Maureen

Hi When I tried to connect to Bart's site I keep getting this message.. .......... 500 server error I encountered an unrecoverable server error. Please go back and try again. Will try again tomorrow. Hi Image Suite........ Can't find the news section either ......... the News section on my website will keep you up to date......recommend you log-in to that every now and again............www.theimagesuite.co.uk Pleased to hear Bart can do the hosting. (Can stop biting my fingernails now!) Apart from the web site, he has a great birthday too - ( same as mine - only I'm past it & my brain cell is getting over stretched). Hi Ed, Have been using Photoshop to create the transitions since Photoshop version 3 (used to convert lots back to slide film from my monitor screen!). Find Photoshop much quicker than any other method (but that's down to what you get used to ). Usually save my whole sequence as a stack of layers in one file. So always have spare images & stacked in order if anything goes wrong & you lose the sequence. Never be afraid to suggest anything -even if it has been mentioned before, always good to have a reminder and newcomers don't know all the previous threads. I used to save all the useful tips on the original PTE Forum (they're saved to CDs somewhere) but never seem to find the time to go back & reread them -or sort them. Look forward to seeing the Album at Bart's site. BW Maureen

Hi I'm willing to host the images etc at www.maureenalbright.com if someone tells me in very simple language how to set the folders up for uploading & downloading the results! All my web sites are DIY self taught - usually by the mistakes I make ! I am always happy to run any short digital AVs at our DAVEs (Digital AV Events) to promote others - so long as it doesn't offend / clash with that day's guest speaker - who might be wishing to plug something similar. And we have the time to show it. Need to have the CD in advance though. We can also put out some handouts or posters. Best wishes Maureen http://www.digital-av.co.uk

Sut Mae Image Suite! Pob lwc i chi am dy gwaith newydd! I know your local area very well (lived there for many years) & greetings to all who know me....! Also doing a show in Llanelli March 10th & promised one to Swansea soon. Have you not produced a digital AV promo to promote your new workshops? We could all download it and view your techniques (apart from having it played at some digital AV days!) Hi Alan Don't forget to call & see us next time you are so close to our "neck of the Woods"! We're only an hour from Southampton. Would love to see you all again soon. Great idea about the image swap. We tried it many moons ago. The most imaginative was creating a sequence with only five (totally unrelated) images. The authors really had to plan and think that one out! Lots of creative use of Photoshop with many too. We've tried giving out a theme, set pieces of music, music by a certain composer or from a certain period, even had a session where old slide sound sequences were handed out and swapped so they were completely reworked by someone else {made sure the original tape & details were kept too}. Have you tried to create a storyboard for a sequence using words ? eg once....... unfortunately ....... suddenly ..... happily .... unexpectedly...... I've been out of action with illness (four months shingles ) - went to Lanzarote for a holiday with Photo Training Overseas -even the professionals there are now using PTE, but usually just as a "picture album" technique (but very well done). But I developed severe bronchitis there! Never mind it ain't the coughin that carries you off but the coffin.... Now trying to get some new work together (inbetween coughs & pills) & update web sites. Hope all CDs arrived safely & could be played. Have you all thought about submitting sequences to the 2004 International IAC Geoffrey Round digital AV Competition? It is on March 26th & 27th (see new details) Closing date is March 1st (St David's Day - big day for all the Welsh ) so send them off to Peter Coles soon. It is taking place up at Haworth, Yorkshire this year (very pretty place - great for a photographic holiday!). Unfortunately the original hotel venue has had to be changed but all the new details will be on the web site at www.avworld.org very soon. You can meet & exchange lots of information at these events and also view a huge range of digital techniques created by top AV workers, using third Image techniques and other newer digital methods.You don't have to enter to attend but it is fun if you do. The greatest benefit is not competing, but getting feed back from others after viewing your sequence on a big screen. Often someone else's chance remark can be extremely helpful and a minor adjustment can totally transform your work. Bit like a face to face forum! Great to have so many helpful friendly people exchanging knowledge and help here. Once more thanks to all who produce such great work, utilities and advice to help us all so freely. Best wishes Maureen http://www.digital-av.co.uk

