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Editor's note: In this second part of a two-part article on digital slideshows, Dominique James picks up the conversation with using iDVD, Keynote, and a few convergence tricks as he continues his quest to build the best slideshow possible.
Also, during the production of this article, Apple released iLife and iWork '08 with new versions of iDVD, iPhoto, Keynote, and iMovie. We will touch on the new slideshow capabilities of iMovie '08 in a podcast with Joe Schorr later this week. In the meantime, use this article as a guide for slideshow authoring with iLife and iWork '06.
Have you ever dreamed of creating a DVD version of your slideshows, complete with beautiful themes not available in iPhoto? Well, here's how.
With iDVD, you can author specially-themed slideshows that you can hand off to prospective clients for promotional purposes or give to existing clients as part of a value-added package. The slideshow can be a self-running DVD that can be displayed on a computer monitor or popped into a DVD player for playback on a TV.
The secret sauce is iDVD, which is probably the most underrated and underutilized software in Apple's iLife suite. Most photographers never think of using iDVD for building slideshows. And yet, iDVD contains great features for professional-looking and jazzy self-running presentations.
Similar to the first step in using iPhoto, you must enable preview sharing. In Aperture, go to Preferences, look for the Previews section, and check the tick box on the line that says "Share previews with iLife and iWork." If you don't do this, the photos from Aperture won't be available in iDVD.
When you first open iDVD, select the theme you want to use as a template for your slideshow presentation. iDVD offers a number of interesting and appropriate templates in the Themes pane. Not all of the themes may be applicable to a slideshow, but with some tweaking, most of them are very useful. In particular, you might want to check out Reflection White, Reflection Black, Full Frame, and Shelves. There are some portfolio-specific themes you can explore: these are meant to deal specifically with photographs instead of video content. You may also want to use the provided themes, including templates for travel photos, baby pictures, wedding portraits, party shots, scrapbooking, and others. In version 6.0.3 of iDVD, all themes are available—from the newest designed for widescreen video (16:9 aspect ratio), to the earliest for standard video formats (4:3 aspect ratio).
Once you have selected a theme, you can now specify settings for your DVD. In the Menu, you can edit the background, text, audio, and drop zones. In the Buttons section, you can edit the button shapes, transitions, fonts, and position of the items. You can then go to the Media section, where you choose your movies, music, and photos. For your slideshow, click on the Photos tab. There you will see the pictures from Aperture, organized in exactly the same way as your images are organized in the Project panel. Photos from iPhoto are also available and organized in the same way as they are within iPhoto.
To add photos to your DVD presentation, just drag the images from selected folders into the theme's template drop zones, as well as into the main and section backgrounds. The lower panel in iDVD shows you the thumbnails of photos contained in selected Projects, Albums, Smart Albums, Web Gallery, Smart Web Gallery, Light Table, Book, and Web Journal. There are also other ways you can bring photos into iDVD. The simplest way is to simply drag any single photo or a bunch of photos from Aperture to iDVD. You can drag them into the viewer pane or the Menu pane of iDVD's Control Bar section. Another way to import is from the Menu Bar: just go to File, Import, Image. You may also go to the Advanced tab and click Edit DVD-ROM Contents. A dialog box will appear where you can add image files and new folders.
You can decide to show only one slideshow or present several of them. To add new slideshows in the DVD, click on Project, Add Slideshow from the Menu Bar. Or, for the shortcut, simply click Apple or Command-L. Yet another way is to click on the big plus (+) sign located at the lower left side of the iDVD interface. A menu will appear and you can select Add Slideshow. Fill in your DVD with pictures on the main menu. Add, remove or change all other elements such as titles, texts, music, and menu buttons.
To go into the slideshow section, click on it and then bring in all the photos you want to present. Here, you can set the slide duration from 1 second to 10 seconds per slide. You can also choose Fit To Audio or Manual mode. Just as in iPhoto, available transitions are: Cube, Dissolve, Droplet, Fade Through Black, Flip, Mosaic Flip Large, Mosaic Flip Small, Page Flip, Push, Reveal, Twirl, and Wipe. If you click on the Settings icon while you are in this section, you have the option to loop the slideshow, display navigation arrows, add image files to DVD-ROM (when burning), and show titles and comments. And, of course, you can select and set the music volume.
Press the Play button to preview what it will look like.
Once you complete your slideshows, are satisfied with your settings, and have saved it in iDVD (you can select which folder to save to), you can now burn a DVD or save your slideshow as a Disc Image. To burn a DVD, click on File, Burn DVD (or, press Apple/Command-R). You can also click on the burn icon at the lower left hand corner of the interface. To save as a disc image, click on File, Save as Disc Image (or press Shift-Apple/Command-R).
