Barry Beckham

This is a simple image presentation, what I call a slide show, that term that seems to upset so many of you It contains images I have created in 2010, but those that never made it into any slide shows I created during the year. Well, as far as memory allows, one or two may have. Download from the top of the page HERE for PC and Mac Best viewed at 1920*1200, but should run reasonably OK on all monitors.

Dadou I think the use of the picture in picture in this show worked very well and I can say that the animation was flawless on my computer. Smooth as silk. Your images made at 16:10 format 1728*1080 would not be quite a crisp on my PC because my monitor runs at 1920 * 1200. I saw your show full screen, which was nice, but to see the images the size you created them, I should have had a border all the way around the images. The fact that I didn't, meant your images must have been enlarged slightly and quality may be lost, although I have to say there was not too much evidence of that. Looks like a great festival, but all in a tight area, must have been difficult to photograph. For those involved with the fiesta, I think and 7:47 minute show is fine, but for me, perhaps 2 -3 minutes less would be better. After 5 minutes I have the flavour of the festival, which the music helped, and I have seen a wide variety of images. So an ending around 5 minutes would have improved it for me. You were blessed with fine weather too at a time when the worlds weather seems to be going mad !!

Eric No, the images are not HDR, you will not be very sucessful with HDR with any moving subjects and the sea tends to move a bit The secret is making sure you capture the best exposure possible, at the right time and the rest is Photoshop work. I never did say anything about Pacific Islands, you did in the Amazon search engines. I have a good Enya collection, but usually steer well clear of that music, simply because that is where all AV'ers seem to head for. Sometimes its OK to follow the crowd, sometimes not. The sequence does have some sea sounds effects that come in a short time after the start, but I kept them low, or they can often just make the music sound as though there is a fault with it.

Eric Thank you for the pointers, but I confess I found it a little ledious and soon started to loose the will to live, searching on Amazon. I don't usually have this trouble finding music, but it has to happen sometimes I suppose. I have settled and changed the music to a simple pianno piece from our own copyright free music called appropriatley "The Sea at Sunset" Good news too, the slide show is under 20Mb How about that?

Thank you for the suggestions, but Debussey didn't do much for me, not for these images, and amazon doesn't seem to have samples of all the albums, only those which sell as mp3 downloads.

Eric In fact I have been through all those albums and hundreds more of my own, including classical, but I cannot find anything that shouts "Perfect" to me. It happenes sometimes. Having 37 albums to call from is no guarrantee of finding the perfect choice. I tried again today and listened to loads of other music tracks and I still can't find something that I think is perfect for the images. Suggestions gratefully accepted. Those pictures demand the right music, I just need to find it.

Maureen I am not over struck on the music myself, it was the best I could find at the time. but if anything better came up I would consider a change.

Here is another new sequence, called The South Pacific. Download HERE, top of the page for PC and Mac

Ken and Dadou I ran the show on my older PC and then on my old laptop and I cannot recreate what your describing. There was a little error in the animation end point of the first slide, cause by all my changes, perhaps it was that which caused the jerk, but all animations have smooth starts and finishes and I am not seeing any technical issues, even on the old laptop. The longest animation is the first one and that is only 18 seconds from start to finish. Those viewing on lower resolution monitors, may see a little of the moire effect, so I have ticked the anti shimmering box. I am not a great fan of spending good money and effort to get sharp images and then softening the image in PTE, but needs must I suppose. Dadou Point taken, the short transitions could do with a tightening up. I have reduced them to 500 in the transition length, anything less doesn't look right to me, a bit too quick. I will upload this version to my web site after I have viewed it a few more times, just to make sure I am happy with it. Gayland What a nice smile you have, thank you for that.

Ken and others You do mean transitions and not animations don't you? Its not usual to have any problem with transitions, no matter what size the images are. I will have to test the show on another machine to see if I can see what your seeing. On my machine there are no technical isses at all. Daniel I'll take a look, already fiddled with the short transitions quite a bit and I am at the stage where I seem to make a change, every time I view the show. I need a day or two away from it and then come back I think.

Well Maureen, what do you make of that. Praise indeed and not a word about the ..shhhh (you know what). What makes this sequence work so well for me, is the atmosphere you have captured. If you have ever been to the lakes in any time but summer, this is the sort of sequence that transports you back, not just with the images. Its the atmpsphere which seems to invoke memories, the cold air, the smells etc. This is the time when the end result is far greater than the two parts. The A and the V I think you should be banned from the lake district now though, give some other poor soles a chance

Despite Gaylands views, I have been working on another version in light of peoples views. PC only for the moment below. Its a different style completely, and the birds twittereing didn't seem to fit in this version, but I have kept the rain in. Download from Here

Gayland Oh dear. I nearly caught your dummy as it flew out of the pram, but thrown with such vigour, I missed it. At least I stired you into a response. but you have missed the point, again. I have been working on the same slide show, taking on board some of the comments made, to see if I could get it more to my liking. I prbably have to be honest. Apart from the frame of course. Relax mate and recognice when someone is smiling at you, when their talking.