Hi Have you looked at www.digital-av.co.uk Go to Notes page and read Creating a Wav file from a CD written by Ian in 2000. I use Nero software and have also used Adaptec Hope this helps BW Maureen

Hi Everyone and Slainte to Alan (and friends in Ireland) We're great Canon fans (EOS 3 & 10D cameras) and the Canon dedicated film scanners. We started with the Canon 2700 which we thought was the bees knees until the Canon 2710 came on the scene - then we noticed the big difference (with some scan lines showing in certain images from the 2700 ). Husband Robert is a big Mac fan (ie the computer not the burgers!) so he is still working with slide/sound sequences. This suits me as I can hog the PC and have the new CanoScan FS400 US connected and also the Epson Perfection 1640 SU. Must admit all are in constant use. Apart from AV we also produce prints so like to scan at the best resolution we can. Always adjust any settings if you can in the scanner software (pays to read the book sometimes!). You will have a far superior result than if you wait and always do it in Photoshop. There is a technical explanation, but it's late here and my only brain cell has gone to sleep! We were taught to add a slight s curve in the curves setting in the scanner software and I usually check and tweak the levels if necessary BEFORE I scan to the computer. Obviously if you're doing lots it can pay you to adjust one slide and keep the settings - if the images were all taken at the same time etc. We're lucky to have a close friend who works professionally scanning for top agencies and gives us tips on getting the best out of our scanning equipment. Like many friends I have thousands of old slides I need to scan if I'm to ever do all the digital sequences, etc I have planned and also convert some of my old slide/sound AVs. Last week a very keen photographer friend of ours was discussing his experiments setting his Canon 10D digital camera on a tripod and shooting slides off his light box. He has an area taped up, so quickly drops the next slide into the rectangle and shoots lots of slides very quickly. He says he has produced very good results. I have yet to find out what lens he used on the 10D camera and also to view his results. It could be a very quick way of getting contact sheets done to catalogue slides and if the quality is not good enough, then scanning in the dedicated slide scanner. Maybe he really has had the excellent results he claims. It is OK to scan at 1024px x 768px if you only needing the scans for projecting, - the FS4000 US has a setting especially for "scans for display". It will then scan much quicker and still produce the best quality for projecting. I know there are now some new digital projectors which are using 1280px x 1024px, so it may be wise to start thinking about scanning to these sizes. Images will always look OK interpolated down on a big screen but will depreciate in quality if they have to adjust up in size. Scans for printing need to be as large a file size as possible (assuming you are going to produce large prints). Always take your slides out of glass mounts to scan. Hope this helps. BW Maureen PS Am feeling much better & CDs in the post tomorrow guys!

Thanks Ron and Barry for pointing me at the correct page! No problems there ! Although I have plenty, as I'm now into my sixth week of shingles with no end is sight yet. I blame all these pills for my lack of brain cells - but I'll have no excuse for my stupidity when the shingles rash disappears! Back to couch potato mode for me. No brain, no alcohol, no Christmas cheer ...............? BW to all Maureen

Hi Richard Welcome to the Forum. Hope to catch up with you at Urchfont one day and see these sequences. Wish my eyesight was that good! Take care, Love Maureen

Hi Barry Can you confirm if this music is Royalty free and copyright free? There is a big difference. I cannot find any information on Medwyn Goodall handing over or relinquishing his copyright to the music on the CDs. So could you let me know if these CDs are all copyright free ? Glad the speakers are working well - they are now down to £79 for the system. Love to you and Caz Maureen

