Posted by Phillip Noll on November 7, 2008 at 4:18 PM
Hi All!
I'm looking for a professional slideshow program that will allow for 100s of images, panning (Ken Burns), fading transitions, music, variable timing for each image, precise timing to the soundtrack, and output to both screen savers and slideshows (multiple formats--DVD, QT, HD Video, You Tube, Flash, etc.).
I'm on a Mac and have looked at Fotomagico and ProShow Gold (I can run this using VMWare Fusion). I'm wondering if anyone out there has used both of these and could compare and contrast them? Anything to look out for with either of these programs (quirks, bugs, etc.)? Would appreciate any first hand experience and/or recommendations. Thanks!
Posted by Robert Fisher on November 8, 2008 at 8:42 AM
Can't comment on Fotomagico but I do have ProShow Gold. For the price it's a good package. The latest version, I think 3.5, allows for HD output. It's simple to use. You import your various media then drag and drop them on the timeline. Once you've got your media on the timeline you can adjust timing of the slides to fit music, adjust transitions and timing. I haven't used it but I think it allows for panning. You can save everything as a ProShow project which allows you to go back and re-edit if you like. There is a feature that allows you to sync to music automatically or you can manually sync to music by adjusting the slide timing. I believe you can combine video and stills but I haven't figured out how to use ProShow to edit video yet. I use a more fulsome program for editing video.
Posted by Don Kates on November 8, 2008 at 9:53 AM
My wife has both of those programs for her wedding business but (unfortunately) I'm the one who does all the slideshows. We also do commercial motorcycle photography for magazines and events where we use slideshows from time to time for presentation. Both programs are good for general slideshows where you drag in the music and pics and let the software determine timing and syncing. Both programs will also allow you to tweak the timing for individual slides and both will also allow some minor editing of soundtracks (ie editing out silences at the beginning and end of songs), Of the two, I probably prefer fotomagico over pro show gold. Mostly because when I want a quick, no brainer slideshow for a short (or cheap) presentation, it's the easiest. I've only used pro show on a PC so I'm not sure how it runs on a mac but I do recall a few crashes when using it that I haven't encountered with fotomagico. (Also, I absolutely despise the USB key that is required when using pro show. When I need it, I usually can't find it.) Fotomagico is probably more intuitive also.
But honestly, nether of these programs give me the high end slideshow with the precision required on some of our commercial (and higher dollar) presentations and shows. And in my opinion when you try to get precision timing in either of those programs, it involves a lot of work and a high degree of frustration tolerance. When I want a serious slideshow with control over virtually everything, I use Final Cut Express. It's the same as Final Cut minus some of the video editing/manipulation capabilities. This is a heavy duty, pro program with a steep learning curve, but once you've mastered it, neither of the above programs can come close to producing the same quality slideshow. It allows for control over nearly every aspect and second of each slide and audio track. Animations, transitions, timing etc can all be individually edited as you want them. I've synced individual slide duration with drum beats on a soundtrack right down to a fraction of a second - something I could never do on the other programs.
The nice thing about pro show and fotomagico is that you can drop pics and music in to the program and let it do the work. In Final Cut, there is no automated slideshow feature. You do it all. Final Cut is much more labor intensive but I've gotten much better results with it. For example, a 90 image slideshow can be done in about a half hour tops in pro show or fotomagico but in Final Cut it can take the better part of a day, assuming you are editing all the transitions and animations. But the slideshow produced in pro show or fotomagico will look like everyone else's whereas the final cut slideshow will be entirely unique and exactly the way you want it.
If you're looking for pro quality, without a doubt I would go with Final Cut Express. If you want something lighter, less intense, easier, with less control, the other two work fine. I'd rate pro show slightly above fotomagico in features but the end product of each is about the same.
Another thing to consider - I don't know pro show's and fotomagico's ability to handle video clips ie. incorporating stills with video clips in your slideshow but Final Cut express does so with ease. With the upcoming cameras that will produce video along with stills, you may want to consider a program that will handle both. When we receive our Canon 5d mkii, I'm sure my use of pro show and fotomagico will drop sharply.
Posted by Phillip Noll on November 8, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Thanks for the info guys! I hadn't thought too much about incorporating video into the shows but that is likely to become a major factor for me. I'll have to give Final Cut Express a look.
Posted by Wim Reyns on November 8, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Small note if you use lightroom though,
Photodex (proshow) have just released a plugin that allows you to very easily create a slideshow uppon export from lightroom ! linky
I have been using Pro Show Producer - the top of the line package from Proshow. I like everything about it. Its defintely a priceier package but I think it is worth it. I have tried many packages before but this one works best.
Posted by Phillip Noll on November 10, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Don,
Thanks for the info on FCE. In researching FCE I've seen that many people have problems with resolution once the show is burned to a DVD. They report very low resolution and jaggies on the TV screen (playing the DVD) when the show looked fine in FCE. I have a couple questions:
1.) How do you avoid the resolution problems?
2.) Do you resize the photos to the appropriate video resolution before bringing them into FCE?
