New Show - Memories of China

[Nikonos]

Hi Folks - I recently returned from a trip to China and wanted a fairly quick way of putting an A/V together of at least some of the large number of pics that I managed to take over two weeks. One of The Dom's templates seemed ideally suited to this purpose (envelope). The resultant show was converted to MP4 video format and subsequently transferred to an Apple I-Pad. I have to say the results far exceeded my expectations (the screen on the I-pad is a real cracker!). The tablet device can be handed around amongst friends and acquaintances like a photo album, and being a video it can be easily paused when anyone needs to ask a question.

The standard PC version can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/1trw71ocfq4p9qa/Memories%20of%20China.zip

The Mac version here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/r20bpxzzjtco4v6/Memories%20of%20China.app.zip

At some stage I hope to produce another show from this trip - with extra images and varied transitions. Something for the long winter evenings perhaps.... :-)

Anyway, here are the details. Download size: 24 meg. Duration: 6 mins approx. 41 images in total. Image aspect ratio 3:2 (1620x1080)

Malcolm

[Ken Cox]

A UNIQUE presentation - full background screen - smooth transitions - great colours

I liked it

ken

[BootZilla]

Malcolm -

As Ken said, great show with a unique presentation. Looks like a template by "THEDOM" or maybe Barry Beckham. Lots of bright colors with a good level of sharpness.

The only negative for me, was the "shimmering" during the slow animation of almost every image. I'm going to guess that you didn't apply "anti-shimmering" to the animated photos. The shimmering effect gets worse depending on the sharpness of the images and your photos have a good level of sharpness applied to them which is a good thing. However, by ticking the "anti-shimmering" box in the "properties" tab of the "objects & animation" window, you can eliminate most if not all the shimmer.

Greg

[Nikonos]

Malcolm -

As Ken said, great show with a unique presentation. Looks like a template by "THEDOM" or maybe Barry Beckham. Lots of bright colors with a good level of sharpness.

The only negative for me, was the "shimmering" during the slow animation of almost every image. I'm going to guess that you didn't apply "anti-shimmering" to the animated photos. The shimmering effect gets worse depending on the sharpness of the images and your photos have a good level of sharpness applied to them which is a good thing. However, by ticking the "anti-shimmering" box in the "properties" tab of the "objects & animation" window, you can eliminate most if not all the shimmer.

Greg

Hi Greg - thanks for your comments. If you read my original posting I do in fact say that I used a template from 'The Dom' (and very good it is too!). The shimmering is not really noticeable on the Apple IPad - which was the original purpose of the exercise. I have in fact tried it with and without the "anti-shimmering" tab ticked and it doesn't really make that much difference on either of my two monitors.

[nelson]

Excellent photography, I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to more.

[BootZilla]

Malcolm -

I accessed your show via the e-mail notice sent out from the forum. I went straight to the link with out first reading your intro - my apologies for missing the point re the DOM template. I'm surprised you couldn't see the difference between the anti-shimmering being on or off. I don't know why that is.

Anyway, other than the shimmering that appeared on my monitor, the show was great.

Greg

[David Porter]

Great photos and I certainly look forward to seeing more. The presentation is not for me as I found it increasingly irritating for the photos to be always on the move but I can see it is useful for passing round on the Ipad to family and friends especially if you use the keyboard control.

[Nikonos]

Great photos and I certainly look forward to seeing more. The presentation is not for me as I found it increasingly irritating for the photos to be always on the move but I can see it is useful for passing round on the Ipad to family and friends especially if you use the keyboard control.

Thanks Mick. Yep, that particular template was fine for the purpose and I take your comment about the images being almost constantly on the move. I will certainly work on something more 'considered' when I can devote more time on it. I don't know about you, but I find the average show takes me several weeks to produce. There is always the temptation to tinker and fine-tune before it is "released" into the wide world....

[BootZilla]

Amen to the timeless tinkering. I too can blow away a few weeks from choosing the images and enhancing them, creating the show style and animations, choosing music etc. And that gets me thru to version one. and then the tinkering starts and continues for sometime usually. I don't think I've ever uploaded a slideshow after completing the first version. I've had some shows go on for months. I feel the time I put into my shows definitely show in the final version.