Creating a DVD portfolio of your photographs from Aperture may be a little more time consuming than doing it in iPhoto. But the results are far more interesting. Plus, having your portfolio of images available for viewing in a slideshow on any DVD player is an amazing thing. People who do not use computers can just pop it into their DVD players and easily view your portfolio on their TV screen. The beauty of using the bundled applications in the iLife suite is (with the exception of Garageband; though it is still easy to use) that they all work in almost the same way. If you are familiar with one piece of software from the iLife suite, you'll find that the other individual software applications are easy to learn and use. Plus, your photos from Aperture (as well as iPhoto) can be used in these apps (such as iMovie and Garageband) as well.
Most of what you probably need to do can be done with iDVD and the other consumer-level applications that are bundled in Apple's iLife suite. However, if you demand total creative control and even more features, you are ready to move up into full multimedia presentation tools such as Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro. These professional applications, integrated with Aperture (and iPhoto) as media library sources, can do wonders when it comes to creating awesome slideshow presentations.
Taking things a step further, and in conjunction with Final Cut Pro, you may want to download and install the free Aperture To Final Cut Pro 1.0 plug-in from the Apple website. This plug-in allows you to take images from Aperture and send them directly to a video sequence in Final Cut Pro. Inside Aperture, select your photos, set their order and duration, and select transitions between frames. The beauty of this plug-in is that it supports every transition available in Final Cut Pro and provides photographers with a list of easy-to-use video presets supported by FCP. This means you can make a DVD video or use the latest HD formats; just set your preferences directly in Aperture with this plug-in.
For the ultimate way to present slideshows, you need to have a piece of Apple software from the iWork package: Keynote. With Keynote, you can put to good use the powerful and professional features of the world's most sophisticated presentation tool.
Launch Keynote. Select a theme from the dialog box that pops up if you want to create a new slideshow, or, you can click on the button that says "open an existing file". Keynote has several built-in template themes that you can choose from, including: White, Black, Gradient, Modern Portfolio, Leather Book, Vintage, Classic Silk, White Corners, Formal, Portfolio, Scrapbook, Imagine, Pinstripe, Hard Cover, among others.
If you want more themes, just scour the Internet—you'll find them. There are a number of excellent free themes, but you'll have to pay for the best ones. In particular, you may want to check out the themes from KeynotePro. The KeynotePro themes are some of the most elegant and versatile ones available for purchase online. The bestselling themes from KeynotePro, and those that you might find the most useful are: KeyStation, Sonoma, Palo Alto, OM 2, Duet, Tokyo RPG, Pavilion, Elevation, Barcelona, Oslo, Proof, MetroBlue, PhotoGrafik Pro, Art History, Flux, SoHo, Field Journal, and Platform.
When you choose a theme in Keynote, you can set it at the standard projector size of 600 x 800, or choose larger sizes. Be cautious when choosing larger sizes; they may not yield the kind of visual impact you are aiming for in your slideshow (depending on the resolution of your images and other factors). However, some of the themes from Keynote Pro are available in true HD format, which is perfect for floor-to-ceiling projections. If you have the image resolution and want it big, use one of these. On the other hand, you can downsize the themes and present them on your video iPod.
Once you have decided on a theme, there are several template master slides with placeholders for photographs (and text) that are available, based on what theme you have chosen. To start creating your slides by inserting photos, click on the Media Browser icon from the Toolbar on top. Select Photos in the Media Browser pane that appears. Click on the Photo section, and you can view your entire Aperture and iPhoto libraries. Both libraries are also available in another piece of iWork software, Pages.
Create the basic elements of your Keynote presentation. Add slides and other types of information that you will be using, such as text, illustrations, and various other media. Then drag photos from the Media browser to the Viewer Pane. Another quick way to move photos from Aperture to Keynote is simply to Click-and-Drag the selected image from one open application to another. You will see a plus sign (+) that tells you an "object," in this case, a photo image, is ready for you to add it to a slide.
Resize the photo images (if necessary) and fix their placement. Resizing the photos is easy because whenever you resize using the corner handle bars, the pixel size and dimensions pop up. You can control the exact size of the image in the slide. Getting the proper placement of the photos right in every slide is also very easy. Just Click-and-Drag on the image and slide it over to where you want it. Yellow guide lines automatically appear in the center or on the sides of the image to quickly help you accurately position your image without needing to create your own guide lines, such as those found in most professional software and applications.
Once all your contents are in place, you can now play around with some of the best features of Keynote. Click the Inspector icon from the Toolbar. When the dialog box opens, click the second icon from the left. This is Transition and Appearance. Click Transition, then Effects. Here you will see all of the dazzling transition styles and controls that you'll ever need or want in a slideshow.