Copyright Copyright issues in UK There are many excellent sources of advice. I have included some on my web site at http://www.digital-av.co.uk. to try to make it clearer to newcomers. Please be very aware of copyright and purchase the necessary licences. If in doubt.........always check first. UK Information from IAC People are constantly asking me about the possibility of Copyright infringement when using music in our productions (video/film/slide-tape sequences). The quite usual remark is " I only give my productions a very limited exposure..." Well, we all tend to ignore regulations that we don't like, or consider to be unreasonable...how many of us break the speed limit in our car trips every day!! Nevertheless, laws are meant to be adhered to and not broken. IAC offers the necessary Copyright clearance licences at very reasonable rates and it is our responsibility to abide by the conditions of these licences and to see that all our productions are covered at the time of compilation. Incidentally, it is necessary to obtain Copyright clearance BEFORE dubbing the soundtrack and NOT after the production is completed! It is thought by many that no action is ever taken by the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) or the other licensing bodies, but this is by no means the case! As I am constantly reminding people, there is no such thing as 'Copyright free music' only possibly, Royalty free...in that a fee is included in the purchase price of music issued by some publishers. I also quote from the Internet: "What is Copyright? It is an unregistered right (unlike patents, registered designs or trade marks). So, there is no official action to take, (no application to make, forms to fill in or fees to pay). Copyright comes into effect immediately, as soon as something that can be protected is created and "fixed" in some way, eg on paper, on film, via sound recording, as an electronic record on the internet, etc. It is a good idea for you to mark your copyright work with the copyright symbol © followed by your name and the date, to warn others against copying it, but it is not legally necessary in the UK. The type of works that copyright protects are: 1. original literary works, e.g. novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, lyrics for songs, articles in newspapers, some types of databases, but not names or titles (see Trade Marks pages); 2. original dramatic works, including works of dance or mime; 3. original musical works; 4. original artistic works, e.g. paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, works of architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps, logos; 5. published editions of works, i.e. the typographical arrangement of a publication; 6. sound recordings, which may be recordings on any medium, e.g. tape or compact disc, and may be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical or literary; 7. films, including videos; and 8. broadcasts and cable programmes. So the above works are protected by copyright, regardless of the medium in which they exist and this includes the internet." Finally, you may be interested in a communication that I have had from MCPS: "We've had a few different cases of copyright infringement recently actually. The main one I can think of is a video/DVD product released by an amateur video producer that contained a number of tracks from one popular band and was being sold on the internet. Not only did MCPS stop the sale and further production of the product, the stock was destroyed and the copyright owner's solicitors also got involved to apply a fine. I believe the producer paid out a significant sum after royalties and a fine on top of the costs of producing and manufacturing the product." Yes! action can and IS being taken and members should not ignore the Copyright laws, they are, after all, there to protect the interests and livelihood of the composers and musicians to whom some our licence money eventually finds its way. Gerald Mee IAC Copyright Advisory Service - IAC web site Also received this information................... ANY recordings (dubbings) made in the UK will have to be cleared with MCPS etc BEFORE they are sent abroad. Licences for IAC members and members of the Photographic Alliance have to be held individually by the authors. If they are not such members then the licence fee must be negotiated with MCPS. Of course, the author's Copyright will also have to be cleared (presumably they already have given permission for their work to be 'exported'?) ******************************************************* So you see I am very nervous about posting my own sequences on the web sites although I would love to share my work with many others in this Forum. Fortunately several of us do have contact in the UK and manage to see each others sequences. A few even exchange unfinished sequences on CD by post to give advice and encouragement. I have now found a very good friend who is prepared to write some background music for some of my sequences. Much of my work usually consists of scripted voice, sound effects and a mixture of music, although I do have a few slide to background music sequences too. Thanks to everyone for sharing all your knowledge and work so freely here. Hope I can help someone too one day. (after three weeks the shingles rash is finally fading but still very painful so I may yet do the sequence !) Love Maureen

Sorry submitted same message twice must be the shingles attacking my brain!

