Photos and Video-Slideshows

One item commonly used in video, are photos. They are mixed in with home movies, or presented themselves as a slideshow. This is a means of sharing them. Most of your video and photo programs utilize this term when you finish editing, and are now ready to produce a finished product.

Not too long ago the digital camera was not around, we had film cameras. We took our exposed film, called a negative to a store to have the film developed. After a few days our prints (photos) were in hand. We would then eagerly show them to whoever would take the time to look. It was also common to have copies made so you could give them to family and friends. Then along came personal computers or now known as a PC (wonder how they came up with that one). A short time later, printers were introduced and finally a scanner. With the scanner we had a way to get those printed photos into our computers. Now we could make our own copies, and print the copies for our family and friends. With the PC technology developing at an alarming rate, we soon could do other things with those scanned in photos, like put them on a CD, or send them in an email.

At the same time software was developed that allowed us to not just have our photos displayed statically, but we could animate the presentation. The photos could gently transition from one to the next, and also zoom in and out, as well as pan from side to side. This effect was created by Ken Burns and is know in the photography world as the Ken Burns Effect. Well what's happening when we're creating these presentations is the program makes a video from our photos. A video is moving pictures. Moving pictures is a phrase that was used years ago when referring to movies that you would go watch in a theater. Now we had the ability to make moving pictures, that look almost as good as those produced years ago by Hollywood.

Shortly after the scanner was introduced, the digital camera came about. The digital camera slowly replaced the old trusted film camera. The digital camera had some real strong selling points:

• You could see the results immediately. If you messed up that shot, you could delete it and try again.
• You did not need film. The photo was recorded on some form of digital storage media
• You could make as many copies as you wanted AND each copy was as good as the original.

Now we have some very good digital cameras, in fact it's getting very difficult to find the old 35mm film cameras. We download the photos into our PCs to be edited and then shared. I kinda skipped over the edited aspect of photos until now. We were able to do this with our scanned photos too. To do this you need to have a photo-editing program. There are numerous ones available now, and the cost ranges from prohibitive for a home-hobbyist to free. The professional photographers will most likely choose the program that has become the industry standard, while most of us try to find the least expensive if we're going to buy one, if not a free program. Choose what works best for your camera, computer and most importantly your budget. It makes no sense to spend $1,000 or more on a program if you only have a point-shoot type camera, and are only taking photos of family during the holidays or on vacations.

On a quick side note here, that ties in to obtaining software. One way that I have found to do this, through a process called beta-testing. Software developers will utilize people, like you and me, to test their next version of programs. You're provided the beta versions to use and find the bugs, (problems) and report that back to them. Beta-testers must agree not to divulge any information to the public during this process. Doing so can cause current sells to drop, and can help the competition. At the end of the testing, when the program is ready to be released to the public, most of them will give you free of charge that full version. I've alpha and beta tested for Corel for the last 5 or 6 years. Of course I do use their products, hey they're free to me. I've also managed their digital media help forum, Corel User to User Web Board for some time. This is done strictly on a volunteer basis, on my time. So they have also dropped me some programs free. Simply put, would you use a $500 program if it were given to you free? Thought so..

I've tried numerous programs, both free and trials. That's the great thing about software and the internet. Companies now commonly provide you with the ability to try out their products before you decide if you want to buy it. Just find one that is easy and works for you. Once you do then learn how to share good quality photos in the many different ways available to us now. Currently we have CD, DVD, BD (blu-ray), internet sites like Facebook, Flicker, Photobucket, and mobile applications, ipod, blackberry and cellphones, oops almost forgot, you can still print them out.