New Slideshow

[Ken Birch]

Heres my new venture into uploading AVI presentations to beechbrook.com I have actually created it for my Photographic Societies annual AVI comp. Most of it was photographed at Riverside Steam and Vintage fair, near Southport Lancashire,UK in just the one day. A few files were from another steam fair a few miles away. I love these steam fairs, the atmosphere is wonderful, I love these old machines, the thing that stands out is the amount of TLC that goes into preserving them, There are always a few old fairground organs, scattered around the event, so most of the day, wherever you are you can here one, belting out their melodies.That is why I have added their unmistakable tunes

to the AVI. A steam fair would NOT be a steam fair without them. Anyway I hope you like the presentation, if you dont please let me know, I still have time to fine tune this show before entering it into the competition.

Ken Birch

Coal, Steam and Soot

[Ken Cox]

KEN

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

ken

[rmstevens]

Ken,

Congratulations on your first upload giving a wider audience a chance to see your

work. I hope it does well in your competition.

I thought the photography was excellent. However I did not think your first piece

of music was suitable (Memories). I would prefer steam organ music throughout.

The mix from one tune to the next should have been smoother and overlapped using a

programme such as Audacity. My other criticism is that I would have liked to have

more variation of picture duration and speed of dissolves. In many cases a faster

dissolve to the music would improve things.

Anyway well done. I hope my comments are helpful.

Regards,

Roger.

[Ken Birch]

Thank you Roger, you are the second person to raise that point about the music, I will be modifying the show for the competition, taking in some of the points raised. Thank you for taking an interest

Ken

[deskjet1uk]

Hi Ken,

I really enjoyed the show, its amazing how much time is dedicated into keeping some of the old steam tractors up and running.

The exposures are excellent all round, really nice photography.

I feel you told a story and like some other slideshows that have been posted recently, I found myself once again looking forward to the next slide in the sequence.

I can understand Rogers remarks about the music, I can also understand why you chose 'Memories'. My take on music is that it has to suit the topic of the sequence so I agree with Roger, but in my opinion Memories could of played all the way through.

Music is a personal choice, we all see and feel differently.

Audacity will, (if you choose to use it) as you know, enable you to join the tracks together to create a smoother and better flow.

I really hope you do well with this in your AVI comp so good luck and congratulations on your first upload.

Ralph

[keyboard]

Hi Ken

Really enjoyed your show,excellent photo quality and variety. Look forward to your next steam fair work,thanks for sharing.

John.

[Ken Birch]

Thanks lads, I am very much a photographer 1st, PTE is at the moment a bit out of my comfort zone but I am learning to use it better these days. I am not well up on Audacity though yet , not sure how to join up tracks, however now I know that can be done, I will now try find out how its done. I always expected to have to rework this presentation, I did make some quite fundamental errors, like each slide is actually 300 dpi when they should have been 72 dpi, That accounts for its hefty size, the music is almost there but next the one I will I will drop 'Memories' I will also get rid of a couple of images that are not quite up to par. The good thing is I released it early enough to do that, before the competition at my photographic society. Thanks for your interest folks, I will try to keep you all posted.

Ken

[PGA]

Ken,

I am not well up on Audacity though yet , not sure how to join up tracks, however now I know that can be done, I will now try find out how its done.

You simply place the two pieces of music into two different tracks. Use the Timeshift tool to drag one so that it's start overlaps the end of the other by four or five seconds. Now select the last few seconds of the first item and use Generate > Fade Out to apply a fade out. Select the first few seconds of the second item and use Generate > Fade In to apply a fade in. You may need to experiment with the length of the overlap and the length of fades to find values that give a pleasing result. Then File > Export to either MP3 or WAV, whichever you prefer.

I did make some quite fundamental errors, like each slide is actually 300 dpi when they should have been 72 dpi.

The dpi (dots per inch) value is irrelevant for a projected digital image. You can make them 72dpi, 7dpi or 7million dpi: all the files sizes will be the same. The only things that dictate file size are the image size (pixels wide by pixels high) and the amount of JPEG compression that has been applied. Dpi has meaning ONLY for a printed image.

regards,

PGA

[Ken Birch]

Thank you PGA I am always willing to learn not so much Photography, but anything PTE related I am just a beginner with that.

