JohnFeg

I have decided to "slay the fatted calf" and splash out on a brand new monitor. There are 2 reasons for this extravagance: (a) it's getting more and more difficult to retain calibration on the existing 6 year old one. ( I'd like to have 2 monitors so that an image can be open at full screen on one, while the old one is used for displaying Photoshop palettes etc. It also occured to me that it would be nice, when recording voice-overs, to have the PTE slideshow on one monitor and Cool Edit on the other. I feel there would be a greater feeling of "spontaneity" and harmony of voice timbre if the entire voice-over were to be recorded in one hit, with, of course, some later editing. Trouble is, I havn't a clue how to physically set up the equipment. If any of you, more experienced hands, can give me a pointer, I'd be very greatful. Also, please don't be shy, tell me if you think there to be no merit in what I'm aiming for. Best wishes John

Ken, very much enjoyed my visit to your site. In particular I liked your landscapes. By an odd coincidence, I was at Arncliffe only a few days ago, number 3 son has recently moved to near Skipton, and I took some shots of that same barn and of the bridge. Unfortunately, on the day I was there, the weather turned foul; but, even even under heavy rain, the place has an undiminishable beauty about it. Best wishes John

Thank you Cindy, Ron and Tom, I'll certainly study with dilligence to links to information you all kindly sent me. There is certainly a lot more to this facinating subect than one suspects at first sight. "In My Honest Opinion" well fancy that; I'd be racking my brains to link IMHO to some complex technical term! OLAL(One Lives And Learns) John

Igor, Ken and Bruce - thank you all so very much for that information. now I have somethind to get my teeth into. Kind regards John Thanks for that Bill, grateful if you'll explain what is IMHO? John

Last night a presentation of a PTE slideshow was given at our local Camera Club. Some of the effect in it were quite remarkable. There were transitions between one slide and another that produced the effect of one slide "evolving" into the next, but, in a manner more advanced and more artistic than can be produced using the transition effects packaged with PTE. I understood, from the brief time that was available for questioning the author, that these effects were produced by creating the slides as layered images in Photoshop. Do any of you, more clued-up members, know how this wizardry is achieved? or if there are any books, guides or tutorials avalable that will point me in the right direction? Best wishes John

I'm changing my E mail address within the next few days. Is it sufficient that I go into "My Controls" and change the address? John

I agree with the general gist of the suggestions made by Al & Ed. In particular, that the project should not evolve into a competition or that National Anthems should provide any component of the music. With regard to the matter of image "modification", this can be got round by agreeing a format in which images are to be submitted. Personally, I would prefer to leave "order of appearance" and whether, or not, a picture is included, to the judgement of the member/s that we entrust to achieve, for this undertaking, an honourable and artistic end result. In any case, I would be very surprised if the need for sensorship raised it's head. There cannot be amongst us anyone unable to grasp the concept of what is acceptable to people of all ages and of all nations. I suggest, for the background music, a list of what royalty free stuff is available be posted, upon which members can express personal preferences. If we get this right, it will be a thouroughly noble achievement. John

Ken and Al, Thank you so much, It really couldn't be more simple could it? I'll be able to now progress my Christmastide studies. John

Al, Yes, I guess something like that will have to suffice. John

Al, many thanks for that. I thought it was me being a bit thick. The effect I was trying to achieve, for a slideshow covering a recent visit to Egypt, was: i) an introductory slide has an associated dialogue (voiceover), along the lines: "and as we enter this building and look around us". Followed by: ii) 2 or 3 slides forming a panoramic "look round" The pause, be it everso short, spoils the mood completely. Guess I'll just have to rewrite my storyline! John

Jeff, Thanks for that. I'm still exploring this sharpening method and have already found how very varied is the response, of individual images, to degree of opacity (at the last stage) and the type of blending mode chosen. So far have only tried hard and soft light. Will give overlay a try at the next opportunity. John

Ken, many thanks for posting those links. I have tried to obtain, so far with only partial success, the effect of: (a) slide No.1 (of a 2 slide panorama) being "pushed" in from the right, then ( the 2nd slide following the 1st one accross the screen without the 1st one standing stationary for any observable interval. Everything goes well, EXCEPT, slide No.1 appears stationary for about half a second. Will be grateful to know what I'm doing incorrectly. John

Dave, That High-Pass sharpening procedure was, indeed, an excellent tip. Not only did I consider the results, thus obtained, more natural and aesthetically pleasing, but found the degree of sharpening required (that is to say, for my own particular taste and needs) easier to achieve. Probably because, in the final step, coming back from 100% blend of the High pass layer, is so intuitive. Particularly pleasing was the sharpening of an image containing rock detail (taken at Malham Cove earlier this year) Normally, I do not sharpen any part of an image containing “sky”. So, I’ve, as you suggested, made a “High Pass” sharpening action that stops before the two layers are flattened. This works like a dream, whether or not a selection has been made to exclude the sky. In grateful recognition, I’ve named it “Dave’s High-Pass Sharpener”. Regards John

