Feature Comparisons of Some Key Slide Show Creation Programs:
- PhotoDex ProShow Gold 4.51 Rated : 5 stars out of 5
- Photoshop Elements (PSE) 8.0 4 stars
- Roxio 2011 4 stars
- Photoshop Lightroom 3.3 3 stars
- Photoshop Adobe Bridge (part of the CS5 Suite) 2 stars
Comments Welcome!
I prepared this summary resulting from a class I taught 1/2011 at ViewPoint Gallery in Sacramento, CA in January. I present the results from my personal ranking. Here are the overall rankings along with detailed ranking on specific features (1 star is low and 5 stars are high).
ProShow Gold
***** Overall Rating
**** Create a basic slide show quickly for display from a PC
If working with an editor such as Lightroom, it is necessary to export files to a folder, which becomes the source a the slide show in other apps (I do this). A simple “create a show” comes up. After creating a simple show (or starting up full-feature mode), you can create very powerful and flexible slide shows.
***** Create a feature-rich slide show
Extremely powerful application for creating professional quality slide shows.
** Editing photos within a slide show
ProShow Gold does include a number of simple edits for imported photos (e.g., red-eye & cropping). While not powerful, you can make basic edits once in the show mode. This is likely to suffice for most users.
***** Create sound track
Very flexible sound track creation including insertion of sound tracks and as well the ability to override the sound track for specific images (including embedded movies within a slide (or layer within a slide). This is powerful.
***** Output to movie file (sharable) with sound, Web, U-Tube, DVD, Blue Ray, PC File, etc.
Very easy to output shows to many media formats and sharing environments. Can’t create an Adobe Acrobat file (about the only thing it doesn’t do).
**** Variety and quality of transitions
Extensive set of transitions that are easily controlled. More are available in the higher-end products from PhotoDex. I like the ability to add random transitions and you can customize your own “default” transition set.
***** Layers within a frame (ability to add layered content with control over timing, size, and position of layer content)
You have amazing control over layers within a slide. The ability to create and manage layers within each slide sets this application apart. The Ken-Burns effect is one of the simpler capabilities. With some 180+ slide types you can create amazing slide effects such as exploding a stack of photos outward. Layer cropping and motion controls include items in a layer, which is extremely powerful. You can embed movies easily and control effects such as the sound track, starting and ending position, sizing, and motion of the movie window.
***** Ability to embed metadata such as photo title and caption
Very powerful methods to add text and metadata within each slide (and layers within a slide) and ability to copy to other selected slides. Read the on-line documentation to learn these features. Watch out for inadvertently copying metadata and other fields and text to all slides.
**** Animation and overlays.
High flexibility includes sounds, soundtrack, fade-in and out, and motion. Provides a limited selection of pre-defined icons for cartoon-like effects and overlays.
** Easy to Learn
OK…the easy mode creates a slide show quickly. To be successful with a complex slide show, you need a class or you need to read the manual carefully. The introductory sections are KEY to understanding the screen layout. The program has many powerful features and reading through the manual is very, very helpful. You can try playing around but I found this an ineffective way to understand the application. The on-line documentation is excellent, easy-to-read, and comprehensive. Be sure to read the sections on defaults and overrides (such as the sound track). You can start with the first few chapters and be quite successful.
Summary:
ProShow Gold is a rich application that produces first-rate slide shows that are easily shared. You can start simple but to fully understand ProShow Gold you will need to read the excellent on-line manual and/or take a class. The application is well priced. The higher-end PhotoDex products include yet more features and slide types. I plan on using ProShow Gold my future slide shows I plan on exporting to other computers, DVD players, the Web, etc. Previously I used PSE.
Photoshop Elements (PSE) 8.0
**** Overall Rating
**** Create a basic slide show quickly for display from a PC
Photoshop Elements creates a very good slide show quite easily. I find the organizer is not so easy to use and I get rusty. Saving slide shows as a project allows changes. Projects are most easily found in the organizer. I will export photos from Lightroom to a folder and import just that folder into the organizer (I use Lightroom for photo organization). Then in the side-show module import the folder to get started. You can import videos into a slide show.
**** Editing photos within a slide show
You can make basic edits or fully edit the photo using the full PSE editor. Be careful to save the photo under a new name to not overwrite the original.