The 3-D transition effects in Keynote include: Blinds, Cube, Doorway, Fall, Flip, Mosaic Flip, Page Flip, Reflection, Revolving Door, and Swoosh. There are also 2-D transition effects: Dissolve, Droplet, Fade Through Color, Flash, Iris, Move In, Pivot, Push, Radial, Reveal, Scale, Shutter, and Wipe. The most amazing thing about these transitions is that you have total control over their behavior. You can set their duration, the direction in which the transition will move, and predetermine when the transition will occur.
In Keynote, you can add the wow factor to your slideshows using the Build In and Build Out inspector for all the objects placed in the slides (photos, texts, illustrations, and music). You can show and hide images or other objects in specific sequences and timing. You can also determine the direction of presentation of the photos and objects, as well as dictate the method of delivery and duration. In the Build In and Build Out feature, the transition effects available are: Appear, Blinds, Cube, Dissolve, Flip, Iris, Move In, Pivot, Pop, Scale, Swoosh, and Wipe.
You can go crazy figuring out, tweaking, and refining the settings of the transitions and builds of each slide. There are just so many interesting ways to present your images. However, be cautioned that the more subtle and understated the effects, the better and less distracting. You'll want the audience to concentrate on the photo images being presented, rather than having them watching out for your transition styles and build effects!
One advantage of using Keynote with your Aperture photographs is that you can easily repurpose, reconfigure, and recreate new and different slideshows based on those that you've already created. On the fly, you can change, edit, and update your Keynote slideshows. You can quickly hide, shuffle, duplicate, add, or remove slides. You can change themes. You can combine different slideshows to create new ones. Your slideshows will always be seen as appropriate, relevant, and fresh.
There are four features of Keynote that slideshow presenters (more specifically, Aperture photographers) will particularly appreciate. First is that, from Keynote's Preferences, you can configure your Keynote to show the current slide on your projector while you view the current and next slide (as well as your notes and other information) on your computer screen. This is useful because you will know what will be shown next and your flow of thought will be smoother. Second, this helps when you rehearse your slideshow. From the Toolbar, press View, Rehearse Slideshow. Your slideshow won't show up on the projection screen while you are going through and reviewing each slide at the last minute. Third, you can view your slides in a Light Table format (press View, Light Table). You will be able to see all the slides that you will be presenting and their numbering as well (you can rearrange them if necessary). Finally, you can call up the Adjust Image HUD (Heads-Up Display) to enhance your photo images by adjusting their Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature, Tint, Sharpness, Exposure, and Levels/Auto Levels.
Once you are done presenting your slideshow, either by manually controlling the transition from one slide to the next as you speak or setting it to run automatically in an endless loop, you can Export your slideshow to many different formats that can be emailed, printed, or embedded in websites as a downloadable item or one that can be played on demand online. The Export options are (press File, Export from the Toolbar to see them): QuickTime, PowerPoint (yes!), PDF, PNG Images, Flash, iDVD, and HTML. Each format also allows you to properly configure the settings when exporting. You can choose to export to any of these formats, it just depends on how you want to distribute your slideshow—email, print, video, website, etc.
One of the most interesting applications of using Keynote's slideshow with Aperture is how wedding photographers can create a personalized template in Keynote prior to the event (titles and all), select a bunch of photos by rating images, create a 5-star Smart Album from those that were downloaded to Aperture during the shoot, apply universal adjustments to all of the selected images with Aperture's Lift & Stamp tool, drag them into your personalized Keynote template, and be ready for showtime during the reception!
The beauty of the design inherent in Mac software—beginning with Mac OS X, and continuing with the iLife suite and iWork—is how seamlessly all the programs work together. Each of these applications has its own strengths; those used in this article are perfect examples. There are many different options for creating slideshows from your Aperture library. And the really good thing is that once you are familiar with how one application works, you almost intuitively know how to use the other software. There is a very low learning curve.
For a busy professional photographer who must be able to set up and show photos to clients without fuzz, this tight integration is a blessing. The media library from a professional software package such as Aperture is available across various Mac applications, both at a consumer and professional level, effectively extending its usability and functionality.
Check out Part One in the series, Pictures in Motion: Slideshows from your Aperture Images.
Dominique James is one of today’s finest professional portrait, fashion, advertising and commercial photographers. Originally from Manila, Philippines, he is now based in the New York City, US. He is a Nikon Pro Photographer and an Epson Stylus Pro Photographer. He is also an Apple Certified Professional and an Apple Certified Trainer for Aperture.
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