3.) Do you save your FCE project and then output the show using different codecs depending on the intended display? (HD TV, regular TV, computer display, projector, Flash, You Tube, etc...)
4.) What codecs do you use?
5.) Do you have any problem mixing video and stills into a show and rendering it? Any display problems (resolution)? Do stills have to be a certain resolution to work with video?
6.) If you were going to make a video slide show on DVD to reach the broadest possible audience--what codec would you use? What resolution?
Thanks for any help/advice. Trying to ensure myself that FCE will work with minimal problems before I plunk down the cash.
It has absolutely wonderful transitions. It use to be included on the Mac. Now I think you have to buy a package of three apps to get it but, it is cheap at twice the price.
I use Keynote all the time, producing complex and eye-catching results, and think it is fantastic in many ways but sound handling is not one of them.
It has no timeline for sound and to establish whats going on you need to review your work in real time.
If you have a 50 slide presentation with an overlaid sound track and edit slide 34, then run it to review, the soundtrack does not pick up at slide 34 but starts from the beginning, so the only way to see if your changes match the sound is go back to the start and let it run through to slide 34. Not good.
And I've had problems with playback of sound scores randomly varying from the image timeline by up to two seconds and cannot figure out why.
And editing multi-layer slides is painful because there is no 'view' into them to see what the layers consist of so changing one layer can involve pulling the other layers off it.
Those nits aside it can produce jaw-droppingly stunning work.
Discussion
8 repliesI'm looking for a professional slideshow program that will allow for 100s of images, panning (Ken Burns), fading transitions, music, variable timing for each image, precise timing to the soundtrack, and output to both screen savers and slideshows (multiple formats--DVD, QT, HD Video, You Tube, Flash, etc.).
I'm on a Mac and have looked at Fotomagico and ProShow Gold (I can run this using VMWare Fusion). I'm wondering if anyone out there has used both of these and could compare and contrast them? Anything to look out for with either of these programs (quirks, bugs, etc.)? Would appreciate any first hand experience and/or recommendations. Thanks!
But honestly, nether of these programs give me the high end slideshow with the precision required on some of our commercial (and higher dollar) presentations and shows. And in my opinion when you try to get precision timing in either of those programs, it involves a lot of work and a high degree of frustration tolerance. When I want a serious slideshow with control over virtually everything, I use Final Cut Express. It's the same as Final Cut minus some of the video editing/manipulation capabilities. This is a heavy duty, pro program with a steep learning curve, but once you've mastered it, neither of the above programs can come close to producing the same quality slideshow. It allows for control over nearly every aspect and second of each slide and audio track. Animations, transitions, timing etc can all be individually edited as you want them. I've synced individual slide duration with drum beats on a soundtrack right down to a fraction of a second - something I could never do on the other programs.
The nice thing about pro show and fotomagico is that you can drop pics and music in to the program and let it do the work. In Final Cut, there is no automated slideshow feature. You do it all. Final Cut is much more labor intensive but I've gotten much better results with it. For example, a 90 image slideshow can be done in about a half hour tops in pro show or fotomagico but in Final Cut it can take the better part of a day, assuming you are editing all the transitions and animations. But the slideshow produced in pro show or fotomagico will look like everyone else's whereas the final cut slideshow will be entirely unique and exactly the way you want it.
If you're looking for pro quality, without a doubt I would go with Final Cut Express. If you want something lighter, less intense, easier, with less control, the other two work fine. I'd rate pro show slightly above fotomagico in features but the end product of each is about the same.
Another thing to consider - I don't know pro show's and fotomagico's ability to handle video clips ie. incorporating stills with video clips in your slideshow but Final Cut express does so with ease. With the upcoming cameras that will produce video along with stills, you may want to consider a program that will handle both. When we receive our Canon 5d mkii, I'm sure my use of pro show and fotomagico will drop sharply.
Photodex (proshow) have just released a plugin that allows you to very easily create a slideshow uppon export from lightroom ! linky
Thanks for the info on FCE. In researching FCE I've seen that many people have problems with resolution once the show is burned to a DVD. They report very low resolution and jaggies on the TV screen (playing the DVD) when the show looked fine in FCE. I have a couple questions:
Thanks for any help/advice. Trying to ensure myself that FCE will work with minimal problems before I plunk down the cash.
Thanks for your help!
Have you explored the use of Keynote??
It has absolutely wonderful transitions. It use to be included on the Mac. Now I think you have to buy a package of three apps to get it but, it is cheap at twice the price.
It has no timeline for sound and to establish whats going on you need to review your work in real time.
If you have a 50 slide presentation with an overlaid sound track and edit slide 34, then run it to review, the soundtrack does not pick up at slide 34 but starts from the beginning, so the only way to see if your changes match the sound is go back to the start and let it run through to slide 34. Not good.
And I've had problems with playback of sound scores randomly varying from the image timeline by up to two seconds and cannot figure out why.
And editing multi-layer slides is painful because there is no 'view' into them to see what the layers consist of so changing one layer can involve pulling the other layers off it.
Those nits aside it can produce jaw-droppingly stunning work.