JudyKay

Thanks everyone. This is a goldmine of good info for me. jk

Jerry, If you don't need PZM, you might get slightly better results with V4.49. As a side note: I notice that (V5.1) under Projects Objects | Effects there is no "Quick (No Transition)" option. If you de-select "Enable Transitions" you get the same result as "Quick (No Transition)." Another method in some cases is to select the slides you want, and then choose "Customize Slide." From there you can select "Quick (No Transition)" and the result will affect all selected slides. jk

Thanks you guys. Is there a way to do this to increase quality without spending quite so much money? A digital recorder is US $300+, a cheap preamp is $200+, a cheap good mic is $100. I don't need soundroom quality, I just want a little better quality. Now don't laugh... Actually I have a couple decent mics. but no preamp. I do have a karaoke amplifier, but it has no digital output to connect to my computer--there are no dumb questions right--can I use it as a preamp somehow? It does have "line out," but if I connect that to "line in" on my sound card--nothing happens. jk

So, what do you professionals do? Leave everything in RAW? Convert to some other format? Does anyone use Dng conversion? What format do you save in? Do you just "trust" Lightroom for the foreseeable future? (I don't). Does anyone use Canon's Digital Photo Professional? Don't laugh, but I am honestly impressed with Picassa's capability when I want to browse quickly, and have been quite impressed when it did a better "automatic" job of adjusting a picture than my 5 minutes of manual labor. Presently I tinker with pictures using Lightroom, then keep the RAW images and jpg's, and occasionally tiff's. The rare really good pictures may get tinkered with in PS. So there are original images, adjusted images, special images and back up copies, and you know how much hard drive space that consumes? There's got to be a better way! Can anyone suggest a workflow for the future?

Thank you Alan. I really liked it. You put a lot of work into the show and it is very good. The pictures are very interesting. Here is a question I am aching to ask...why was that man standing on top that big gold ball? How did he get there? jk

Thank you Lin. I understand your "Examples." That solves my problem for some situations. Thanks! In other cases, I think rotating on the z axis--like The Dom's "Photo Pile" will work acceptably for now. In his Envelope demo, he uses a shadow effect which further contributes to the illusion of 3D distortion/perspective. I had thought he was using some kind of free transform, but after using my space bar to stop and go, realized it is simply rotation and shadow that cause the illusion. I can do that! Thanks jk

I'll be right in line waiting to study them. Simple cut and paste, fade out, etc...that stuff is easy. The whole business of quality recording, applying filters (high/low pass) and compressors is important but eludes me. How to eliminate hiss and hummmzzzz without producing robot results; Aligning multiple tracks, knowing what settings to use for adequate quality (Hz, bits, etc)...all that stuff eludes me. jk

How can I create an effect so that a vertical zoom of a "flat" object seems 3D as it appears to rise from horizontal to vertical? I imagine a free transform where the top of a rectangle is narrower than the bottom to create perspective. The transformation would have to be able to zoom as well. I don't think such a free transform is yet possible, but is there an another way? Seems like this had been discussed before, but I haven't found a solution. jk

Thanks Barry. I thought I responded to this a day or so ago, but I guess it didn't "stick." Anyway, You helped me think differently--something clicked in my brain. Generally I don't like to oversharpen pictures because those teensy, contrasty, noise dots are so annoying. But....in AV, they matter less. Less than transitioning from a soft image to a sharp image that never gets sharp. I get it! The hardest part of all is throwing out perfectly good pictures...but your encouragement helps. Thanks again, jk

I agree with everybody above. One thing I might add is that the rich colors were something I could almost taste. With every picture (including the anomalous fire picture) I could smell it! Add that to the pretty music and wonderful photographic images and it is perfect! Something else: It is so....Kansas. You capture the essence of rural KS very well. Thanks for sharing. jk

Hi BB, You are amazing!! The subtle colors in the stone define the meaning of "petina." They also make them alive and cause them to transcend time. I would love to know the story of that old Abbey--if you have a minute to spare PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS (Out of 5) Easy 5 SOUNDTRACK (Out of 5) Perfect 5 TIMING (Out of 5) 5 PTE MASTERY (Out of 5) No show off stuff, just done right - 5 WATCHABILITY - Couldn't finish / Watched Once / Would watch again / Would watch many times OVERALL SCORE AND COMMENT (Out of 20) 20 I have a question: In another post you talked about fading from soft to sharp--and that if you do that you should really "sharpen" the picture? Can you elaborate a tiny bit? Do you actually make a one picture soft and another that is over-sharp (or very sharp)--if so, how much? jk

