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Sharing memories
By DAVE GUSSOW You've edited, cropped, touched up, printed and e-mailed your digital photos. Now what? It's show time, as in slide-show time. The blossoming popularity of digital photography has created a boomlet in photo handling software. And one of those niches is slide shows. Users can add music, fancy transitions, text captions and other features to display their works. Slide shows can be created without any additional software. Windows XP has a basic slide show function in its My Pictures folder. Apple's iPhoto gets more elaborate, allowing users to add music and transitions, as well as save their masterpiece as a QuickTime movie. And online photo sites such as Ofoto and Shutterfly let you share your albums with others as slide shows. We checked out a few programs, all of which work basically the same: Choose your photos, add music, text or voice, then play with transitions and other special effects.
PhotoJam 3 Pro ($34.95; Shockwave.com; Windows and Macintosh) really is as simple as 1-2-3. First, select your photos (drag and drop works fine). Second, choose your music. Three, set up the style you want, with fades and other transitions. Then you can share it on your Web site or at Shockwave's, the well-known entertainment and gaming site. You can e-mail it or use it as a screen saver. It worked almost flawlessly, though it refused to let me e-mail one slide show because it wouldn't upload a music file. It's a good program to start with, and it has a 30-day money back guarantee. PhotoVisor ($29.99; SimVentions; Windows) has a few more bells and whistles than PhotoJam and has an easy-to-navigate working screen. Developed by an Orlando company, it lets you add text and music to your slide show, along with a number of special effects. One feature that is particularly useful asks if you want to resize photos for easier sharing by e-mail. And, even if an e-mail recipient doesn't have PhotoVisor, the required player is available for free download.
LiveSlideShow 2.0 ($49.95; Totally Hip; Windows and Macintosh) has the best layout area of the group and is loaded with features. In addition to text and music, you can do voice-overs for personal comments on each photo. Once you put everything together, your work appears as a QuickTime movie. I had one glitch that was maddening, however. Dragging and dropping from the My Pictures folder on my PC didn't work. When I clicked to add photos, either I got an error message that the pictures could not be copied, or they did not appear immediately. Instead, I had to close the program, then reopen it and the pictures miraculously appeared. The online help wasn't terribly helpful, and tech support is by e-mail or a toll call. SoundPix Plus ($29.99; SoundPix; Windows) is not a slide show. Rather, you can add text, music and voice to single photos and save them. It's easy to use, but you'll have more fun with the slide shows. Before the showIf you're just getting into digital photography this holiday season, you'll have to capture and edit your photos before you're ready to create a slide show. Last year, we looked at photo editing packages that will help you with those tasks, and our recommendations remain the same: For beginners, AfterShot from Jasc (www.jasc.com) leads the pack with a very user-friendly package, followed by Microsoft's Picture It! For intermediate users, Photoshop Elements from Adobe (www.adobe.com) and Paint Shop Pro from Jasc offer plenty of bells and whistles at $100 or less, depending on rebates. And for the ultra-serious, Adobe's Photoshop stands alone, though at more than $600, it's not for the faint of wallet. -- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228. Software for photos, videoMovie Shop Deluxe Version 6
For many users, the most important factor in choosing a digital video software is its ease of use. Is the tutorial clear? Is the documentation complete and easy to understand? In Movie Shop Deluxe, Broderbund answers both questions in the affirmative. Although no digital video software is completely intuitive, Movie Shop Deluxe is pretty close -- an impressive feat when you consider the range of features it offers. Broderbund offers 10 layers, or levels of editing, far more than most competitors in this price range. It also provides a full range of options on what to do with the video once it's edited. You can burn a video CD, a DVD (if you have a DVD burner, that is), e-mail to friends using the QuickTime format or print to videotape. Like all video editors, this software works best with a fast processor (1 gigahertz or higher), lots of random access memory (512 megabytes or more) and a big, fast hard drive (at least 40 gigabytes, spinning at 7,200 rpm). But if you've got the horsepower, Broderbund gives you the tools to create first-rate videos on your desktop. (Looking for more video options? In March, I reviewed a number of digital editing packages. The standouts from that round: Pinnacle Express for beginners and Pinnacle Studio 7 for more advanced users.) -- CHRISTOPHER AVE, Times staff writer Image Doctor
Some tourist get into that great vacation picture? The picture of great-grandpa torn? Call the Image Doctor. Zap the tourist; repair the tear. Here's software that's easy to learn and adds valuable functions to your photo editing software. Image Doctor is a "plug-in," which means it works with programs such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. It has four major functions: Smart Fill lets you remove items from photos or fix flaws such as tears. Scratch Remover eliminates nicks and dust marks. Spot Lifter removes other blemishes. JPEG Repair handles files that have been overcompressed. The only problem I noticed is that it seemed to be slow, though that could have been my PC. The price may seem steep, yet its value on repairs would seem to more than justify the cost. -- DAVE GUSSOW, Times personal technology editor
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