A Week in the Highlands

[Barry Beckham]

Spent a week in the highlands in March and the weather was cold, wet and dramatic.

This slide show is best viewed on screen resolutions of 1280*1024 and it was made with PTE5 Beta 5. It doesn't end correctly as when I finished the show, PTE showed I had 800+ minutes of music?? Don't wory, it's not that long.

Just hit the escape key after the end credits

The slide show is the top one on the page below. Its the first public draft so to speak. I want to watch it and live with it a while to decide if that is it, or it needs some changes. I can't make up my mind whether the inclusion of some low volume bagpipes helps with the mood or not.

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm

[JEB]

Bary, Carol,

You make me sick (with envy). You come up here for a week and put us all to shame. While I, living within a few hours of where you have been, am too lazy to get off my backside!

All you have been saying elsewhere regarding quality of the original image is illustrated here for all to see.

Excellent. I particularly liked some of the transition effects and the third images.

Two suggestions I would make are, rather than the bagpipe music at the beginning, how about a rain drops sound effect. And my final thought is that I personally would like to see some of the images on the screen for longer.

Thank you both very much for sharing.

Regards

John

[LumenLux]

Barry, that's the kind of presentation that makes me want to call it my Scotland - though I have little claim to it. Great views and feelings.

Composition - image quality - presentation. The right places at the right times. I think your positioning of images for your transitions is most effective. The third-images created just flat out work. I think one of my favorite flows was the water-into-clouds, water-fall pool to sky, great.

Side note: Your increased participation in this forum has allowed me to more fully appreciate your presentations although I have admired them for years. Thank you.

[xahu34]

Barry,

this is again an excellent show, and there is no need for repeating what others have already said. Really a minor comment: I, personally, would prefer to apply a little bit less sharpening, not least to avoid the halos along several dark edges.

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[Barry Beckham]

John

I think that is pretty typical of us all to miss the opportunities in our own back yard, with the grass always greener on the other side. There are some great images a couple of miles from where I live, but we rarely go there. Too familiar, perhaps. It's always nicer to go to Scotland, the Lakes, Wales etc to get a top up of inspiration, but the dramatic weather helped us in Scotland, even if it was cold.

There actually is a low volume raindrops sound playing before and during the first bagpipes sound, perhaps I have it a little too low in volume. I understand what you are saying about images being on screen longer, but what you suggest cannot be easily done. The music style, it's key changes and rythmns is what largely controls a slide change in many of the circumstances. To hold the slide longer I would have to move away from the point at which everything is telling me to change the image. Then I may have to wait too long for the next logical place in the music to change that image.

I also believe that it's better to leave an image while the image is still being enjoyed, rather than the other way round.

Can you listen to the start again, it may be that I have that rain sound effect set too low. I use headphones to put the show together, so I am isolated and can hear things easier. Soundtracks always sound a little different in halls and club rooms or I suppose through some PC speaker systems.

LumenLux

Thanks for your comments, I think I actually put my slide shows together differently to most people and that allows me to work out the third image and transitions much easier. I am also aware that some landscapes, no matter how nice the individual pictures are, they just don't go together well.

For my own work I start the process one picture at a time, working them through Photoshop and seeing how slide two appears alongside slide one in PTE5. That way it's easier to spot a mismatch of horizons and that can be put right using Photoshop's layers.

If you have slide one and two prepared and the transition between the two doesn't look that good, you can take them both into Photoshop to put it right. I use slide one at the resolution for the slide show (1200*798 in this case), but I then drag slide two into a layered stack at full high resolution. I don't then use the resized one I first viewed. Now, using the Transform tool the larger of the two can be re-sized to perfectly match slide one. Save the new slide two over the top of the original and then I can move on.

The third image is much the same, but for every third image transition that works, 3 don't, so it takes a little time to get what I am happy with. My third image effect is created with an actual third image, what appears to be two slides changing with a nice third image, is actually three images. The middle of the three is a blend of the two either side. Layer blend modes and layer masks help to do the rest.

I have often thought of putting some video tutorials together on this way of working, but I am not sure it would have much appeal as its a lot of work. In my view it is the absolute best, but the most demanding and time consuming, but then what else do I have to do.

[JEB]

Barry,

I have listened again and yes I do hear the rain but very low. Those d..... bagpipes have taken over! Bagpipes are best heard from about three miles away and on the other side of the mountain. Yes I know I have used them myself but.....

Regards

John

PS Did you not produce a short video recently on the third image? I must check my records.

[dpeterso]

Spent a week in the highlands in March and the weather was cold, wet and dramatic.

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm

Well Barry, you’ve done it again! Another exceptional AV. Your show coming on the heels of much interesting discussion about image quality reminds me of the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” You have made your point about image quality very succinctly with this slideshow. I also liked how you overlapped the two pieces of music rather than have a gap of silence or abrupt change during the transition. And of course, the image quality was exceptional. Your work is our gold standard as far as I’m concerned.

Your shows continue to inspire me to do better. I need to move from the mode of taking a trip and taking a few pictures if convenient to one of taking a trip to take great pictures.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Dave

[Barry Beckham]

John

Yes, I have done a download on the third image http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/downloads/PTE5/pte5.htm

Dave

Glad you liked it. I do try and take all my pictures as if they were for high quality printing and I know I am lucky that I can afford a great camera. It is said that a picture is made by the person behind the camera, but it does help when the equipment is really good. if you don't have a hammer you can't bang the nails in.