There are also some more results and photographs available on links from the 'latest AV Festival Results' page at http://www.avworld.org I seem to recognise a 'certain name' with a silver medal and the trophy for best sound at Dundalk - ( 21st Irish Photographic Federation National Av Championships 2003 ) Congratulatulations & Well done Alan! Delighted to see so many Forum members listed at Hayange (including Peter Coles). Looking forward to catching up with old friends & seeing more new digital sequences at the next "Great Northern" AV Festival at Wilmslow. Even finished my new sequence ready for it! Keep healthy! and away from anyone with shingles! Love Maureen

Hi Boxig Have just been to your web site downloading many utilities to try out. Many many thanks for all your hard work and generosity sharing your talent with us all. I tried to click on the link to your ShowFlashAnyPos but I keep getting this message............ The requested URL /ShowFlashAnyPos.zip was not found on this server. Additionally, a 301 Moved Permanently error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apache/1.3.28 Server at www.thailandphotoalbum.com Port 80 Am I doing something wrong? I would like to try your program but I also have a very slow....... (sorry I can't draw a snail here!) connection so when I spot large files I have to pause and think of my husband's wallet ! Hope I manage to find and try out your program soon. Love Maureen

You are a wonderful angel Al ! I had planned to do some mini PTE tutorials for beginners and now I don't need to! I'll do a few on Photoshop for digital AV workers and sound for beginners instead - just hope I get the time to finish them ! and might even learn how to upload something! PTE is becoming very popular here with lots of new photographers showing interest in creating digital AVs every week. Did a show tonight and the audience were very keen and interested. I keep getting asked to return, so it's either they like my stuff, or it's too complicated and they want a rerun to understand my accent and how to do a sequence! Thanks to all you hard working brilliant people who keep uploading terrific free programs for the rest of us. A million Thanks Love Maureen

Great news Igor Look Forward to using your new features. Thank You for all your hard work. Best wishes Maureen

Hi Jim I am surprised they haven't replied to you -will forward your messsage and hope they answer. Generally they are not themselves a source of "Royalty free" music -they manage licences, so we amateurs can stay legal & give us lots of advice. They have an e-mail forum but it usually deals with matters relating to the video side of photography, with occasional mentions of sound matters and copyright issues. I would love to have my digital AVs seen by more people, but I know I can't upload them due to slow Internet connections at present & the copyright issues of the music I have used. I have recently been able to send some CDs of digital sequences to Florida and will be sending some to Australia sometime (when life gets calmer & quieter). I've just found a wonderful lady who will write me little pieces as background music - so I may be able to upload something small one day or put it on my web site (no poaching my source Ian! - ....only kidding). Hope I can at least get them to send a reply to you Jim. Hope this helps. Best wishes Maureen

Hi I've tried to make part of my web site a resource for info on digital AV. You will find lots of information about sound & types of music etc. Take a look at www.digital-av.co.uk sometime. Hope this helps BW Maureen

Hi I always work on my images in Photoshop using a copy above the original (so I can sneak a look at the original if I wish) and then use adjustment layers and layer masks. When I feel happy with the final image - I always sharpen last (using unsharp filter). However I first create a new layer and then use the alt merge visable option . Thus I put the unsharp filter onto the whole image but have all options saved below. I use the save to web rather than the save as jpeg, as this gives me the opportunity to view the quality of the saved image and slide along to get the size under 200kb with the best quality. I believe I was told once that Photoshop produces a better 'algorithm' for the save to web than the jpeg save setting so you should get a better quality saving with your compression..(might have been Adobe themselves when questioned about why have the two save setting & what was the difference & which was best to use) .........Have I got that right? Perhaps one of our wonderful technical experts could answer? If I find when I insert the new image into PTE it looks oversharpened when projected, it is quick and easy to go back to my saved file (which has all its layers ) delete the top one ( alt merge visable, plus unsharpened) create a new layer repeat the alt merge visable and then put an unsharpen filter on this new final version with different settings. Like JRR I usually find my settings vary with the type of image. So it is difficult to recommend settings for unsharpening. Hope this helps. Best wishes Maureen

