That task has now become much easier with the advent of computer software designed to produce slideshows. Using scanned images and files from my digital camera, I now can produce stunning slideshows in a fraction of the time previously required using my conventional equipment. Plus, I can add new transitions not possible with the old way, and slides and music never again go out of sync.

The old vision of slideshow production was one of slides all over, trays with upside-down and backward images, cables connecting multiple show devices (projectors and tape decks), and music that was a challenge to match with image changes. With current digital slideshow programs (available for both Windows and Mac users), the whole process is a lot easier. I made my first all-digital show with music and titles in an afternoon after first receiving the software.

Most programs allow you to click and drag desired images into a "slideshow list." With the program I’m using (Photodex ProShow Gold), I can view five frames at a time. The software also allows you to set the transition time between images. Here, you have far more time options than are found on any dissolve unit. You can have very quick changes among a group of images to fit an interesting passage of music, then change to a slower pace in another section.

An added benefit is the choice of a vast number of transition effects: fades, distortions, wipes, shapes, pushes, etc. ProShow Gold, for example, has more than 170 different transition effects! I’ll likely never use many of these special effects transitions, but it’s wonderful having so many different options from which to choose.

Since I’m a newcomer to the world of digital photography, my biggest challenge was scanning slides I wanted for the show (digital camera images are much simpler to work with, obviously). As I worked on the show, a preview option allowed me to see how the images would look in transition with one another. As I moved through production of the program, I could see how images flowed and easily switch the order of photos whenever I felt a change was desirable. Changes are just drag-and-drop to new locations.

After creating a good visual flow with my photos, I then had to find an appropriate piece of music to use with the show. This requires making a digital file of the song. If you’re doing this strictly for friends and family, you can record a song from a CD placed in your CD drive.

In the past, the most difficult part of putting a slideshow together was making my slides and music begin and end at the proper time. This process could literally take hours. That’s no longer the case. You actually can sync the music with one click! There may well be times when you’ll want to sync the music manually for dramatic effect, but the automatic sync feature is an incredible tool.

Yet another wonderful benefit of the computer-generated slideshow is the ability to add captions or titles to your images. In the past, I used reversal film to make title slides for my shows, a complicated and expensive process. Now, I can easily insert text anywhere I choose. A myriad of fonts and text sizes may be used. This option opens the door for doing a greater variety of slideshows.

There are new options for playing these shows back, too. My program allows me to make an autorun CD that will automatically play when inserted into a computer. I also can create an MPEG video file that can be viewed on any computer with video playback software, or create a VCD or DVD that can be played back on a TV using a compatible DVD player. A more common "slideshow device" is now the laptop. People travel with laptops all the time, and it’s not uncommon for someone to transition from business traveller to proud parent showing off a little slideshow of the kids. These options, along with the ability to e-mail or post the slideshow online, allow you to share your show with an infinite number of people without having to set up a projector, sound system and screen.

However, a slideshow can be projected in the more traditional way, using an LCD projector with a computer or laptop (again, a lot simpler than the old way). I was amazed at how good the first slideshow I produced looked on screen, especially since I had chosen a rather low 640 x 480 resolution and the projector I was using allowed for twice that resolution.

One drawback with computer-generated slide-shows is that the transition between horizontal and vertical images can be more distracting. Whereas the horizontal images will fill the frame of a computer or television set, a vertical image will not. In the past, I’ve used a combination of vertical and horizontal slides in my programs. In the future, I’ll look to do more programs limited to one or the other format.

As with any good slide program, it’s still important to look for images that work well in transition with one another. Here, colours, shapes, mood or themes might dictate what image will look best next to another. Choosing music that works well with your images also remains a critical element in slideshow production. I typically work as hard on finding music that "fits" as I do on finding the right images for the show.

With the versatility and ease of use of the new slideshow software, I’ll no doubt be doing more slideshows than ever before. I’ve already put together a program featuring nature scenes and scripture to be used at the church I serve. I’ve also produced a program featuring the natural beauty of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and presented it to the park superintendent for use in promoting the park. The types of shows one can produce using these programs is limited only by one’s imagination.

The joy and satisfaction I’ve found over the years sharing slideshows with individuals and groups will only be magnified by the move to digital slideshows. I’ve already given numerous autorun CDs of my programs to family and friends. I also can foresee using these CDs to introduce my work to editors and clients.

Tips For Producing Digital Slideshows

1. Present your best material. Begin with sharp, properly exposed images. Edit your work carefully. Whether the show is viewed on a monitor or television, or projected, you want your images to look the best they possibly can.

2. Consider using horizontals only. Horizontal images will fill the computer monitor or television set, whereas verticals come out significantly smaller.

3. Select images that work well together. Have a reason for putting one slide next to another. Look for images that will create interesting transitions.

4. Avoid abrupt changes from very dark to very light images. Find an image that’s more medium in tone when making transitions from dark and light images.

5. Preview your work as you go. The software allows you to stop at any point in the production of a slideshow and watch the transitions. You don’t have to wait until you finish putting the slides together to know what works and what doesn’t.

6. Choose your music carefully. Pay attention to tempo and style. Does the music help convey the mood or feeling you’re trying to present? Having the "right" music makes all the difference in the world.

7. Don’t make your show too long. It would be better to have five four-minute programs than one 20-minute program. Don’t overestimate your audience’s attention span.

