Barry Beckham

FH No, I was referring to the Time line and the wave file there.

I have a few observations which I am sure have already been raised, but here goes. In the Object section of the O&A screen, maybe a few icons along the top or bottom like Photoshop. Back one and forward one would be a great shortcut to change the stacking order or the ability to drag and drop object layers into the positions you want them, just like Photoshop. Little icons/thumbnails would be great too, so we can see the layer selected. ___________________________________________ Would it also be possible to lock a selected object from the objects section so that no matter where you click and drag within the main animation window the layer selected is the only one to move. When you have transparent backgrounds I often find myself moving the wrong object and the selection switches as I click to drag. ___________________________________________ It would also be good if we could copy either the start or end animation settings to another image or object. I have often wanted to easily transfer the end animation settings to become the start animation settings for the next slide/object. ___________________________________________ If we are going to continue to use Png frames perhaps the ability to copy an object to all images in a sequence, or all images selected perhaps. ___________________________________________ Another thought. What is the disadvantage of having the sound wave file displayed by default. I would guess many users always turn it on as I do and it doesn't hurt being on screen for those who don't. It may also alert newer users of a great tool they can use. ___________________________________________ In the Animation > Pan tab, the up arrow moves the object down and the down arrow moves the object up. Would it not make sense to have them the other way round and then the left and right arrows designed and pointing in the right directions accordingly. ___________________________________________ In the mode section I always think the labels could be better. Fit to Slide would be more descriptive if it was called Fit to Screen. Original could be changed to Original Size, which again maybe more descriptive and there is room for the added word. Cover Slide would then become Cover Screen

DaveG Personally, I would never advise this because opening a JPEG in PS, editing it and re-saving involves a further step of compression and hence loss of quality. You SHOULD be going back to the last saved TIFF or RAW file. That statement is a little OTT Dave, if you don't mind me saying. Your taking some important information and applying it a little too rigidly. Have you EVER seen any evidence of a loss in quality while making a slight change in Photoshop in this way, because I never have and I have done it 1000's of times. The sort of changes you are likely to make once your images are already in PTE are going to be minimal, adding a white, black line, sharpening, selectively softening to defeat moire etc etc. You are likely to lose loads more quality by animating the image, because in most cases you then cannot sharpen it. Don't worry about opening images directly from PTE via Ctrl+W and then taking them back into PTE. I do it all the time with no problem whatsoever. Take a look at these two images. Both have been reduced to 1024*768, no sharpening added. Then one of these two was opened and saved using Jpg level 6 - 10 times. Each time fully closed and opened from scratch. Which one has been damaged by repeated saving as a Jpeg?

John If Tom used the same one as me you will find it below http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/downloads/...tout/cutout.htm This is my claim to fame. I devised this selection free cut-out technique way back in the days of Photoshop 3 and it still produces a cut-out that will stand the scrutiny of a very large print. In those days I used the technique with the eraser tool, but I have refined it over the years as my knowledge grew and Photoshop improved.

Tom Well, I think that is going a bit too far, we can surely make some allowance and the glasses doesn't bother me at all. If you look carefully at many of the shots we take there will some evidence of modern times. Don't beat yourself up over a minor point and there is one thing to remember. When people pick up on the tiniest of issues, it usually a sign that the slide show is pretty good.

Well, after such nice words what can I say? Here's a great tip when your placing subjects like the people into other scenes. Even on the dullest of days we will cast a delicate shadow beneath us and that shadow will be stronger just around the shoe. Add the shadow on a new blank layer, beneath the person layer, using a soft brush, black and the opacitiy set to 1% It makes the world of difference.

A great record of your holiday, but I have to say the music was a bit heavy going for me, given the length of the sequence. I like the classic sounds of Australia, but perhaps a blend of that music and then soemthing more melodic mixed in would have worked better for me. I suspect you have seen our latest here http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/slideshow/Skyland.zip I did make another some years ago and that is not on general release, but maybe interesting for anyone who has a soft spot for Australia. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/slideshow/australia1.zip

John and Chris You just need to be aware that those who view your show on higher resolution monitors see your images enlarged beyond what you intended and that affects the image quality. For a static show, diable the scaling of the main images in Project options > screen tab, then I and others will see what you created at the right size. I will look forward to the Aussie AV

John I enjoyed the slide show and you couldn't really go wrong with the music you chose, given the subject matter of course. I have been to Crich twice, but was never lucky enough to be around on a special event day. I agree and disagree with Keith to be honest. I do feel that all the images need to be the same size, unless your really making a feature of them not being so, if you get my drift. However, I think slide shows often do need something to edge them like a white line. Otherwise we often see dark areas of the image against the natural black background and then the images can look like there are bits missing. The same is true of lighter slides presented against a white background. Light areas can bleed off and look pretty poor in my view. So, the border is OK in my book. Although the images did vary a little in size, the snappy fades makes this far less intrusive than if it were a show that demanded slow transitions. Then the differences in those white border lines would be more annoying. I wonder what resolution you made your show, as it was stretched to fit my monitor running 1280*1024 and I thought I may have detected a slight loss in image quality in some images that may have been due to the stretching of the images. As it is a static show (no animation) and assuming you did make your images around 1024*768 you can restrict the stretching, but then the edge lines are even more important then, because those viewing at higher resolutions will see more of the black border around the outside of the images. I wasn't too concerned with the length of the transitions, I thought it all went along rather smoothly and you have the length of the show just about perfect in my view. Enough length to be interesting without us reaching the point where we wonder how much more is to come.

I think you should take lots of pictures on holiday and then use ProShow Gold to make a slide show on your return. Just to make sure you keep ahead of them...

Igor All these congratulations will go to your head. Now the important part................ What's Next ?