Greg

[David Porter]

I think you get so involved in doing a show it is a good idea to give it a rest for a day or two and then you can review it from a somewhat detached perspective - and as you say, tinker with it some more and go thro' the procedure again.

[Bert]

Malcolm,

I just looked at your China show and the pictures, quality and subjects are fantastic. I enjoy travel shows and your pictures are all interesting. I look forward to seeing your "big" show in the future. Thanks for showing this.

[mhwarner]

Malcolm,

Outstanding photography! I love the way you mixed the landscape/cityscape images with the detailed images and the people portraits. Your photography is exquisite and you make great use of depth of field. My favorites were a close-up near the beginning of some sort of detailed fabric (almost looked like a peacock design) and the one of the three bicycle riders in multicolored raincoats going riding into the mist. I think you made a very good selection from what I can only imagine must have been a huge collection of photographs. And of course, you can't go wrong with one of Dom's templates. I'm sure your family and friends are awed by this presentation. Thank you very much for sharing. This is a definite keeper for me.

[xahu34]

Malcolm,

You have shown us a very, very impressive, wonderful collection of images. I hope that you will manage to get rid of the template and present us a real audio-visual production which tells us the story of your trip.

Best regards,

Xaver

[Hubert]

Great show. Nice images taken by a photographer with a trained eye.

Pity indeed the "shimmering" during the slow animation.

[Nikonos]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments on the images used in this show. I find there is always a bit of a conflict with 'family holidays' and the aspirations of a photographer endeavoring to get the best possible images when in a special place or location.

This trip was an organized one, which often did not leave very much time to try and capture decent images. All too often it was a case of "be back at the coach in twenty minutes"! Consequently, many of the images are grab-shots - doing the best you can in too short a time. One day I hope to return on a proper "photographic" trip (if the wife lets me!). China of course is a vast country and you can only hope to cover a very small part of it in two weeks. The images that I eventually selected were meant to give a taste of what we saw and did. If anything they were rather too many temples/shrines. My wife admitted to being "templed out" by the time we returned...

The one refreshing aspect was the virtually the complete freedom to take images of almost anyone including children. This made 'street photography' a complete revelation compared to the current paranoia we have to put up with in the UK. The Chinese themselves are pretty well "snap-happy" anyway - or at least they were in the cities.

Although I took a tripod along I never actually used it and my D700 was pretty much set on 1600ASA most of the time. The theatre/night shots were taken at 3200ASA just using a convenient wall or table for support. All of the RAW images were processed via DxO Optics Pro and then PS5. Any images with residual noise were further processed via Topaz Labs De Noise 5 (not that there was very much to begin with anyway).

Malcolm

[trailertrash]

Absolutely brilliant. I loved the template too. [shimer aside] I thought it was a great presentation. Well done.

Andrew

[thedom]

Hello Malcolm, I discovered this slideshow only today because I was away from the forum for several months.

The picture quality is stunning! The point of view is each time unique, with a true eye of photographer.

Thank you very much for using my template. And thank you for sharing your work.

Have you been made another montage since ? I hope so.

I would be very interested to watch it.

Anyway, congratulations for this wonderful slideshow!

[Almark]

I enjoyed the show, a great example of the dom's temlate. The photography was often superb, wonderful work, well done.

[Nikonos]

Hello Malcolm, I discovered this slideshow only today because I was away from the forum for several months.

The picture quality is stunning! The point of view is each time unique, with a true eye of photographer.

Thank you very much for using my template. And thank you for sharing your work.

Have you been made another montage since ? I hope so.

I would be very interested to watch it.

Anyway, congratulations for this wonderful slideshow!

Thanks very much for your kind comments, although your excellent template helped me to get a show "up and running" without too much delay for friends and relatives.

A longer show using extra images but without your template can be downloaded at: http://www.mediafire.com/file/7b7fsfc55fp2f6p/Land%20of%20the%20Dragon.zip

A revised earlier show (Pax Aeterna) which you might also be interested in can be found at: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zprrx8qh07pw10s/Pax%20Aeterna.zip

Regards - Malcolm

[gh6539]

Malcolm,

Truely awsum photography. Nice use of the rippling water of the boat sceen. I almost dod not catch it.

Thanks for sharing,

Regards,

George