I think the end product is 40% made at the taking stage, but 60% of the appeal can be via editing, which was what I was trying to get across in the image quality debate. It doesn't matter what level you start from, just a little effort pays dividends.

[Peter S]

Hi Barry,

Another excellent show and the image quality speaks volumes.

I am not too sure about the opening sequence. It doesn't seem to me to flow into the main part of the show. There is almost a missing link. I can sense the idea of the rain giving the atmosphere of the cloudy hills but somehow the droplets on the branches just don't work for me as a lead in to the mountain scenes. Otherwise top notch.

Kind regards

Peter

[Antbrewer]

Hi Barry,

You already know my views on this new wonderful show of yours (posted on Beckhamdigital).

I just want to pick up on a comment you made above about 'having good equipment etc etc ...and the person behind the lens etc etc..'

Well the best comment I've heard to make the point that it is the photographer and not the equipment (unless of course you are a blind man using a pinhole cameras) ...is

After a splendid meal with friends one doesn't normally thank the host saying ''That was lovely...you must have a really good cooker?'' Does one.

Anthony

PS By the way Barry can you cook?

[baldsparky]

Hi, Barry another great show. thanks for sharing it.

I always look forward to seeing your work. Hopefully one day i will be able to produce something of a similar ilk, but I doubt it, still it's very enjoyable trying.

I have often thought of putting some video tutorials together on this way of working, but I am not sure it would have much appeal as its a lot of work. In my view it is the absolute best, but the most demanding and time consuming, but then what else do I have to do.

I would be interested if you were to produce the tutorials mentioned above.

many thanks

kind regards

paul

[brian65photo]

Barry,

Another first class AV sequence. Appreciated more because I have taken most of those scenes myself and I now see how I should have done it.

Please continue providing these examples of quality slideshows.

I also would be interested if you should produce the tutorials you mention.

Best wishes

Brian

[fh1805]

Barry, I wish you'd stop moving the goalposts so frequently!

Just when I think I understand what I've got to do to match your latest sequence, you produce another one that has even more new techniques for me to reverse-engineer. It's just as well I like a good challenge.

Like some others, I found the rain sound effect just a little too low to be effective. And I suspect that that came about because of your use of headphones to do the soundtrack mixing. The headphones mask out the interference of background noises that will be present when the sequence is listened to on PC speaker systems. (Or are you going to insist that we all wear headphones to listen to your soundtracks when watching the sequence on our PCs? - Only joking!).

I also felt that the sequence has two end-points. The first, and to me the more natural one, came with the images of the castle and the re-introduction of the bagpipes into the soundtrack. At that point you had produced a sequence that had a beginning, a middle and an end - and all nicely wrapped up between two lots of bagpipes. The images of the boat on the loch seemed to me to be superfluous - but fantastic in their own right. I've heard it said several times that knowing when and how to get out of a sequence is often the hardest part of sequence building.

However, this is a sequence that, as others have said above, clearly demonstates the points you've made elsewhere on forum about the quality of the images. You always get the basics right - and then go one step further to enhance them. A salutary lesson for us all!

Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Barry Beckham]

Peter

There really isn't that much that's different here, very little animation, mostly standard fades, a little bit of work on third images, but the rest is pretty standard when you consider the technical aspects.

What makes it work is the Images and how they flow together. I think some AV enthusiasts pick the running order of their images and live with that choice come what may. I don't and will rework an image to make it more suitable, or change the order or the image. The other part that is vital is that the music fits and the images are balanced with the music. Its largely the music that determines when the images change. I know some like images to be on screen longer, but that would destroy this show and it does many others too.

There will always be a difference of opinion on when to end a sequence and how to do it, but I think I have a pretty good test.

I put my completed show on the desktop as an exe file and I watch it again and again. Every morning while I am drinking my coffee and sometime 2-3 times during the day. If I can still sit through it myself after a week without it being too long or without an image getting on my nerves I feel I then have it right. I also take into account comments and only this morning made a very slight change.

[fh1805]

Barry,

When I commented about the ending of your sequence I wasn't implying it was too long. I just felt that it seemed to come to a natural end point (the castle with the bagpipes playing) where I was expecting the credits to roll - and then it moved on into another mini-sequence.

Let me try and explain it better. You started with wet vegetation (non-landscapes) accompanied by bagpipes then moved into those stunning landscapes with music and then came back to bag-pipes accompanying non-landscapes (the castle). To me, at the time, it felt as though I had seen a beginning (the wet vegetation), a middle (the landscapes) and an end (the castle) - this three section structure being further reinforced by the use of bagpipes-music-bagpipes on the soundtrack. That was the point I was trying to make in my previous post. I'm not suggesting you've got it wrong - just trying to convey to you how the viewing experience felt for me.

[Barry Beckham]

Peter

Don't worry, I understood where you were coming from.

Barry

[Barry Beckham]

I have now changed a few images as a result of comments.

Latest and hopefuly the last version below

http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw3.htm