Dear Mr. Lumen, I really like your show. Alot. I have watched it 2x through and showed my family. Good job! Sorry to be slow, I wish I could respond to all the wonderful shows, but I am often busy stirring up trouble somewhere else. PHOTOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS ( FOUR Out of 5) Really good. I love the reflections and Chocolate water. I would LOVE to linger in that place. I think your Linger theme works. Maybe all the pictures aren't world masterpieces, but several are outstanding, and all of them are very good. I think you captured something well worth sharing. SOUNDTRACK (FIVE Out of 5) Works for me... TIMING (THREE Out of 5) Timing is fine, but while lingering at the end I wasn't sure if I was at the end or if the computer hiccuped. I waited it out to the bitter end, and then the music restarted. I wasn't sure if something new was going to happen or not. The second time, I just chilled out and enjoyed it. Maybe something better could be done there. But I have a question, was it my eyes or my monitor or did the picture kinda rise and fall in intensity? If so, I like it. PTE MASTERY (FOUR Out of 5) Personally I liked the extreme zoom effects. I felt all excited to see what was going to happen. The effects also made me look at the photos in interesting and new ways. WATCHABILITY - Couldn't finish / Watched Once / Would watch again / Would watch many times Extra Credit points because I liked it. THREE OVERALL SCORE AND COMMENT (NINETEEN Out of 20) I kinda agree with Dave about including more pictures from surrounding areas. I found my self wondering what else you saw around there. jk

Wow! Made myself seasick playing with spinning rectangles and changing angles of rotation. You could scare yourself with some of these effects. I am imagining a realistic whale emerging from the water and falling back into the sea. Can't wait for the new Installments! jk

I agree with Gypsy's points, with maybe just one tiny exception. PTE is VERY easy to use for the complete "smartie" if what you want to do is quickly make a really cool , really high quality slide show. Even if you want to tinker with timings and music and transitions, it's still pretty easy for the first time user. However if you want to make spinning boxes in multiple ayers of different opacity; if you want to tinker with pzm smoothing or linearity; if you want to do amazing tricks like 3d boxes that spin and album pages that turn and and snowglobes and helicoptors with spinning rotors...well then you have to dig in a little deeper. But with PTE you can do all that too. I have PSG and others and nothing comes close to PTE overall. Maybe there is a menu trick here or there that one user prefers over another--but in terms of ease and time and final product--give me PTE! If users want to make use of the amazing capabilities of PTE, then read the Manual. I HATE manuals, but I have read most of the awesome PTE manual--it really is worth while. Of course we all have ideas of what we think would be improvements. What amazes me is that often we just ask and then get what we want! So that makes it worth asking, and you can see that a lot of people on this forum have experienced that! I think the problem is that there are some hugely talented people on this forum. Some of us Smarties (AKA newbie, dummy [i turn out to be and old timer with many Newbie characteristics)]), want a program that works miracles--that does things we can't even imagine. We want to reproduce effects automatically that the hugely talented people imagined and took hours to perform. I was happy with PTE several years ago. Today I am dancing all over the furniture--PTE is SO MUCH FUN! I actually deleted The Sims (all 9 GB's!) to give myself more time to play with PTE in 2008. Thank you all for sharing your ideas and talents. jk

Can this Board do survey's? What do we know about the actual user client base for PTE? Age? Profession? What they do with PTE? What they want to do with PTE? What drives the direction of PTE development? Present user client base? Potential user client base? What niche does PTE occupy that other programs do not? What niche's could PTE penetrate and be better than others? What if there was a "Basic" Menu and an "Advanced" menu? Basic could contain some of the simple, easy-to-do features -- cool, HQ shows could be made quickly with templates Advanced for those of us (huh-hum) who like to get our fingers greasy under the hood. jk