*** Create a feature-rich slide show
The features in PSE enable beautiful slide shows. The elegance and sophisticated controls of ProShow Gold are lacking, but for many family-oriented shows this is a great application.
**** Create sound track
Very flexible sound track by dragging sound files from their file folders. You can also record directly into the sound track from a microphone on your pc.
** Output to movie file (sharable) with sound for the Web, U-Tube, DVD, Blue Ray, PC File, etc.
You can export to a psd file with the sound track or to a movie file. You have control over resolution and sizing. It requires extra knowledge to deal with other application environments to create physical media for sharing. However, purchasing Premier Elements allows direct DVD movie creation.
**** Variety and quality of transitions
Very nice transitions and the random selections produce a very good slide show look and feel.
N/A Layers within a frame (ability to add layered content with control over timing, size, and position of layer content)
You can’t add layers to a slide.
* Ability to embed metadata such as photo title and caption
Only standard text overlays work in newer versions. It is not possible to embed metadata into the slides (supported in some earlier versions of PSE), which means re-typing descriptions.
*** Animation and overlays.
Text and clip art (quite a few are included) are supported. Animation of the overlays is not supported. You can add movies into a slide show.
**** Easy to Learn
An easy-to-use application with few bells and whistles. The hardest part is learning the organizer and finding a saved project (when you hit the “Slide show” button it always creates a new slide show). Be sure to save projects to the organizer to find them easily for future editing.
Summary:
The slide show program in PSE produces very, very good slide shows. Adding simple clip art and text within the slide show will dress up a family slide show nicely. But to put out your slide show on the web or share them easily requires another application such as Roxio to create a DVD in movie format. I created most of my movie DVDs up to this point by creating the movie file in PSE first after Lightroom editing and export.
Roxio 2011
**** Overall Rating
**** Create a basic slide show quickly for display from a PC
The standard mode of creating a slide show is quite easy, You just identify the files to the application by selecting from a file browser. You can add blank slides, text, and music and choose the 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen format. You can also choose a complete style with backgrounds and transitions along with timing, which are really quite nice.
*** Editing photos within a slide show
Roxio has a built-in photo editor to solve common problems along with ability to add text and overlays on photos. A limited amount of local edits such as cropping are available in the slide show module
**** Create a feature-rich slide show
The quick show maker has at the last step the ability to edit the show in Roxio VideoWave. A large number of transition types are available along with overlays for the show to add a visible theme.
**** Create sound track
Easy to add sound track elements including sounds for each frame (in Videowave)
**** Output to movie file (sharable) with sound, Web, U-Tube, DVD, Blue Ray, PC File, etc.
You can export a slide show with the sound file to a movie file. You have control over resolution and sizing. Roxio VideoWave can export directly to a movie file or Roxio DVD maker, or to UTube, or Facebook.
**** Variety and quality of transitions
Quite a large number of transition types and along with backgrounds and themes you can create a wide variation of styles.
N/A Layers within a frame (ability to add layered content with control over timing, size, and position of layer content)
You can’t add layers to a slide (but backgrounds are available and themed overlays.
* Ability to embed metadata such as photo title and caption
You need to add your own captions and text overlays. No access to photo metadata.
*** Animation and overlays.
Animation (movie) effects for each slide or the whole show (noise, rotations, fades, spins, etc.). Easy to control text overlays, fonts, size, color, and position. Without layers more sophisticated animation effects are not possible.
**** Easy to Learn
Easy application with the simple 3-step create (and simple photo edits & text overlays). The VideoWave module adds lots more capability and it is pretty easy to understand and use without referring to the on-line manual.
Notes:
Roxio has done an excellent job of adding a slide show and movie making into it its application suite. It is pretty easy to pull-in finished photos from other editors (PSE, CS, Lightroom for example). And because it has a well-featured DVD movie creator, you can put out DVD’s for your own use and sharing with others. It is generally designed for family-style presentations to add flash and movement. I use this application suite for making movie DVDs, but many home users should find the application an excellent integrated suite of products for creating movies and slide shows.
Photoshop Lightroom 3.0
**** Overall Rating
**** Create a basic slide show quickly for display from a PC
Lightroom’s integrated functionality makes it very quick to create a professional, clean, crisp slide show (as long as you don’t need a multi-track sound track). It is designed to be seen directly from your laptop or a digital projector. You can control the layout and look and feel with a professional touch. It is designed to showcase the photos with little distraction.
