitor will see the quality change that those running a higher resolution will see. http://www.beckhamdi....co.uk/test.zip

Eric Sorry, I must have not explained myself correctly. I wasn't suggesting you increase the size of your slide show images at all and I fully understand the recourse thing. What I was trying to say was that without ticking that box, even you are not going to see your slide show right when you view it on your PC. The images will be enlarged beyond the size you created them. If your happy with that and all your work is for DVD, then I agree it wouldn't make much difference to the final output. But you posted your show for others to view and I thought you would be interested to know how it is seen by others. Your last comment seems to suggest you havn't taken my post in the spirit it was meant. I appologise if my choice of words has given you the wrong impression.

Eric Sorry about the YACHTSMAN spelling and forgetting to add the screen grab, but I see you found it anyway. We were just going out and I was rushing to complete the post and the wife was already in the car, well that's my excuse. The upshot is that I can now see your slide show at the size you created it and it looks a 100 times better, but your earlier post makes me want to ask another question. Why make a slide show at 1024*768 and then show it on a 1280*1024 laptop screen so that the images are enlarged as I described earlier. You should be seeing that black border around your slide show when you play it on a larger screen res and if you are not, how come you didn't spot the loss of quality when your images are stretched? . It wouldn''t be quite as much loss going from 1024 to 1280, but I can spot it straight away in my earlier shows

Yaughtsman I was only kidding about the lens, but the effect on your images for those using a higher resolution monitors is just the same, in fact a lot worse. I am not suggesting you change your resolution or do anything fundemental to your slide show. I was just tipping you off that if you tick one box in PTE you can avoid this issue. I and many others running a higher resolution than 1024*768 will then see your images just as you intended and I am sure you would want that. See the attached screen grab By ticking that box it will have no effect on your slide show at all at your end, but your images will then not be enlarged way past the resolution you created them. This is an issue that many will not know about unless they happen to run their slide show on a higher resolution monitor, then the poor quality of the images would surprise you. Easy to fix and I am just trying to give you a heads up. We sweat blood to produce our shows, so most of us would be devastated if our show looked awful on another monitor all for the sake of one tick.

Yaughtman Nice idea, but have you fallen into the Fixed Size of Slide (in Pixels) trap. I played your show on my Dell 27in screen running 1920*1200 and if those pictures are from a new lens, then take it back quick Don't panic, that was just my idea of fun. I don't think you have any problems with your lens, but I suspect that your show was made at 1024*768 or 1280*1024 and on my screen without that Fixed Size of Slide (in Pixels) box ticked the picture qualitiy isn't good. Your original images are stretched to fit larger screens and the quality of the images then become poor, which is a shame. If you tick that box, in the Project Options > Screen Tab those of us with larger screens see your show exactly as you created it and we can then appreciate the correct image quality.

I know this is not a terribly helpful post, but this isn't an issue that we see reported about PicturesToExe, so it is more likely to be some issue on your own computer. Is there any way you can try a different piece of music as has been suggested, perhaps something from your own CD collection just to illiminate that sound file. Then, if you have the ability to try your sequence in another PC, that would tell you quite a lot if it worked OK there, then you know the issue is on your PC. Or, if you can save your show as a backup in zip and you can send us a link for it we can take a look for you and see what we find. You can use mediafire or www.yousendit.com to send the link

Yaughtman This is the same thing I have experienced many times with video tutorials, one small change to the software and as Lin says, a re-write or re-record is far quicker than trying to squeeze things in. I don't think there is an answer to this, because of you wait for sound editing then some other addition will be on the horizon then.

Yaughtman A manual can indicate what button to press to do something, but no manuals help with flair and creativity. Most modern software can be used in many different ways. How an individual uses the software is difficult to put in any manual. Look at Photoshop, there books by the million and videos galore, but people still struggle badly. Then just as the manual you have decided to create, which has taken taken enormous time and preparation, the software moves on and you have to start all over again. Good luck with your request, but I will be amazed if you ever see what your looking for.

