Tips for Preparing an Audio-Visual or Slide Show

Show Topic

Audio-Visual shows or Slide Shows can tell a story about one subject or theme, a vacation, an adventure or just a series of your favorite images. It can be about any subject you like but please keep it respectful to the audience.

Software

The majority of Club members using PC’s use Photodex ProShow Gold or Producer to create their Audio-Visual shows or Slide Shows. Other software can be used if you prefer. Mac users often use iPhoto, iMovie, Aperture and Final Cut Pro X. (Note: Photodex has announced that they will go out of business January 31, 2020; please visit their website for more information and recommendations.)

Aspect Ratio

This is the ratio of the width of your image to the height of your image when it appears on the screen. If you want your images to be a wide format similar to your 1080p full HDTV, you would make your show with a 16:9 aspect ratio. This wide format will work well if your show is viewed on your HDTV and it will work well with our club’s projector 1, which is the projector used at our Thursday evening meetings. Your output size does not have to be the full 16:9 aspect ratio size (1920 x 1080 pixels), it should be the full height (1080 pixels) but the width can be any size less than 1920 pixels depending on the overall look you want. See output size below.

Image Size and Output Size

If you select your aspect ratio to be 16:9, your images can be sized (and cropped) to be 1920 pixels wide x 1080 pixels high to match your HDTV pixel dimensions and also match our club’s projector 1 pixel resolution. If you will be zooming in on an image during the show, that image could be sized slightly larger or much larger depending on how much you’ll be zooming in. A larger image will provide more clarity of the image once zoomed in. An image zoomed in by 150% could have an image size of 150% larger than the 1920 x 1080 size. If only zooming in about 120% a larger image may not be necessary and clarity will still be reasonable. Experiment with sizes and results.  

If the software you’re using has the ability to make a custom output size (ProShow Producer does), you can make your images 1620 pixels wide x 1080 pixels high and maintain the same 3:2 image ratio your DSLR camera sensor captured and you will not need to crop your images. You will still use the 16:9 aspect ratio for output but only your custom output size of 1620 x 1080 pixels will be projected on the screen. If you want a square shape for your output you would make your images 1080 x 1080 and make a custom output the same size. If you want to zoom in on an image you can experiment and make the image larger. If not zooming in, no need to make the image larger. Regardless of the shape and size of the projected image you desire, in all cases the maximum output width is to be 1920 pixels and the maximum output height is to be 1080 pixels.

Output Format

One of the most common video output formats is MP4 (VLC) rendered at 1080 full HD and 30 frames per second, and this works well with our club’s current Windows-based laptop. We are not able to play 4K videos at this time. 

Music

Most Audio-Visual shows or Slide Shows combine images with music. The mood of the music should suit the mood of the images. Slow, gentle music with gentle subjects, fast or aggressive music with aggressive subjects. Slow paced image dissolves work well with slow paced music, and faster paced image dissolves works well with faster paced music. How well you match the feeling of the music with the feeling of your images will be the success of your presentation.

Show Duration

Audio-Visual shows or Slide Shows are to be anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes in duration. Usually one music track is used, but two can be used, or sections of music tracks can be combined if you have audio editing software.