Producing AV Sequences
On the 31 March Martin Currie demonstrated how, with the aid of the program Pictures-to-Exe, a photographer could produce a variety of delightful sequences with patience and with artistic flair, but without having to have a deep programming knowledge.
Martin began by showing a variety of P2E sequences illustrating the possibilities of the program. The images he used had not been taken with P2E in mind; rather, he disarmingly suggested, they were simply Snaps with Sound. He began with images taken at the Poynton show and followed this with a contrasting Black and White and Grainy Sheepdog trial sequence. A sequence looking at Dunstanburgh Castle from various positions preceded a startling 1 second sequence of a bird diving down to earth from on high. Images of China illustrated moving images with people sliding in and out of the frame. A sequence which began with reflections in water and then turned to Flamingos both flying and still was accompanied by Guitar music from Julian Bream. Piano music accompanied images from around Poynton Pool; to be followed by Martin at his most artistic with surreal images, often blurred, accompanied by piano Music by Chopin. In response to questions Martin thought that a 70-200mm zoom lens with vibration reduction was a favourite. An exposure of about 1/60th second often softened his image nicely.
Turning to the P2E program Martin noted that, once you had bought the program, upgrades were free. (The latest version was P2E deluxe 5.6) He had found Barry Beckham tutorials helpful in getting started. He reduced his jpeg images to 1600x1200 to suit his monitor (using compression level 6 to reduce file size). The P2E5 program automatically scaled the images to suit the projector. One can place any object (images, text labels with drop shadows etc) on a slide and customize complex animation. A great range of transition effects between slides (including 3D effects) is possible and one can add background music, sound and text comments to a slide. One can synchronize slideshows to music. A slideshow in EXE format can be played on any computer under Windows XP, Vista, 2000 without the need of any other program (not even P2E itself).
Martin used the free program “Audacity” to arrange his music. He demonstrated how one would alter the length, add silence, fade in and fade out, and combine tracks to produce the effects he desired. The P2E program would show the music waveforms alongside the time line to allow synchronization.
In his Vote of Thanks Frank Hutchinson noted the superb quality of the presentation from start to finish; and he had loved the music. Martin had been generous in sharing his expertise with us. The spontaneous applause from the audience reinforced Frank’s comments.