3.5 Easy Slide Show solutions for Mac and PC

The last time I wrote about creating slide shows Adobe Flash based systems were supported everywhere on the web. After Apple decided to not support Flash on their iPads, iPhone or iTouch things changed.

All the slide shows I produced early on will not work on the Apple mobile devices as they were created up till not that long ago.

Today I do use Final Cut Pro X primarily when editing video and mixing in still images. I have also used Adobe Premier prior to Final Cut doing the same thing.

While I could use Final Cut Pro X and create slide shows these solutions are much simpler and faster in my opinion.  I can even produce most of what I want and export them into Final Cut Pro X if I like.

1. Soundslides Solution for both Mac and PC

The latest version of Soundslides (1.9.5) has JQuery HTML5 built into it. The beauty of the Soundslides solution is that the project will play back using Flash when available and use the HTML5 version as a fallback. This ensures the user experience is the best it can be.

Here is an example I recommend trying on your desktop/laptop and then if you have a Apple Mobile device try it there as well. By the way I had saved the original file [2008] so I was able to update the output for HTML5. 

The best part of the Soundslides solution is that it is cross platform.

You may find out as I did that some servers do not like the way Soundslides is talking to the device to determine what it is before giving it a flash or html5 version. The way licenses work they cannot create an html5 version only since it will not work on all browsers.

This is when you can choose to use Soundslides Video converting service. The downside is you have to upload your file and then wait for them to send you a link to download it. Your project goes into a Que and if you are on a deadline this might not work.

As far as simplicity to use and if your office has a mix of PCs and Macs this is a great software that is fairly easy to use. Having everyone using a similar software means you can easily train everyone.

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2. For the Mac

My favorite Slide Show software for the Mac that creates movie files is FotoMagico.  The cost of the software is $99. One thing they offer that I don't know any other software offering is One-to-One Coaching.  Get up to speed with FotoMagico! Get tips and tricks from our tech support pros. Be more productive, and get your work done faster. Arrange a one-to-one online session with desktop sharing for $99 per session.

When you are ready to output the show FotoMagico has easy choices like YouTube, Apple Devices and just about any other output including 4K Cinema Projection.

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3. For the PC

For a long time before I switched to using Mac exclusively I was using ProShow Gold.  I found going from ProShow Gold to FotoMagico seemless and believe they work very similar.

As you can see from the screen grabs they look very similar.  The outputs are similar to FotoMagico. You can create DVD, Blu-ray, Facebook, Youtube and more outputs.

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My suggestion is to output to H.264 format since this is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video.

All of these solutions make it very easy to combine your still images with audio. You can create a voice over, use music and even blend with video. The learning curve on these software packages is much easier than using Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro X.

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3.5 DigiCraft Plugin Solution

If you are looking for a plugin to use with Adobe Lightroom to create a slide show gallery try DigiCrafts software.  It was created primarily for photographers to create portfolio package to play on Apple devices.  I have used it when I just need a click through package.

I used this software to create small galleries of my work for my blog and website. You can click on the categories above. Here is the "education gallery" I created using DigiCrafts.

SWPJC 2-Minute Show

This is the 20th Annual Southwestern Photojournalism Conference this week in Fort Worth, Texas.  You can read more about it here www.SWPJC.org

One of the highlights through the years is the "2-minute shows."

Everyone's got something to say, but can you say it in two minutes? We'd like to give you the chance to take the stage and share your vision in 120 seconds. That's right, you've got just 2 minutes be it in photos (limit of six) or multimedia.


This year I am using my 2-Minute Show to invite folks to Tibet with me. I would love some feedback. Give me your comments below.

We normally start at Billy Bob's at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Thursday night with the students shooting the dancers.

I enjoy seeing my good friend Morris Abernathy each year.

Anke enjoys her friend Ashley Veneman

Louis Deluca and Garret Hubbard.  This year Garret is a keynote speaker. 

Bill Bangham as you can see is a CLOSE personal friend.  He has a show hanging in Richmond, Virginia.

Jim Veneman is the driver of the SWPJC Bus.  He helps keep us on time.

Louis Deluca, Morris Abernathy and Jim Morris are up to something as always here in the Stockyards.

OK this was the moment I decided I wanted a Nikon P7000.  Jim Veneman looked like he had left his cameras at home and then out of no where he pulls this out. 

Gary & Vivian Chapman talk with Kevin Vandivier

Garrett Hubbard is just a great guy and loves to help others by reviewing their work at the conference.

This was one of my past slide shows at the conference.  I liked it enough to keep it on my website. 

You may not be coming to Fort Worth, but take the time to create your 2-Minute Show and see if you can WOW us with your work and tell a story in the process.

Ridiculously simple storytelling

used with permission of Chick-fil-A

Storytellers need to concentrate on the story, rather than the application is how SoundSlides promotes their software.  I cannot agree more.

I have written about how you are probably better off with a simple point and shoot unless you want to take the time to learn how to use a DSLR.  I also have written that it is easier to shoot in JPEG format rather than RAW.

You will hear almost no one in the industry disagree about the simple concept of KISS. KISS is the acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid.