Ifa My point exactly probably put a little better. The one great positive about PTE is that it allows people to pitch into AV at any level, from putting a few holidays snaps together with music to the sequence that can bring a tear to the eye and what is wrong with that.

Tom I thought it was a great sequence, very enjoyable and the music and images went perfectly together. The sound track was well blended too, with all the changes in music appearing natural. Not sure the German soldiers fitted in as well as the British serviceman, but poetic license allows them to be used, I probably would have used them too, to be honest. They certainly added some variety. When we visited Howarth I couldn't believe the local authority would put double yellow bands down those lovely cobbled streets. They must be balmy doing that in such a delightful place. I wouldn't mind if they upheld the restrictions, but there was no sign of anyone doing anything about parking while we were there and cars and vans all over the place. Signs at the end of the street should be enough. I don't suppose I will get the chance to see Howarth again as we should be in Brisbane by August, but then I can look forward to your 2009 version next year. Its not real AV though , no death and destruction included Great sequemce Tom keep em coming

Peter No, you have missed my intentent and views by a mile, not surprising when trying to communicate in this way. I like all AV's but don't like it when people, usually in camera clubs try to shove it all down one path only. One path is real AV, one is not, they say. Well, they all are, arn't they! Usually the ones with the most to say couldn't produce one picture worth looking at let alone a sequence. I am not into competitions and the only reason The Black Country was enetered into one was due to Maureen's work really. While I was grateful to her for entering it, left to my own devices I probably wouldn't have bothered. AV may well degenerate into collections of images with music, but I do hope and pray that a few artists will persist in making what they themselves prefer to label art. By "art" I mean anything that allows communication with others through the emotions. Sometimes what I witness under the name of AV communicates very little to me. Your statement above appears to be taking the same views I objected too, writing off anything with music and images as degenerating into.......................... what? That would include 99% of what we see on this forum. Lets see some of these real AV's posted on this forum because we see precious little of them. (unless we are a part of the competition circuit)

Simon It has been claimed, by someone, but I will come back to you if he changes his mind Barry

Photoshop 6 has now been claimed, 2 copies of Elements 5 still available

The Laptop mentioned in my earlier post has arrived and I can confirm that animated slide shows are super smooth.

As some of you may know we are getting ready to leave these shores for Australia and we have some software that is now not required. There is no charge to whoever wants this software. I have a boxed copy of Adobe Photoshop 6 with Manual I have a boxed copy of Elements 5 All we require is the cost of the post and packing, which looks like being no more than £5. If you would like any of these, please use one of the contacts below to contact us. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/contact.htm

Ken Yes, that first visit was a little while ago and I thought my first research may be a bit out of date so we did it again, this time with a USB rather than a CD/DVD. At least I now have the confidence that when the laptop comes, next Monday it will meet my needs.

Yaughtsman I have just purchased a laptop to run animated slide shows via PTE5 and demonstrations of Photoshop CS3. Before I bought it I made a number of visits to places where many laptops were on show and I tried them. I took a USB stick and some demanding animated slide shows and played them. My views? If you wish to run animated slide shows you MUST try before you buy, it's no good just buying by looking at the spec. Laptops that looked a great spec failed miserably when tested. We tried loads of laptops and one thing is certain, you need a dedicated graphics card, none of this shared graphics memory. However, even that does not guarantee the laptop will perform smoothly as many didn't. What was also surprising was that many of the more expensive high spec laptops that you would think could handle a little animation could not. We found one that met all my needs and ran our animated slide shows very smoothly. Sony VGN-CD31S/L Processor Type Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz Memory Size 2 GB MB Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM Hard Drive Capacity 160 GB Optical Drives DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM Screen Size/Type 14.1 Graphics Card Type ATi Mobility Radeon X2300 Graphics Memory 831 MB Wireless Enabled YES No. of USB Connections 3 No. of Firewire Connections 1 Other Interfaces Express Card Slot 34mm Battery Type Lithium Ion Battery Weight 2.5 kg This is the weight of the appliance in KG Width 335 mm Depth 249 mm Colour Blue We then sourced this model on the net and got a price of £739.99. All those lower priced could not handle animated slide shows and we tried a load of them.

I get quite a lot of questions via email about image size and format and have adjusted the pages on my web site so I don't have to keep typing a lengthy mail. The question is nearly always the same and we have discussed it on the forum "what siezed images do I need for a slide show" For those who want to know go to the link below, for those who already know and who fancy reading it as a proof reader, please do. Comments suggestions welcome. At the top of the page is a jumping off point for beginners, otherwise we can baffle them with all the ins and outs of this subject too early. Once they have a show or two made then they can come back and take in some more. http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/audiovisua...e%20%20size.htm

Lin I agree with much of what you say, but this issue is probably not so much relavent for us who already know our way around and some of the pitfalls. To newer users of PTE image size and format is a nightmare. If there is a way to be able to accurately predict what the show will look like on many different resolutions and formats, it will benefit PTE because it will become even more user friendly.

This very close to the issue I raised in the other forum. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8329 Ron is not a beginner at creating slide shows and I suspect many others are confused about how their slide show may be seen by others. The truth is we don't really know and perhaps this test should contain the same image all through. So, no only could the lines tell us what is being lost in the image, but the picture would tell us what quality implications there were in each format. In theory the image should look best when the resolution of the image matches the monitor it's being played on. In effect that would become the control. So each of us woud have a different control slide in this test, depending on the resolution we are running.

I have added some more sizes, anyone have some more to add http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/size.zip

Well, that is what I would expect to see on your 1024 screen, but this idea may be more beneficial when we are creating wide screen AV's and we can see how they display on a different resolution/format monitors It really needs a slide for all popular resolutions. 800*600 1024*768 1280*1024 and so on