Sorry to go back a few places but only today I found an useful site to translate and check out my very rusty german to a friend at .............. http://babel.altavista.com/ Hope this helps. BW Maureen

Congratulations, Well Done and THANK YOU Boxig! Your hard work is appreciated - only another 900 and you'll make a Millennium! Only wish I had a faster connection so I could download & upload more items. Now you can put your feet up and celebrate for the rest of this morning ! Well done! Tremendous feat of achievement Boxig. Hope to catch up with some Forum members at the UK Nationals soon. Best wishes to you all Maureen

The first digital AV day I ran, a member brought along a sequence created with PTE. I clicked - nothing happened, so I clicked again. It had a large sound file so I ended up clicking lots of times !!! - then eight versions of the sequence began to run on the screen with a small time delay in between each one. Is this a record? Please no multiple clicks but I do like the disable double-clicks option. Thanks Igor for a super program and all your hard work. Best wishes Maureen building new web site at www.digital-av.co.uk

I prefer to use Al's method as I usually want to synchronize the sound track to my slides on the time line. I often have complicated sound tracks with speech, background music and sound effects and timing can be crucial. I have found when using the object editor it won't always work with the tick on the synchronize to slideshow duration. Best wishes Maureen New web site at www.digital-av.co.uk

Hi Diana I always bear three things in mind when I create a sequence.... 1 - always use an mp3 sound file 2 - always keep the image file size below 200kb 3 - always use Photoshop's save to web for chosing the size of your image as this lets you see the quality of your image and you can slide it as close to 200kb as you wish. I have created a web site especially for all aspects of digital AV at www.digital-av.co.uk with lots of notes. dpi has no bearing on image quality on the screen - to view an explanation about this subject, see Ian Bateman's article about "The Myth of 72 dpi" at www.avworld.org in their current edition ( UK magazine specifically for AV workers - it can be posted abroad to subscribers I believe) I tend to size my images at 1024px x 768px , but my work is usually shown projected on large screens at competitions and lectures at halls using the newer digital projectors. Hope this helps. Best wishes Maureen

Thank you Igor Your hard work is greatly appreciated. I would have loved to have had your beta version yesterday, as it would have saved me lots of time. I look forward to trying out the new version soon. Best wishes Maureen

Actually the very first International "digital Audio Visual Event" (DAVE) was held in Aldbourne in 2000 and we'll be holding our fifth in November 2003 with Ron Wilkinson and Peter Coles. (It was also an RPS event & we had several nationalities present... including the Welsh, but sadly no french .......yet ??? hopefully one day we'll meet lots of forum members at a "DAVE") see www.wessex-dig.org.uk for our next one. Perhaps we should congratulate Ian not only on his success, in the last RPS International but also on his recent Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society - the first person to ever achieve it with digital Audio Visual photography. Well done Ian. I must admit it gives me great pleasure to be able to view the many wonderful sequences I have been able to download from Bill's Beechbrook site - many thanks Bill for your hard work. Thank you also to all who have shared their work and utilities with us all. You all deserve medals & prizes. I am sorry I can't add some of my DAV at present, but am happy to post CDs. At the last international DAV Competition the sequences were projected on a digital Royale. It is however very important for those who wish to submit entries to know in advance the technical specifications of the projection set up, especially the graphics card and memory. We also had one entry produced by an Apple Mac user ! What will be the projection system you will be using please Gerard? Best wishes Maureen

Latest news from IAC is that the British licence is a legal document and covered worldwide. However the person abroad receiving our CD containing the digital AV, is not allowed to copy the CD, and it should be returned after the "show". Obviously where the author has put a time lock on the PTE sequences this will negate the need to return the CD I assume. Unfortunately the IAC licence does not cover sequences on a web site, so sadly I won't be able to upload my sequences to my web site, unless I produce something with copyright free music. I should (if I ever get Broadband) be able to e-mail a sequence (I think?) or certainly send a CD by "snail mail". Keeps my husband in work! Does anyone abroad have any advice? Best wishes Maureen