What I have found over and over is that you can do a great deal as a storyteller by using the most simplistic tools.

Before you can learn to walk you must crawl.  Before you learn to run you must walk. We have all heard this and understand why this is true based on our own experiences.

There is no question that when you pull out all the stops for storytelling you can create some awesome packages. The top end of this production is what we see in Hollywood. To achieve what they do in Hollywood is a team of experts. Just stay till the very end of the movie and you will see the hundreds if not thousands of people involved in the production of the movie.  Each and every name is a person who is at the top of their field doing a very specific role.

I recommend the first place to start with multimedia storytelling for the photojournalist is using the software SoundSlides.

You are able to blend audio with photos into a package that can be played on a computer. It can be loaded to a website, blog and played on any device including the iPad, iPhone and iTouch. I mention the Apple products because they are the ones that cannot see all that is on the web--especially Flash produced content.

Be sure and click in the lower right hand corner for a full screen version--I think it looks better than many videos I have seen online.

I wrote earlier blog post about how I collect the photos and the sound.  Here is a link to that post.




Here are the basic steps to use SoundSlides that I use.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

1. If you want create a title image and and ending image. SoundSlides Plus can create lower third subtitles, but this is limited to text. If you want to place a graphic on the image I recommend either using PhotoShop or Powerpoint to create those title slides.  I use PhotoShop so I can just have text on a couple images rather than all of them and in addition I can add a graphic.
1. PowerPoint--create your title slide. It can be text only or use your photo as the background. The way you get this into the show is to save it as a JPEG. Go to File>Save as and then choose your folder where your other images are, name it and select JPEG (See Figure 1) and then select options where another window comes up. I would make the dimensions the same as all your other images.
2. PhotoShop--I like to select an image and then put text and maybe a graphic over the image. Be sure to flatten the image and save as JPEG.
2. Create a folder of the images you want to use in your slide show. I always have just a few more than I plan to use, but not too many or you spend way too much time deleting in SoundSlides.
3. You can do a slide show with no sound, but if you want sound create a sound file. I use Royalty Free music for many slide shows where I just want people to get the sights and sounds of an event. If I want to use talking, I record those clips and edit them using Audacity.  The key for SoundSlides is that your Audio is totally edited and saved as an MP3 file.
4. Open SoundSlides and create a new project.  I put all my SoundSlide shows into one folder. It creates a folder for the project you create. You can create custom size show at this time or pick one or all the options.  Having multiple options will let you customize the size for the device.  So you could have the website auto detect if on mobile device and choose the smaller size and larger for desktop for example.
5. Import images and sound files.
6. Arrange Images (Figure 2)--I get the photos in sequence and most of the time I just space them equally with the sound. Go to Tools>Spread Images Equally. If you want to adjust the images time drag the image longer or shorter on the timeline. Then you can adjust the images after your change in the time line using Tools> Spread Remaining Images Equally.  Then I move to the next image drag for time and repeat until I am done.
7. Template Settings I then select a template that I like and check the appropriate things I want to show or not.  I prefer to always use the settings you see here in Figure 3.
8. Template Shell I always pick the html5_compatible.  It is the same as the default setting SoundSlide player, except it also uses an HTML5 version as the fallback when displayed on Apple iPad or iPhone.  See Figure 4.
9. Project Information. I choose this so I can always have the name the show above the show and credits can be shown if clicked on.
10. Just a side note. You can change the colors of the templates within SoundSlides by just clicking on the box and different parts where color picker will pop up. You can then put in the color number or just pick a color.  See Figure 5
11. Save work and then Export. This will create a folder called Publish_to_web. (Figure 6) You can rename the folder if you like, but the whole folder is put on your website and the link to make it work will look like this http://NameofWebsite/publish_to_web/index.html or just http://NameofWebsite/publish_to_web.

There are three examples here for you.  The first slide show is of the Chick-fil-A Bowl this past New Year's Eve.  We have found through the years many people enjoy just seeing what all Chick-fil-A did that day and it doesn't need a voice over since it runs typically with a written story.  For music we are using the fight songs from both of the schools playing in the Bowl.

The second slide show is of Nelson, my stepson's graduation from the Citadel. Again, I went with royalty free music to just give some sound and create a mood for the photos.

The third show is a mixture of royalty free music and me talking.  This gives you another option.

As you know I use other software to combine video, still images and audio into packages. This post production process takes 3 to 10 times longer to create a package as it does to do in SoundSlides.

Just because the more advanced software is something I know how to use and enjoy doing doesn't mean it replaces SoundSlides.  There are many times that this is the best way to tell the story. 

My suggestion for the visual storyteller who wants to start telling stories that combine images and sound that using SoundSlides as the application for storytelling will help you to concentrate on the story. Is using SoundSlides a no brainer--NO.  Every piece of equipment and software you add to your arsenal will take time to master.  But the time to master SoundSlides is a fraction of the time it will take you to master Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro for example.

Once you master SoundSlides the concepts and skills easily transfer to Adobe Premier and Final Cut, you will just have more tools to master and use.