[Ken Birch]

Sorry I meant pixels per inch when opening a new document from RAW, not DPI

[rmstevens]

Ken,

Normally competition organisers state in their rules the pixel sizes required. This is governed by the digital projector being used. Generally, in club circles, it is 1024 pixels by 768 pixels. This is what I use for my shows. A typical sequence of mine lasting 6 minutes has a file size of 60Mb.

However larger projectors are available and are beginning to be used more widely equally aspect ratios are changing.

Regards, Roger.

[Ken Birch]

Hello Roger,

In our club ( Leyland Photograhic Society ) our projected images are 1400 X 1050 px. I don't see why it will not see an AVI in 1920 x 1200 which is 16:10 format. That format is certainly becoming more & more popular as members get wide screen monitors. It is also a format I have seen projected in other clubs. That rule in our handbook is I think an outdated rule that goes back to Noah's days. We, have in the last few weeks bought a brand new Canon projector for the club, I am pretty sure that will project it no bother. If it does so then I will have a word with the committee, to get that rule amended, not just for AVIs but for any projected image. If it wont project it, then I fear we have bought a duff projector. Anyway it will stay in 16:10 format, until I find out. Thank you anyway for pointing that out, we meet on Wednesday evening at our club. If they say no then I will withdraw this presentation from the competition.

Thank you for your interest

Ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

The aspect ratio of your show is not a problem, the problem comes with the screen, if you set it up for 1024x768 4-3 say, if someone then shows a 1920x1024 16-9 show there is a chance the picture will oversail the screen width. With a mixture of aspect ratios on the night I would set up for the widest, unless of course your projector has sufficient zoom to cope. Unfortunately the guy with the 4-3 show could lose out by not showing his work to it's best advantage. If it was me in charge of the comp I would advise a maximum pixel width of 1920 to the entrants.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Barry Beckham]

Ken,

Normally competition organisers state in their rules the pixel sizes required. This is governed by the digital projector being used. Generally, in club circles, it is 1024 pixels by 768 pixels. This is what I use for my shows. A typical sequence of mine lasting 6 minutes has a file size of 60Mb.

However larger projectors are available and are beginning to be used more widely equally aspect ratios are changing.

Regards, Roger.

Sorry Roger, this is not right.

Rules are the enemy of creativity and this is one rule AV organisors have no business with at all. Show size is the creative decision of the author not rule makers. The pixel size of the show you make is NOT governed by the projector being used, that is completely false, but it is said over and over again to imply a rule is needed where none needs to be..Using 1024*768 in club circles these days is just plain daft, times have moved on and it's about time some club committees did too.

Make three slide shows, one at 4:3 format, one at 3:2 and one at 16:9 All three will play back perfectly on a digital projector which runs a native resolution of 1024*768 or one running 1920*1080 I do it all the time and have done for ages.

[lacie]

[quote name='Ken Birch' timestamp='1359971573' post='105433']

Thanks lads, I am very much a photographer 1st, PTE is at the moment a bit out of my comfort zone but I am learning to use it better these days. I am not well up on Audacity though yet , not sure how to join up tracks, however now I know that can be done, I will now try find out how its done. I always expected to have to rework this presentation, I did make some quite fundamental errors, like each slide is actually 300 dpi when they should have been 72 dpi, That accounts for its hefty size, the music is almost there but next the one I will I will drop 'Memories' I will also get rid of a couple of images that are not quite up to par. The good thing is I released it early enough to do that, before the competition at my photographic society. Thanks for your interest folks, I will try to keep you all posted.

Ken

[landsberger]

Hi Ken

Watched your show and enjoyed it very much, I used to go to the stourpaine fairs when I was in England. It also brought back memories of seeing the engines on the roads in Berkshire (I was very young then).

I can understand why you used Memory from Cats, before you ditch Memory check out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAL_-ajw4co

By the way don't take any notice of remarks such "I don't like or don't agree with your choice of music" remember you took the images and you chose the music "one mans meat is another mans poison". Don't try and please the minority all the time.

Regards

John

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Ken

If you wanted to use Memories from John's YouTube clip, it is relatively simple to download the clip, strip off the sound track using Audacity & add it to your sound track, that's in case you can't find it commercially.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.