Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica

[goddi]

Location: Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica.

Year: June 2012.

Aspect ratio: 16:9.

Screen resolution: 1920x1080.

Videos: Yes.

Size of file: 178 Mbs.

Run time: 8:04.

Manual control (yes/no): Yes.

Camera and lens: Nikon D7000 (stills and video), 18-200mm; GoPro Hero2 video camera.

Any other info that you can provide:

The Tortuguero National Park was a highlight of our two-week vacation to Costa Rica. Hope you enjoy the journey.

Comments and critiques are welcomed.

http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/

Gary Oddi

[snapcam]

Hello Gary

Very enjoyable show with some great wildlife shots. I am not usually a fan of video clips included in a slide show but I think this worked pretty well.

You asked for comments so here are a few which I think would really improve the sequence.

At first I wanted to hear a commentary but as it progressed I found it self explanatory however the one piece of music used (good choice) throughout might be improved by fading out and in later and having ambiant sound effects as a background for these non music parts of the show.This could be done at several points.

Some editing would remove the poorer quality images which pop up and take away from the flow ie the toucans with a bland sky behind and others that appear to have a lower resolution. The vertical shots suddenly appearing jar. either avoid their inclusion or group them together in one part of the sequence.Sometimes its what we leave out that improves a sequence.

The video clips worked well and I enjoyed the onger clip of the boat along the river but the crocodile clip does not work. After seeing the end video clip, (I would cut the last few seconds),I thought that a similar clip of you setting out would be a great start.

The above is only my opinion and at the end of the day it's your show.

After all that I really did enjoy the show and got a real feeling for the place.

Snapcam

[goddi]

Hello Gary

Very enjoyable show with some great wildlife shots. I am not usually a fan of video clips included in a slide show but I think this worked pretty well.

You asked for comments so here are a few which I think would really improve the sequence.

At first I wanted to hear a commentary but as it progressed I found it self explanatory however the one piece of music used (good choice) throughout might be improved by fading out and in later and having ambiant sound effects as a background for these non music parts of the show.This could be done at several points.

Some editing would remove the poorer quality images which pop up and take away from the flow ie the toucans with a bland sky behind and others that appear to have a lower resolution. The vertical shots suddenly appearing jar. either avoid their inclusion or group them together in one part of the sequence.Sometimes its what we leave out that improves a sequence.

The video clips worked well and I enjoyed the onger clip of the boat along the river but the crocodile clip does not work. After seeing the end video clip, (I would cut the last few seconds),I thought that a similar clip of you setting out would be a great start.

The above is only my opinion and at the end of the day it's your show.

After all that I really did enjoy the show and got a real feeling for the place.

Snapcam

==========================

Greetings Snapcam,

After 100 views, it is nice to get a critique. It is always nice to see how others see your work.

I agree that it would have been nice to put in some 'jungle' sound effects and fade out the music. With the current version, I don't think this is an easy process. I am hoping the upcoming version will make such audio adjustments an easy function. One of my hopes is that we will also be able to adjust the volume of the audio in an added video clip, too.

I had wished the sky in the toucan shots was better. I just had to keep them in because they are such beautiful birds and not too easy to get close-ups. It was such a wonderful site...you had to be there. I just could not leave them out. I zoomed in on them in O&A and I should have used their higher resolution images.

I have been told before that some viewers do not like vertical shots. I take the opposite view. I like them because they break up the monotony of landscape shots. And, many shots just have to be vertical. Suggestions of putting an image behind the vertical to 'soften' the vertical just does not sit well with me...yet.

Yea, the crocodile clip was not the greatest. But I liked it because you can see how they can bury themselves in the mud and see mostly only their eyes. I should have taken out the last jerky movement and made the last good part of the video a still image and leave that on for a couple seconds. But having been there...it was an exciting moment for me....up close and personal! I am learning that taking good video is a real challenge!

At a certain point of editing a show, I get PTE'd-out and I just have to stop. I know I can go back and fiddle and fiddle with it and it, really, never ends. But that is the great point of getting comments, even though I have only received on comment.

Much appreciated... It will keep me on my toes.