Daniel I love from time to time to understand how it is done - Now that is a different thing and something I can more understand. Happy new year. Of course the new year reaches us all at different times doesn't it.

Ken I don't disagree with Maureen on anything she said in that thread. All the facts are well known, not just in AV circles, but if your going to send your show for a competition, you wouldn't use a thick white would you. I use a grey usually, but with the sequences I have put into competitions (twice) I make sure that thin line is not very bright, just enough to stop the black bleed off. Of course when I watch them myself, I don't see the border, because the sequence fills the screen. Its only there for others who will see black areas. Each to his own. I also find that because I produce my shows at 1920*1200, when they are viewed on a 1024*768 projecter, which is almost always the case, the line becomes thinner still, because the images are being seen smaller. I just don't like my images bleeding off into the background. I think that is a weakness when it happens. But my argument still stands. You cannot make a blanket decision that a line around a slide show automatically detracts from it, and then brain wash judges into thinking the same. I am quite happy to be judged, as long as it is fair and I don't much care for these so called photographic rules. Its like following the rule of thirds in every single case. The majority of the time, it is valid, but not in all cases. Maureen also says that you make your slide shows to please yourself. I don't have a problem with vieweing those shows, just havn't got around to it I suppose, but I don' t have any 3D glasses so I guess that one would not look so good to me. Can you provide a link to those two shows, and I'll take a look anyway. Eric one of your best slide shows.....It was short The rest of you stop moaning about the discussion. Or do you want them all to be. Oh yes Sir, I quite agree! A bit of passion in a debate is good, livens up the forum anyway. Look how many posts have kicked off on the strength of this one, even Eric found the enthusiasm to make me a nice little show. Lighten up and broaden your shoulders lads....and lassies I am typing with a smile on my face.

Ken when a show is entered into a competiton, do they not judge the composition of each slide? how can the images be judged if one cannot study it? No, they only see the show once, maybe twice and they may judge the image quality as an overal part of the AV sequence as a whole, but if I understand your question right.. They do not judge each slide and they would NEVER stop a slide show part way through. That would be interferring with an authors creative work, which has always been my point.. Some of the slide shows that win competitions, may not have greatest quality images. Its the overall effect/mood/emotion/idea, that the judges are looking for. If you can get both, then your really rocking. I have not seen the 3d show you refer to, but perhaps that is what I would call a slide show, rather than AV. I have never been totally happy to pigeon hole any form of photography, but I think I can be persuaded otherwise with this medium. My Apprenticeship slide show is an example. Its a batch of images put to music. No attempt was made to create a story, or an emotion, its just a way of presenting images. In AV, I would argue an attempt is made to create the start, middle and end. A show that is more than just a batch of images with. If the author is succesful, the result can be greater than the sum of the two parts. (images and sound) the judging people of the RPS continually say that the use of frames in an AV competition,is a no no as the frame detracts from the image yet you continually use them ! If that were to be true, the RPS would be talking out of their backsides. You cannot make a blanket decision that all frames detract and I doubt the RPS do, to be honest. If they did, then I would be speachless, because I would want to know who made that decision? Who suddenly decided that in AV a frame always detracts. What if a frame is applied that didn't detract, does that get marked down because someone has decided that its taboo to use a frame.You see its too daft for words really. And in any case, I make my slide shows for me first. I will listen to other peoples comments, but I reserve the right to disagree and I don't care what anyone else thinks about a frame, but it actually does have a purpose. If your making a slide show to fill a screen, then a thin border may not be necessary, but not all our shows will be seen on the resolution monitor they were made for. In some cases, viewers will see a black area on screen. Now, if the image being shown has dark edges, it looks awful where it is seen against the black. In the worst cases it looks like someone has taken a bite out of the image. In those cases a delicate line will hold the edge of the images, no matter what screen resolution the AV is played on. See my examples. Xaver Do you think that your work is free from technical flaws or design flaws? No, I certainly wouldn't be as arrogant as that, but that isn't the point of the debate. An AV should be viewed as one piece of work, if you feel the need to stop each image and judge each one from a technical point of view, then the AV must have failed miserably.

