Quick Slide Show

Many scanners now come with an attachment that allows you to scan your photo slides. Once the slide is in its holder and in place on the scanner, the process is practically identical to any other scan. All that significantly varies are the results, which depend on the quality of the scanner, the sophistication of your scanning and image software, and your own ability to touch up a digital image.

Options

An array of options are available for scanning photos. You can even do without a scanner, if you have a digital camera and can find or make a device for it that holds and illuminates the slide to allow you to take a shot of it using the camera's close-up or macro function.

If slides are all you expect to use a scanner for, consider one of several dedicated units on the market. Some of these are relatively affordable and offer the benefit of resolutions as high as 2800 dpi.

To get the best possible results, you may want to spring for a professional scanner. The 4000 dpi of such a scanner captures just about all the detail there is on a slide.

But be forewarned: the slide remains king when it come to photographic quality. No digital reproduction will be able to match that quality.

With cheaper scans, you may have to do a lot of tweaking in your photo software to render a scanned slide truly acceptable.

Scanning

The simplest way to scan in a slide is to use a dedicated slide scanner or a regular scanner that has what is called a transparent materials adapter (TMA). If your scanner has this adapter, its manual should explain precisely how to use it.

In general, though, you should place your slides in this adapter or whatever similar device came with the scanner. Most have frames for multiple slides or negatives and may provide shields that you can use to cover those frames you aren't using.

Place the TMA on the scanner glass, and make sure it is properly aligned. At this point, you probably need to remove the cover clipped to the underside of the scanner lid. This allows the lid to shine a light through the slides, rendering them scannable.

Now close the lid and begin the scan either by pressing the appropriate button on the scanner or through your scanning software. The software should have a film-scanning feature. Make sure the positive or slides option is selected (not the negatives option) before you launch the scan. Once the images pop up on your screen, you can size and generally process them as you would any other scan.

Tips

Make sure your slides are clean before you scan them. To clean them without scratching, it is best to use a blower brush--an affordable device sold at camera stores.

Given how small slides are, the higher the resolution of your scan, the better the image you'll get. A slide scanned in at 1200 dpi should be good enough if you later want to make a 4x6 print from it. And if you save it in the TIFF format, you'll ensure that as much detail as possible is preserved.

There are many ways to create a memorable photo slide show, but ProShow Producer simplifies the process for all users. The program is designed to make slide show presentations a quick and easy creation, but also has features for more advanced skill sets. There are many tips and tricks to use that will take a regular slide show and turn it into a fully animated, multimedia presentation.

Adding Animation

Once all photos have been imported into your slide show, there is a simple way to add animation to every picture. You can apply motion and effects to each slide individually if you want total control over each portion of the presentation, or you can highlight all slides by pressing Ctrl + F7 and view all motion options. From there, you can randomize the animations applied to your slides and ProShow will automatically add animation to all photos, including pan, zoom and tilt at various speeds.

Creating a Soundtrack

The perfect music adds a special element to any presentation. You can add music from files on your computer, or rip a song from a CD to add to your show. If you want to rip from a CD, you can do so by copying the file directly into ProShow instead of copying to your computer first. From the toolbar, select "Audio," then "Save Music From CD." Check the box next to Add to Soundtrack and your file will be automatically added to the show. There is also an option under the Audio menu to "Sync Selected Slides" that will average out the timing of the song with the timing of each slide, a great tool to use before adding any motion or animation to photos.

Using Video

ProShow Producer encourages the use of multimedia for presentations, which means newer versions allow the incorporation of video as well as still images. Once the video is imported, it can be altered and edited just like any other slide. To add a video file, simply open the Folder List, find your video and drag it into the timeline. You can then edit the timing, volume and playback options for the videos by selecting the Slide Options menu and click Layers>Video Settings.

An abundance of photo slide software is available for immediate download, all with features individual to the product. Deciding which photo slide software is right for you may depend on several things, including cost and features.

Software

Photo slide software comes in a variety of prices: Photo Slideshow-ShowMe, Extra Photo SlideShow and Photo-Phriend, range in price from $8.95 to $29.95 as of October of 2010. Slideshow Screensaver is a free-to-use software program available for immediate download.

Key Features

Photo Slideshow-ShowMe features the ability to add music, set or change a background, customize transitions and more. Extra Photo SlideShow supports a wide range of image and audio files. Photo-Phriend comes with 17 unique transition effects, 40 backgrounds, nine different frame styles and more. Slideshow Screensaver allows users to take photos and turn them into a screen saver slideshow.

Download Details

Each of the software is available to download for using with any Windows operating system. Photo Slideshow-ShowMe requires a user have DirectX 8.0 or higher installed on their computer before using the software. Extra Photo SlideShow requires that users have a 1-gigahertz or higher computer processor. All of the software has a small download size that ranges from 26 kilobytes to 8.3 megabytes.

ProShow Producer is a program that allows you to create slideshows out of photographs, adding effects, borders and more to help you with your unique creation. While the software comes with helpful tips to assist you in getting more out of your slideshows, there are a few other tricks that you can use.

Add a Watermark

If you plan to share your slideshows online, it's a good idea to add a watermark. This will prevent others from trying to pass off your show as their own. While this is rare, it has happened and it's always good to protect your rights.

Once you've created your slideshow, click on Show, Show Options and Watermark. You can then select the image that you want to use for your watermark. It will appear as a semi-transparent image over your slideshow. If you need to make any changes, use the Adjustments tool on the watermark.