Gary

[snapcam]

Hello again Gary,

It really is frustrating when you ask for comments and none come. Had you NOT wanted any comments you would have been inundated

I can appreciate the points you make. I have looked at it again and the wildlife shots are even better second time around. It must have been a wonderful trip.

I don't think I would chance those little canoes with the crocs or is it aligators around.

One last comment if I may, nothing wrong with verticals except where the last one pops up for no apparent reason towards the end.

By the way it is fairly simple to use the add track and customise facility in project options to create a sound track.

Snapcam

[goddi]

Hello again Gary,

It really is frustrating when you ask for comments and none come. Had you NOT wanted any comments you would have been inundated

I can appreciate the points you make. I have looked at it again and the wildlife shots are even better second time around. It must have been a wonderful trip.

I don't think I would chance those little canoes with the crocs or is it aligators around.

One last comment if I may, nothing wrong with verticals except where the last one pops up for no apparent reason towards the end.

By the way it is fairly simple to use the add track and customise facility in project options to create a sound track.

Snapcam

==============================

Snapcam,

Yes, it was a good trip. But we were very disappointed in the lack of wildlife in the rest of our two week trip in Costa Rica. This is probably why I put in as many wildlife shots as I did. The crocs were probably saying..."Just another tourist..."

Yea, that red flower as a vertical; I see what you mean. Sometimes, after spending a humongous amount of time getting the music to time exactly with all the slides and videos, I hate to fool with it. But, good point. It is never 'done.'

Yes, it is easy to add a sound track. But I want to be able to reduce the volume of the sections of the added music tracks so the 'jungle' sound effects can be heard. The current version does not allow for that...yet. And it does not allow to fade-in or fade-out of the sound track of added video clips. Doing it outside PTE is a pain.

For example, I wanted to fade-in/out the sound track associated with the landing of the airplane. I had to strip out its sound track from the video clip and make it an individual mpg. And then use Audacity to fade-in the beginning and fade-out the end. Then, I put the mpg back in its own track. If I did not, the video's sound track would have started and ended too abruptly.

Gary

[davegee]

Gary,

I realise that it is not a freebee but Premiere will do the fade in and out and trimming without having to resort to stripping out audio and all that it entails.

If we want to use video we need to use the appropriate tools to do it (until we have it built in).

The audio facilities in PTE are already more sophisticated than most people seem to realise but for some things we need to go elsewhere for the time being.

But who knows what the next week or two might bring???

Uprights (portrait format): It has that jarring effect on me every time I see it. If it's done for effect then I suppose there is a place for it. To keep a project such as yours smooth flowing, I usually blur the previous (full frame) image and bring the upright in on top of it. Also, using a little 3D animation might help.

DG

[goddi]

Gary,

I realise that it is not a freebee but Premiere will do the fade in and out and trimming without having to resort to stripping out audio and all that it entails.

If we want to use video we need to use the appropriate tools to do it (until we have it built in).

The audio facilities in PTE are already more sophisticated than most people seem to realise but for some things we need to go elsewhere for the time being.

But who knows what the next week or two might bring???

Uprights (portrait format): It has that jarring effect on me every time I see it. If it's done for effect then I suppose there is a place for it. To keep a project such as yours smooth flowing, I usually blur the previous (full frame) image and bring the upright in on top of it. Also, using a little 3D animation might help.

DG

=======================

Greetings Dave,

I just looked into "Premiere" and the full version of the 'Adobe Premiere Pro CS6' is about $799. A bit too much for just doing my audio fades. However, I notice that they also have an 'Adobe Premiere Elements 10' for $99.99. More reasonable. I would think it has the audio capabilities. When I have a bit of time, I might download the trial to see.

But I had forgotten that I have used the 'Windows Live Movie Maker' to do audio fade-ins/outs. I don't like it because it will save only as a larger sized .wmv but I can convert it to a smaller MP4 using 'Freemake Video Converter' (my go-to trimmer program). So I will wait for Igor to present the next version to see what it will do. I am sure all of these audio facilities that we are looking for are very complex but what an improvement it would be.

I will try to modify my 'jarring' portraits. It is hard to get out of an established pattern that I think is 'OK', but you offer some good suggestions. Who knows, maybe I can come up with something that will work and be more pleasing. It is good to get such feedback and try new methods.

Thanks... Gary