New Quickie

[BobbyC]

Curious to see what you guys think. It's my new grandbaby. This was NOT a paid session, just some quick snaps I made the day of the delivery.

http://www.gulfimagesphoto.com/Ryan2/RyanHarlessII.zip

I'm really going to push hard to sell slideshows this year as I'm going to in-person viewing sessions and PTE will be a big part of that as I get the program down better.

[morturn]

Hi BobbyC

You have a very beautiful grandbaby there, it’s clear to see your all very proud, and you have captured some very precious moments within your show which are very personal to you and your family.

If I look at your slideshow from a technical aspect, the changing format does not do the show any favours and I found that animating every transition does not add to the show, it would have been nice to have a number of static images, and where you have animated, do it within a fixed frame.

I think that the quality of the images is really good, and there is a nice consistency through the exposures, great choice of music too.

[dpeterso]

Curious to see what you guys think. It's my new grandbaby. This was NOT a paid session, just some quick snaps I made the day of the delivery.

http://www.gulfimagesphoto.com/Ryan2/RyanHarlessII.zip

Hello Bobby, or should I say grandpa Bobby. Congratualtion on the new grandchild. It's an exciting world to be born into. Regarding the show, you have some interesting pictures to work with. I liked the music and most of the photographs were of good quality; a good place to start. I have a few suggestions that would perhaps improve it.

I would minimize the use of pans and zooms in this particular context. There is very little to be gained except a disruption to the continuity. I think it would benefit from mixing up the shots more; too many shots in a row up front of the child. It suffers some from lack of variety, so here are some ideas that may have helped. It could show a larger context, like pictures of the room, pictures of the hospital, pictures of the doctor(s) and nurses, pictures of that particular day's newspaper headlines, pictures of the birth certificate, the ID bracelet, the footprints, etc. In other words, try to include more things surrounding the child's birth. Try to imagine what the child would want to see 30 years from now when she looks back to that great day. Lastly, just a technical thing: the text falls off the left side of the screen on the last slide.

Again, congratulations Grandpa.

Dave

[Ken Cox]

Great colours but ordinary fades would have sufficed - distracting

a photographer that our company used to hire to make training slides told me to avoid verticals when taking pictures that would be displayed on a tv -- this was way before the current state of computor/photography

congrats granpa

ken

[BobbyC]

Thanks all I thought I may have gone a little too far with the animations, a few questions.

and where you have animated, do it within a fixed frame.

I'm not sure what you mean here or rather not sure what you mean by fixed frame.

Dave, I definately agree, if this was an actual session with a customer I would have done more of the type of shots you mentioned but I literally had about 20 minutes in a cramped room they moved us to, he was about 6 hours old in these as I was not able to be there for the actual birth, he decided to come out a little early. Odd about the text, I've viewed on several different computers and TV's (wide and normal) and haven't seen that.

Great colours but ordinary fades would have sufficed - distracting

What's an ordinary fade? Do you mean less animation? I just used the fade in/out but shortened the effect time some.

a photographer that our company used to hire to make training slides told me to avoid verticals when taking pictures that would be displayed on a tv -- this was way before the current state of computor/photography

I agree, the slideshow was a complete afterthought, I was lucky to get what I got with all the comotion going on. ;o)

Oh yeah, if interested, the music is "Dreams of Children" by George Skaroulis

Thanks again everyone and anyone else feel free to chime in.

[neil]

As others have said you have a lovely grandchild and congrats.

But really this is very much a family show and should be enjoyed by the family.

Some nice shots but is very erratic in my view.

Keep it, treasure it, it's your family

All the Best

Neil

[BobbyC]

As others have said you have a lovely grandchild and congrats.

But really this is very much a family show and should be enjoyed by the family.

Some nice shots but is very erratic in my view.

Keep it, treasure it, it's your family

All the Best

Neil

Thanks Neil

If you don't mind, what do you mean by erratic?

[LumenLux]

One thing is sure Bobby - you aren't going to get any constructive criticism on the baby! Looks great, time for gratitude.

Which leads me also to your purpose of the presentation. To me it is what I always do with a new baby. I take a bunch of candid shots to enjoy and share with family and friends like a birth announcement. I sometimes have other great ideas like Dave mentioned, but so far they have never materialized. Meanwhile you have valuable photos presented in a fashion that will get viewed more often than the other 12 dozen on your hard drive.

Ken and others have commented on the almost-perpetual, nearly yo-yo motion. That does not appeal to me, but it does appeal to many people. For years, around our community, almost any publicly displayed slide show at weddings etc. has had that default mode in use. As a user of PTE, it drove drive me crazy. (Like being stuck in traffic on Houston's Old Spanish Trail after a heavy rain storm.) But for most viewers it was un-noticed or appealing. And to this day, at our childrens' homes, their Mac computers with gorgeous monitors continuously run nice photos with that same movement. But in their case, the zoom or pan may well give you great detail of the diaper tape, but miss the face altogether! But no worry, because in such screen-saver use, the photo will be around again. Surprisingly, as PTE has made more tasteful movement possible, I have also grown more tolerant of the only-way-they-know presentations that still dominate in this market. So if you are to make slide shows an emphasis in your business, I'd suggest you can be a cut above by using moderation in your movement.

Finally, thanks for sharing, we can all learn from each others views.

[Ken Cox]

"What's an ordinary fade? Do you mean less animation? I just used the fade in/out but shortened the effect time some."

what i meant to say was just fade in and out with no pan and zoom animation

ken

[BobbyC]

Thanks again everyone. My old slideshow program did not allow such nice smooth motion so I guess I over did it a bit because I never really had the ability.

I had more images that were static but it kind of seemed to stop the flow when I moved to a static image from an animated one, so I just added a bit of movement to some that were originally static.

Other than some motion, any suggestions for something other than just fade in/out to a static image?, I kind of get bored with that myself. I'm not a big fan of funky transitions either.

The more I delve into PTE the more I love it.

[Rooskidiver]

I can't seem to be able to download the file. I get a box that asks for a user name and password.