Create a Blu-Ray Slideshow

If you plan to share your slideshow on DVD, you may want to consider creating a Blu-Ray show. This will give your show much more depth of color and clarity. Once you've created your show, click on Create Output, select Blu-Ray, and then pick the size for your show. Try to keep the size as close to the original images as possible to avoid distortion.

It will also ask you how many frames per second (frame rate). For video shows, the default of 24 (the rate of a motion picture) will be fine. If you notice any issues with your finished project, you can always go back and adjust this setting. Before you finish, make sure to select the option to create a Disk Thumbnail so that your slideshow will show up on DVD players when the disc is inserted.

Add a Video to Your Slide Show

In some cases, you may want to add a short video clip to your slideshow in ProShow Producer. First, start your slideshow in ProShow Producer. Now, go to your file list and find the video you want to use. Drag it into your slideshow and it will automatically be inserted. If you need to trim the video or use only a segment, you can use the included video trimmer to select which segment to use.

ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer are two different versions of the same basic presentation-creation software. Typical users will be satisfied with the ProShow Gold edition, but business professionals may require the ProShow Producer upgrade.

More Tools

ProShow Producer provides the user with a vast array of additional features not available in ProShow Gold. ProShow Producer's additional masking, layering modification and the ability to define and manipulate keyframes can help create truly original presentations.

ProShow Watermark

ProShow Gold forces the output presentation to display the ProShow watermark or logo whenever the presentation is played back. To remove this watermark, and optionally add your own custom watermark instead, it is necessary to purchase ProShow Producer.

Output Format

ProShow Gold does not include AVI or MPEG4 video support among its various output formats. To export a presentation as an AVI file or an MPEG4 file, you must use ProShow Producer.

ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer are two different versions of the same basic presentation-creation software. Typical users will be satisfied with the ProShow Gold edition, but business professionals may require the ProShow Producer upgrade.

More Tools

ProShow Producer provides the user with a vast array of additional features not available in ProShow Gold. ProShow Producer's additional masking, layering modification and the ability to define and manipulate keyframes can help create truly original presentations.

ProShow Watermark

ProShow Gold forces the output presentation to display the ProShow watermark or logo whenever the presentation is played back. To remove this watermark, and optionally add your own custom watermark instead, it is necessary to purchase ProShow Producer.

Output Format

ProShow Gold does not include AVI or MPEG4 video support among its various output formats. To export a presentation as an AVI file or an MPEG4 file, you must use ProShow Producer.

ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer are two different versions of the same basic presentation-creation software. Typical users will be satisfied with the ProShow Gold edition, but business professionals may require the ProShow Producer upgrade.

More Tools

ProShow Producer provides the user with a vast array of additional features not available in ProShow Gold. ProShow Producer's additional masking, layering modification and the ability to define and manipulate keyframes can help create truly original presentations.

ProShow Watermark

ProShow Gold forces the output presentation to display the ProShow watermark or logo whenever the presentation is played back. To remove this watermark, and optionally add your own custom watermark instead, it is necessary to purchase ProShow Producer.

Output Format

ProShow Gold does not include AVI or MPEG4 video support among its various output formats. To export a presentation as an AVI file or an MPEG4 file, you must use ProShow Producer.

ProShow Gold, ProShow Producer and ProShow Web are three variations on the Microsoft Windows program that allow you to create slideshows on your computer. You also can use ProShow Web with an Apple Macintosh computer, but the home versions work only on Windows. Unlike other slideshow software packages, ProShow offers a comprehensive solution to creating professional slideshows because it focuses only on this task. Along with photos, drawings and graphs, you also can add videos and music to your slideshows. One of the best features of the program is the wide range of styles available for slide presentation.

Motion Background

The way ProShow works allows you to import images into the basic interface, then work with individual images or groups. In this case, a single image is a good place to start for styles. When you have images in the Time Line area at the bottom of the interface, you can double click an image to add a style. The program, whether ProShow Gold, Producer or Web, has a variety of styles built-in, such as "A Moving Background." To get there, after you double-click the image in the Time Line, click the "Slide" tab and then the "Slide Styles" subtab. Click the "A Moving Background" selection. This adds a motion effect that appears behind your slide and gives the impression of movement, even though your slide itself does not move.

Borders

Like most multimedia software packages, ProShow gives you the ability to add many types of borders to your images. You can use one of the many built-in borders, such as a simple photo border. Because of ProShow's popularity, you also can find free, add-in slide styles, including other types of borders, online. One of the key design considerations for your slideshow is consistency. If you use a particular type border on one slide, you should use the same or similar borders on all of them. If you change borders with every slide, it creates a chaotic impression in the viewer's mind. To get a range of borders, use the "All Categories" scroll button to select "Frames and Borders."

Multiple Images

You do not have to settle for a single image shown at a time in ProShow. You can use one of several multiple image styles to create a montage look. For example, you can choose "Photo Stack Expanding" or "Photo Stack Contracting" to show several images in an apparent stack and in motion. You also can use variations of a classic design style that sets one large image with several smaller image as one slide, such as the "Three to One" style.

Spin

Motion is a common theme in slideshows. The old, traditional, darkened room with a screen and slide projector may conjure up memories of sitting bored through someone's vacation slides. With actual film slides, there was little the presenter could do to liven things up. However, with modern software, such as ProShow, you can add motion effects to keep your audience's interest. For example, "Spin" is a common, simple motion style that causes your image to spin in or out toward the viewer. Again, any such slide style can add flare to a slideshow, but if you overdo it, your viewers may find the presentation annoying. Use "Spin" and other motion effects sparingly.