I don't have a Grumpy bone in my body...but I agree. Knock it off! Don't you know that excessive copy and paste causes arthritis? Probably some other bad stuff too! I don't think we need an instruction sheet on how to do fancy stuff. Otherwise people will just do it. A simple "Reply" is SO easy! Even I can do it! Conflow's little picture above is great--and enough. (There. That outta be worth a nickel!) jk

What if users could create their own 1. Transition effects 2. Zoom and Pan effects 3. Templates for more elaborate effects 4. Mask effects (edges, textures, Sepia or other filters) These could be created as plug-ins. Some plugins could be free, some could be sale-able add-on packages by users or Igor I could plug-in a nice album effect from The Dom for a few slides, and then add a snowglobe effect from Lin Evans, and then then my favorite series of crazy swoops and swirls. Right now I can use one template at a time, but not more than that (Is their a way??) I don't want to sell them or buy them (I want to get them all free!) but it might be a way to motivate user talent to benefit us all. jk

So you are thinking of a teensy little .pte player? It wouldn't have have slideshow making capability, but would contain a "plug" for PTE? Interesting jk

I am so amazed at the wonderful people here! Thank You Al. That is easy and makes sense to me. jk

I am NEVER contentious. But...we enjoy randomized transition effects without tarnishing PTE's professional sophistication, why not some simple quick zoom/pan choices such as templates or randomization of selected zoom or pan effects. I think Google Screensaver accomplishes this quite tastefully with subtle pan/zoom. http://pack.google.com/screensaver.html This may not be so important as some things the programmers are now working on, but if it could really quickly be done by just adding a tiny button or two... Just a thought, jk

Dear Morturn, Merry Christmas! I have never seen in the Vatican like that! Maybe I will some day (but I despise people searching my stuff). Maybe once the world calms down a little... I like the way you see textures and patterns. I spent some time at your website. You have a knack for capturing things that are solid, strong and old. Yet you like ice cream! But, maybe you don't photograph it Thanks again, jk

Merry Christmas to you! Thank you for the slide show. I really like your winter pictures. I think BB has a point about the music. I like both music and pictures a lot, but the music makes me feel expectations different than the winter pictures show. The music does have a "sparkle" quality and inner warmth that makes me feel like I am watching winter with a warm coat on, so I think I know why you liked it for this show. Some of the tree silhouettes are so pretty. My favorite picture is the little bird tracks and scratches. Happy New year! jk

Guido, Merry Christmas to you and your family! May God bless you with strong recovery, and lots of good "usefulness" in the future We need you. I remember you from w=a=y back. Maybe about 1999 or 1899 or 1799, I forget which. Anyway, I discovered PTE and wasn't so sure if I should buy it or something called "Carousel" which also had lovely smooth transitions, high quality images and music. PTE didn't have music capability then, if I recall rightly. Anyway, I waited awhile and pretty soon PTE added music capability and I liked it overall much better. As long as I can remember you were one of the great "guru's " of PTE. jk

I don't know Mr. Evens personally, but in several years of posts I have been impressed at his vast knowledge, sensitivity, clarity and fairness. I have never known him to be either a crackpot or a liar. But he is very nice. That counts for a lot. His clarification regarding PSG doesn't seem to be taking any side--but explains the advantages of both PTE and PSG. He even says he owns and uses it. Nothing about it makes me think less of PSG. In fact everyone can download a free trial version and see for themselves. Which is better, a pickup or a sports car? Depends what you want to do with it. Results are more important to me than what people say, anyway. I have tried many products over the years including Proshow back when I downloaded a trial version from a bulletin board at 2400 baud (remember those days?). It was good then and is undoubtedly much better now, though I haven't used it in a long time. I am more loyal to a result than a product. PTE gives me what I want. But let's leave that behind us for now, OK? This is Christmas. I am enjoying a lovely screen saver of my family based on Mr. Evans Snowglobe template--it is so peaceful. Silent night, Holy Night, All is calm, All is bright... That is the song it plays as the snowflakes fall. jk

Thank you sir, for sharing your amazing talent. I can't imagine how much time you invest in making these things. But some people are just really smart, so maybe it doesn't take as long. Anyway, I accept your gift with deep gratitude and a bow (the leaning over kind of bow). Ok. A big pretty red bow too. A blessed Christmas to all! jk