Xaver I can assure you that I do know how to watch an AV show. I am not saying that you don't know how to watch an AV, but I am suggesting your missing the point of Audio Visual completely. But in case where I want to throw an analytical eye on it, it is an advantage to have KB control, in order to watch particular sections repeatedly. Sorry mate, but that is crazy. Why would you want to watch particular section repeatedly. Your missing the point of AV completely. Think of an AV sequence as one image, because that is the best description I can give it. You wouldn't want an image in bits, would you. Of course not. What you don't see in one or two viewings of an audio visual sequence, your not meant to see. What your referring to is a slide show. A batch of images,with music. Audio Visual is different, its where we are trying to capture a mood, or spark an emotion. We may not always be sucessful perhaps, but some of us try. Watch the show as a flowing sequence, that is one piece of work. My goodness, if some of the slide shows posted here were analized in such detail, you would have a lot of dummies, flying from a lot of prams

I did think about having light rain sounds all the way through, but discarded the idea because sound effects can be over done, perhaps I will take another look at that. The Tree, yes, I had doubts, but I guess you can see the sort of thing I had in mind, looking up and turning around, not quite the right effect, I agree. Music, well that is personal and the pianno allowed me to place the images in the perfect place, so I did have a start, middle and end. I spent so much time fiddling with it, that I didn't have the stamina for a change of music too, perhaps later Recording my own sound effects, tried it lots of times with a H4 recorder, but its a dismal failure I have to say. Its useless for sound effects unless your right on top of them. So a river or seashore is OK, birds are hopeless. This issue of Keyboard control: I swear some of you would not know an AV if it jumped up and bit you. (sorry, don't mean that to sound too aggressive) The idea of what I do is a sequence, its not made to be disected and stopped. How do you create a flow of images to music if you keep stopping the thing. What your talking about is a slide show. If all you want are a batch of images to look at, visit my galleries. You don't need a slide show for that at all. Of course when a show is made for a 1920*1200 minitor and is played back on a lower resolution one, then some moire effect may be seen. You can't have it all ways, unless to soften the images to an unacceptable level. As for animation, they all work fine for me, so little I can do if they are not smooth on your machine. They are on thePC that made it, and on my older demo PC too.

I have completed a new slide show, but I am not sure the show does the rainforest justice. Its not often I post something that I am not totally happy with, but perhaps I have been messing so long, I can't see the wood for the trees. I have pushed and pulled these images and ideas around for some weeks trying to complete something I was happy with, but perhaps the Rainforst needs that something extra. It needs the smells and ambience perhaps. To really appreciate it, you have to be there and hear the rain dripping from the trees. Anyway, its at the top of this page in PC and Mac format http://www.beckhamdigital.co.uk/freestuffdigslidesw4.htm Eric Its way above your 20mb limit, don't even bother Ken No you can't stop the show every few seconds to look at the pictures, its an Audio Visual Happy new year, one and all.

Eric. It won't be long now I can just tell your gearing up, to swap over to making widescreen slide shows. Would that be a New Years Resolution A wide screen resolution.

Well, I am no computer expert, but why would you want that. It works fine as it is. You have to remember that most slide shows are designed to be distributed and need to be able to play on a variety of machines.

John Are you aware that the current version of PicturesToExe will work perfectly OK on Windows 7 running 64 bit

No, I never do. Recently, if you recall, I turned it off by by accident. Not so difficult to do when you use a graphics tablet rather than a mouse. I could'nt understand why the slide shows were running so badly If your thinking of leaving it on permanently, do it.

Eric But a poll is of little use here Eric, because what they would reflect would have litle meaning We are all enthusiasts and despite what we may think, We are not typical users. PTE, has to appeal to wider audience than just us. The only gripe I have with animation, is there seems to be little sense used in applying it. In many cases, It seems to be applied in a vain attempt to improve the appeal of lack lustre images. You can move the picture all over the screen and it will not improve your image one bit. Anything used with skill and imagination, probably with a degree of moderation, will work in the right circumstances. Imagine a shot of a leafy glade, maybe an autumn scene, where a great still shot suddenly fades into an identical image, shot in video. ( HD of course). Now, that could look rather good. I can think of a few scenarios where a few seconds of video may be worth considering. However, if you try using stills to capture some natural movement scenes, it generally fails miserably, with just the odd exception.

LIn. Yes, I agree and well said. I find myself thinking of that old saying. The end line of which is, you can't please all of the people, all of the time. Welcome back, by the way. I doubt I will use video much in my slide shows, but once I see the HD video clips with HD images, I might change my mind. Video clips have to be introduced next. Eric Why is it always you I feel the need to reply to. What do you mean, that you waited months for audio manipulation to be introduced and then you were disappointed. No-one else was! In the middle of november you said I don't use PTE's sound adjustment feature I use Audacity which is simplicity itself once you are familiar with the programme, and enables me to use my artistic take. I am sure in another thread you also said you had not installed version 6.5. You said you wouldn't until it was fully signed off. Whatever that means. Are you confused or is it me?