Dom Barry, I totally agree with you. And in this case, in my opinion, most of the time, the linear speed option will be the more appropriate. But we have to keep in mind that doing an animation during slide transition might be jerky on "old" computers. Well, that may be the case, but how on earth is the author supposed to know that unless he has another old computer or two to try his slide show on. This reminds me of the "fixed size of slide box" Unless you have other computers to test your show on, you won't know about potential problems. In my experience with the slide shows I have made, which I accept is quite different to what you like to do, tells me that most animation that is applied to slide shows is way over the top. If you ask your computer to apply too much animation or expect it to run too quickly it will be jerky. (even a modern one) My experience and personal opinion is that animation needs to be measured and delicate. The impact on the slide show is generally better, the computers it will be played on can cope better and it's easier on the eye and the slide show benefits. Reading further posts from Mike, it seems to indicate that I was off beam anyway and my comments may not be relavent to what he is trying to do. Animation is great and I have used it a few times, but authors may like to ask themselves two questions before they get involved in complex animations in their slide show. 1. What is this animation going to add to the appeal of my show? 2. Is the image(s) I am about to animate strong enough to be on screen for the length of time I need? Generally in my view, the answer to No1 is probably very little or nothing and the answer to No 2 is probably not. Of course there are always exceptions, but from where I sit getting these two questions right is like finding Hen's teeth. Movement is no substitute for interest and appeal.

I find that the style I use for making slide shows I am continually selecting Size position in Pixels > Original Mode to set an object to its original 100% size. If not it will be enlarged way beyond what I intended. I appreciate that once selected, this option palette will float on the screen, but I wonder if those parameters could be slotted into the window bar at the top right of the O&A screen. Alternatively a simple button placed somewhere in the O&A screen so I can make any inset image, or text made in Photoshop appear at the exact size I created it with a simple click.

Mike I think that if you are creating a zoom on a full screen image, the zoom, or in fact any animation, looks far better and is much more acceptable to the eye (in a pictorial slide show) if the animation starts with the image appearing on screen and is still moving when the next image removes it. In other words the start and end flags for the animation are at the extreme right and left hand end of the time line when viewed in the objects and animation screen. I feel the use of the different speed modes only come into play for me when I am using animation with picture in picture, objects or text, where you sometimes need the animation to come to a rest, before the next image appears. Then the accelerate or slow down seem more relevant to me. However, for full screen images, I feel the animation is far better when you don't see anything start or stop. Assuming you are working on a pictorial slide show and by that I mean one where you are trying to capture a mood and a flow to your images, then having an image appear fully and then start to zoom looks a little amateurish. In my view of course

Maureen A very nice sequence and a pleasure to see such good quality images, why don't we see more images of this quality in AV? I wish I knew. I was also pleased to see the sequence just as you created it, not stretched to fill my large monitor where the quality is then shot to pieces. You have ticked all the right boxes. One thought came to mind while viewing, you had some lovely weather while in Ireland. I assume you never shot all those images in one day, so the AV gods must have been looking down on you Great sequence, well put together B

Are you putting your music into PTE via the Project Options > Music tab? Do it this way and you should be OK

Well, from a purely selfish attitude I don't need any sound editing in PTE, but most people do and I know because I demonstrate PTE to hundreds of them, in fact thousands by now. The average user doesn't find the ending of a slide show easy, it's only easy in a sound editor when you have done it a dozen times. My point, that I have made many times is the forum doesn't reflect the average user at all and we should be aware of that. Xaver, you need to be aware that what most people say is often just a figure of speach, it doesn't always need to be taken literally.

What really is the point of polling a forum full of enthusiasts? Won't the result just tell us what we already know. That you can't please all of the people all of the time. Every one of us could have predicted the sort of responses we have seen. PTE is a commercial product, it is hardly going to be supported financially by any of us who already have it. Its the newer user and the user who hasn't even heard of PTE yet, that I am sure Igor has in mind. Igor has created some software that seems to lead the field, his decisions up to now seem to be pretty sound and they have kept PTE at the top, so I am sure he will make the upgrade choices he thinks are right at the time.

I think I know what Ron is trying to do here. With PTE4, the buttons didn't have the same neat look as they do now. However, they were much easier to create and they looked pretty neat too all lined up and the same size. I used them for all my DVD menus, but when PTE5 appeared I lost the ability to create the buttons in the way I liked. (Small price to pay for the improvements in PTE5 I might add) Anyway, at that time I moved over to a dedicated and simple piece of software called Multi-Media Builder, which allows me to create simple, yet slylish menus for any project.

I am using Multi Media Builder for all my needs now

Good colourful pictures and great music, watched it all the way through and wasn't even tempted to reach for the escape key Nice one

I don't think that will meet your needs will it Ron, the button still grows if you put a longer title on it. In fact the buttons in PTE worked better in PTE4 I now use a separate bit of software to create multi media buttons

Lin That is all I did, zipped the .app file and sent it to mac users and the response has been positive every time. That was the slide show played perfectly on their Mac