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DVD slide show

2K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  GripS 
#1 ·
I have been tasked with creating a slideshow combined with video that can be played on a DVD. I have all the necessary hardware. So far i have adobe photoshop 7.0 and premiere pro 2.0. The software is legit and was given to me by my relatively well off relatives:) .

I have a TON of photos to scan and i would like whatever software there is to automatically crop the photo's. I know i can manually crop the photo's with photoshop but that would take too much time as i have been only given 2 weeks to complete this project. IS there software that will do this and what do you all recommend. I will also be laying music tracks to run with the slideshow so if there is something that will do both without requiring me to get a huge book to learn how to use it(like photoshop does) that would be ideal.

If what i'm asking just isn't possible don't hesitate to say so. Any suggestions on software would be great. The scanner i am using is a canon multipass 390. Money is not an issue here. I have been told to purchase whatever i need software wise and i will be reimbursed for it.
 
#3 ·
good question. I'm cropping for getting rid of picture borders. This will ultimately be viewed on a standard TV(No plasma, LCD, or HDTV) from a standalone DVD player. So sizing them properly with one click would be awesome as well.

If i had more time i know i could do this with what i have already. Unfortunately i don't so i'm looking for software that will do this for me. Thanks for replying.
 
#4 ·
I am not sure if you are scanning with the border on or looking to crop the border during scan process...some scanners will automatically find "printed" edges. If yours does not, I am not aware of a work around there. Either way I think it is best to mannually crop while scanning and then to automate later for resizing.......but?

pictures to DVD is a little tricky. Standard TV/DVD resolution is 729px X 480px....horizontal pix work pretty good, but vertical have to be cropped for content if you want full screen.

You have a couple of "work around" automation options depending on your desired "look"

#1 use the photoshop automated resizing - scan all photos to one folder, make sure orientation is correct on all, then create a 2nd folder as a "destination" folder for the output. Now, in photoshop, go to FILE > AUTOMATE >WEB PHOTO GALLERY
in the dialog select your original folder, destination folder and under OPTIONS select Large Images. You can play around with the settings here to get your desired output. the maximum width is 800px, which should be more than enough to fill your screen without showing the borders....a crude work-around I know, but very easy & fast and worth a try.

once the process is complete, go to the destination folder and look in the images folder. This will work better if you "constrain" for height on horizontal photos and for width on vertical photos.

#2 the other option is to scan at higher resolution (200-300dpi depending on pix) and resize in Premier Pro. This is more time consuming, but opens up lots of creative options for pushing-in, pulling-out, panning & rotating still images to add motion to your movie.
 
#5 ·
If that's what it comes down to that's what i'll do. I'm not too concerned about having black borders filling out the rest of the screen on the TV with the finished product.

No my scanner appears to be a peice in that it doesn't crop the picture borders out correctly. Some it will do a decent job but others it does not. I have a HUGE assortment of picture sizes so I will try what you have laid out for me. Thanks for taking the time to write out a little mini-guide using what i already have. I really appreciate it.
 
#6 ·
be sure to scan the smaller pix at higher resolutions. the final output for video will be at 72dpi so a small pic scanned at 300dpi will be 4x larger on the screen than the original, 600dpi will be 8 times larger, etc. Better to be too large than too small. the automated resizing I described will make them all equal in the final stage.
 
#8 ·
I just had a look at your manual. It says if you scan from an application you can use either ScanGear MP or the Windows WIA driver. I’m guessing ScanGear MP is a lite version for multifunction machines. I’ve used the regular ScanGear and it is a competent TWAIN driver with full capabilities. It appears your ScanGear MP is quite limited.

I just accessed my scanner through Photoshop (File > Import) and selected the WIA driver. It is very simplistic but you can definitely do a custom crop with it. If you click on the “Adjust the quality of the scanned picture” message you can set whatever PPI you want. It is defaulted to 150 PPI and that should be plenty for the movie type slideshow you are making presuming you are scanning 4 X 6 prints or larger.

If you look at the attached photo you will see that I have previewed a picture and dragged the green squares in to crop it. You can crop each picture as you scan it so it doesn’t have any black border. If you set your resolution to produce an appropriately sized image you don’t have to do anything else except import the pictures into Premier. If you scan that way from Photoshop it opens the photo in Photoshop after it scans it for you to make any adjustments you need. You can save from Photoshop in a file format appropriate for Premier.

You really don’t need anything but Photoshop and Premier. And I don’t see where you will need any automation if you scan it correctly in the first place. All this assumes you are using XP. Earlier operating systems don’t include a WIA driver.
 

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#9 ·
Try Proshow Gold: http://www.photodex.com/products/

It's specifically for making DVD slideshows and is considered one of the best.

If you're only going to create static images e.g you're not going to pan or zoom scanning over 200dpi on 6x4 image isn't going to provide any benefit. One thing to keep in mind, if you go the route of manually cropping them you should scan at least 300. Also normal TV's have what is called a overscan area, a certain percentage of your image will not be viewable...
 

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#10 ·
Your comment about panning and zooming brings up my question. If I am going to use panning and zooming, I know it's best to scan the files in a higher DPI, but at what point is it overkill? I did one slideshow in Photo Story 3 from prints I scanned in at 200% and 150dpi. The end result was great (see this slideshow), but I wonder if the large file sizes were overkill.

Let me know if I should start a new thread about this. If so, I apologize in advance! :)
 
#11 ·
150 is about the minimum, if you scan a 6in.x4in. image at 150 it will produce an image of 900x600. NTSC DVD compliant video uses a resolution of 720x480 (or 720x576 for PAL). 150 will give you some minimal amount to crop or to pan and zoom. The higher you scan the more you pan and zoom ans still have a lot of detail.....
 
#13 ·
thecoalman said:
Try Proshow Gold: http://www.photodex.com/products/

It's specifically for making DVD slideshows and is considered one of the best.

If you're only going to create static images e.g you're not going to pan or zoom scanning over 200dpi on 6x4 image isn't going to provide any benefit. One thing to keep in mind, if you go the route of manually cropping them you should scan at least 300. Also normal TV's have what is called a overscan area, a certain percentage of your image will not be viewable...
After much frustration trying to work with adobe premiere I found that proshow gold is the ticket for me. Thankyou so much for this recommendation. It is perfect for a newbie to work with like myself. No BS just cut and dry stuff which is exactly what i needed with my short timeframe to work in. Thanks.
 
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