Now, it’s true that a R10,000 projector today does have its limitations. Some photo purists would have you believe that these just won’t do - you have to buy something with more capability. Personally, I’d love to be able to buy a high-end projector, but I can’t. So I’ve tried the lower-priced models, and guess what—they work! There’s just something spectacular about projecting your digital images in a darkened room to sizes 3x5 feet or more. I recently tried this out with Epson’s new PowerLite S1, and everyone watching the short shows I presented loved them. This is a low-priced projector with limited resolution that many tell you couldn’t be used for this purpose. I’ll tell you that my audience would challenge that idea, though I didn’t try to project the images too large.

Yes, there are shortcomings: resolution is limited, the spaces between the pixels show, contrast can be an issue, and colours are often different than what you see on the computer screen. However, only photographers go right up to the screen and complain about resolution and pixels - the average person is more impressed with the photos (as we all should be). If the projected size is kept reasonable, the images look very good, plus the other issues can be addressed.

Another problem is that projectors are optimized for Microsoft’s PowerPoint and not photography. I’ve actually projected with many projectors, low- to high-priced, all around the country as I’ve given classes and workshops, and the same images have ranged from great to garish. There are some adjustments that can be made to maximize any projector, though.

Projector Tendencies

First, let’s look at what we, as photographers, can expect from today’s projectors. It’s important to realize that PCPhoto hasn’t tested every projector on the market. However, we’ve dealt with multiple brands in varied situations and found there are some consistent trends. We’ll also offer practical tips to help you deal with these issues and better use a digital projector, whether it’s yours, one you borrowed from work or something used by a camera club. It’s important to test your projector in your conditions to see if all of the following things apply.

• Projectors as a whole tend to warm up images. Evidently, engineers figure PowerPoint presentations could use a little warming up, and that transfers to photos as well. This isn’t always a problem with photographs - photos often look good with some extra warmth. The problem comes if the image is warm to begin with or has colours that are adversely affected by added warm tones.

• Colours have a tendency to be strongly saturated. The solid colours of a PowerPoint presentation often look better this way. However, on a brightly coloured photo, this can be too much, making the photo look garish. I once did a presentation in front of a group of professional photographers and was horrified to see garish flowers projected on a screen that had no relation to the image on my laptop. I wanted to pass the laptop around to prove the photo looked good.

• Contrast is often high. Lower-priced projectors, in particular, don’t have a long tonal range from black to white, and will increase the contrast of a photo.

• Reds can be a problem. Because of the warming and saturating tendencies of the projectors, reds quickly can look bad.

• Text can be an issue. With lower-resolution projectors, text can be hard to read if it’s too small and fine.

It’s a good idea to preview a slideshow by yourself before showing it to anyone. In the days of slide projectors, you’d do that to be sure no images were upside-down or backwards. Today, you need to do it to be sure images look okay on screen and that they work well together. Once projected, mistakes just look worse.

Okay, so much for the challenges. Before offering specific solutions to get the most from a projector I need to mention something that isn’t a projector issue, but is a digital slideshow challenge - image size. If you leave your photos at their original resolutions (projectors don’t need megapixels), you’ll slow down fast slide changes and make transitions run poorly.

Resize your photos to slightly above the projector resolution (I recommend that because you may want to use a higher resolution in the future). Most image-processing programs allow you to resize photos. ACDSee has a very easy-to-use batch-resizing interface that lets you change the size of your photos and resave them in a new file. A good choice is to size images to approximately 1200 pixels wide by 900 high (this will vary, depending on the format of the original). Be sure to tell the program to resize within these parameters and not exactly to the sizes (the latter can stretch and pull an image).

Since projectors mostly tend to warm up and saturate images, typically you may want to decrease both factors. I don’t recommend batch-processing everything since you may find you like the look of an image projected as is. I find a good way of doing this is to use adjustment layers. Start with an adjustment with a Hue/Saturation layer on one photo and see how it looks. You might try a Colour Balance layer, too, to remove some warmth. If they work, then you can use that photo as the "source" of all adjustment layers.

Next, open up each photo (since they’re smaller in size now, you can open up many of them at once), then go to the source photo and drag its adjustment layers to the new photo. Adjustment layers aren’t size- or shape-specific, so if your photos vary a little, you’ll have no problem doing this. You simply click and hold on the adjustment layer, then drag the layer all the way onto the new image (you must get that cursor all the way onto the other photo or the layer won’t transfer).

Now, look at the photo. If it needs further adjustment, you have the advantage of reopening an adjustment layer. Just double-click the adjustment icon on the layer and you’ll have the original adjustment settings that can be changed as needed.

Fixing contrast problems can be troublesome. Try using the bottom, output sliders in a Levels layer to reduce the white and black (move the sliders in from the ends). Brightness/Contrast sometimes works.

Reds can be fixed with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Since not every image is going to have red problems, you should do this photo by photo. When needed, click on the Master colours of the control (this is true for most image-processing programs) to get a list of individual colours. Choose red, then reduce the saturation, which will limit this change to red.

The obvious way to deal with text is to use larger fonts. Slideshows of pretty pictures shouldn’t have small text anyway - look for something bold and easy to read.

I think we’ve entered a new era of photography. The potential for slideshows is great, and projectors enhance that experience. At this stage in the process, you do need to do some tweaking.