Dave and Ken, very many thanks for you detailed and very welcome information on high pass sharpening etc. It's something I've yet to try. Will make a start tonight, if I can wriggle out of writing Christmas cards for a couple of hours! John

Ron and Dave, i) I've never considered using the sharpening facilities offered by my RAW converter. From the comments added by others, to this most rewarding discussion, there seems a general consensus on this. ii) I'd be grateful if Dave would expand a little on his comment regarding the use of the High-pass filter and Hard/Soft Light blending modes. iii) I'm going to test out the idea of re-sharpening images intended for PTE, something that I hadn't thought about . To make for an objective trial, intend making up a presentation comprising, say 3 images - a landscape, a portrait and something with lots of edges (buildings?) and processing each image with increasing degrees of secondary sharpening. It will have to wait until the New Year, so there is plenty of time to make suggestions! And: To add another alternative to the choice of colour spaces, I have, over the past 3 years, exclusively used Adobe RBG both as a camera and as a Photoshop setting. I'm very pleased with the results this gives. John

For preparing images, after they come from the camera, it is probably easier to ignore that they will be used in PTE. I don't think many people prepare images exclusively for PTE. Therefore, consider only what you need to do to obtain the best prints. I shoot mainly in RAW and can set my Camera RAW Reader to automatically open at 16bits (Canon) BUT, Even when I take Jpegs, they are converted to 16bit Native Photoshop, before any processing is done. The reduction in image degradation, in so doing, is well worth carrying out this simple chore. Next, files are converted back to 8 bit and resized for the purpose/s they will serve. In the case of images for PTE slideshows, it's 1024x876px. I set a resolution of 72px because I retain a disk backup and that keeps the file size down. Will be glad to hear what others do, particularly if they disagree with my method. Best wishes to all for a very Merry Christmas & prosperous New Year

When creating slideshows in PTE I'm using the following procedure for background music and dialogue: a) Create individual dialogue tracks in Cool Edit Pro. These later to be "hooked" onto designated slides. Create a music background track. c) Assemble (a) & ( in Cool Edit multitrack mode, in separate tracks ,but, withe the individual dialogue tracks in the position, relative to time and the music track, that they will occupy in the finished slideshow. Listen to all tracks. If I need to make a local amplification reduction, in the music track, in order that the dialogue is not swamped; the best method I've come up with is: i) Select that section of the music track to be reduced, make a 2Db cut, expand the selection 0.5 seconds each way, then a futher 2Db cut. Repeat until the levels are what I want. This does achieve a nice fade in and out, but it's mighty tedious. Grateful to hear from anyone who has a more professional system. Regards John

Lin, thank you for that. I have always, in the past, created my .exe slideshows from files 1024widex786max. (For landscape shots) and 786high for portrait aspect. Generally, and if it is necessary, filling in the rectangle with a background of gradient greys to make a 1024x786px "slide". I'm planning to do a test, in the new year, using my son's HDTV to see if there is sufficient improvement to warrant the investment in a TV upgrade. Will post the results idc. John

Thank you for that information Ken, even if it was not exactly what I wanted to hear. Before I splash out on a projector, I'm going to try running a slideshow, from my PC, into the TV receiver. Have not got the wherewithal yet, but will post results, idc. John

I read, with great interest, Alrobin's and bbdigital's comments on projecting PTE slideshows. As I'm considering going up this route too, I'd like to hear what model of projectors are you using. I'm pretty disappointed with the picture quality obtained when making DVD Video using Nero 6.6 - Shimmering, lack of contrast and general fuzziness. BUT, before taking this, somewhat expensive step, I want to try one more thing: hook up my PC, via TV out, to my TV receiver. If this works it could be a better solution, for my needs, particularly with HDTV starting next year (in the UK) Whatever, it would certainly be a proposal, easier to get though "higher management"! If anyone has tried this already, I'd be grateful to hear the results. John

Catrick, I've experienced a similar problem, shimmering deterioration of picture quality etc, when I create video DVD slideshows using Nero. That is to say, when I campare it with what I see on the comuter monitor when I look at it as an .exe file. I'd put this down to the fact that the image produced in Nero is only 768x 576 pixels, as opposed to 1024x768. I'd be grateful to hear a little more about the improvements you saw after using Pinnacle Platinum 6. If it does poduce an acceptable viewing experience on a decent sized TV it would, for me, be a more ecconomical route than my current inclination, that is to slash out on a digital projector. Best wished John

Many thanks Ken and DaveG, The sun is shining again, I've got my 7 slideshows onto DVD. It was the trick of having multiple PTE sessions open at the same time that had me foxed. John