***** Editing photos within a slide show
You can quickly move between the slide show view and editing. And by taking advantage of the non-destructive editing you can crop slides purely for the slide show (and save as a preset for the photo).
** Create a feature-rich slide show
The combination of features allows a simple, but elegant format. No control over transitions (other than timing) and limited sound track capability (see below). But the slide show has a professional, crisp look. Lots of control over the look and feel of the borders and background in a professional look.
* Create sound track
In release 3.0 you can ONLY attach one sound file. For anything more than a very short show you need to use a sound editing program to join tracks together. (Stay with Release 2.0 if you need to quickly add a full album of tracks, but at the loss of significant new functionality in other areas in Release 3.0).
**** Output to movie file (sharable) with sound, Web, U-Tube, DVD, Blue Ray, PC File, etc.
You can export a slide show with the sound file to a movie file. You can export the slides but NO sound to a psd file (a disadvantage). You have control over resolution and sizing. You need knowledge to of other applications such as Roxio 2011 to turn a movie file into a DVDs and or other sharing formats. Lightroom provides a very strong set of tools for web sharing including integrated formats for HTML and Flash along with many background choices and attributes.
** Variety and quality of transitions
The transitions are very smooth (only one type is supported) and you can vary the timing of transition and slide duration for the show (not for individual transitions).
N/A Layers within a frame (ability to add layered content with control over timing, size, and position of layer content)
You can’t add layers to a slide.
*** Ability to embed metadata such as photo title and caption
You can add metadata such as the title (this requires a careful reading of the on-line documentation).
*** Animation and overlays.
Text and watermarks can be added along with other information on the slide show border such as the author’s name and ratings of the photo. Easy control over the fonts including size, color, and position.
**** Easy to Learn.
Easy application without a lot of bells and whistles. The hardest part is learning to insert such as the slide Title and Caption (however, it is easy to edit these metada fields in Lightroom’s Library Module).
Notes:
Lightroom makes moving from editing photos into slide shows virtually trivial (except for metadata and sound tracks). The professional look and feel will work well for many photographers. Some users will need to learn other applications like Roxio for creating DVDs and other sharing tools and web formats. Creating a sound track longer than one music song (track) is a hassle (restoring the 2.o multi-track support would raise my rating to 4 stars).
A powerful feature is to be able to instantly vary the content (such as by filtering the slides by rating, keywords, and other metadata). The other applications generally assume that you have already assembled the photos that are in the slide show.
I use the slide show module in Lightroom quite frequently when I narrate a show.
Photoshop Bridge (part of CS5)
** Overall Rating
** Create a basic slide show quickly for display from a PC
Once in bridge…selecting the slides and adding them to the workspace is enough to prepare a show.
* Editing photos within a slide show
You need to edit the files in CS5 (or another application) and re-import them into Bridge.
* Create a feature-rich slide show
You can control the duration and transition at the show level only. It is a very basic slide show without sound.
N/A Create sound track
In release 3.0 you can ONLY attach one sound file. For anything more than a very short show you need to use a sound editing program to join tracks together. (Stay with Release 2.0 if you need to quickly add a full album of tracks, but at the loss of significant new functionality in other areas in Release 3.0).
** Output to movie file (sharable) with sound, Web, U-Tube, DVD, Blue Ray, PC File, etc.
You can only export a slide show to a pdf file or a web gallery (no sound).
** Richness of Transitions
Twelve (12) transition types and random as well. These are set at the slideshow level along with transition times.
NA Layers within a frame (ability to add layered content with control over timing, size, and position of layer content)
You can’t add layers to a slide.
NA Ability to embed metadata such as photo title and caption
Only the rating (stars) and filename appear in the slide show.
NA Animation and overlays.
You would need to create slides for introduction and ending outside Bridge.
**** Easy to Learn
Easy-to-learn application without a lot of bells and whistles. Great for simple on-screen or monitor port shows. See the note below on Cache settings (not so simple).
Summary:
Bridge provides primitive slide show capability when compared with the other applications reviewed here. The slide show is simple and clean and useful if you are in Bridge and want to make a quick slide show. You can export a show in PDF or Web Gallery format (no sound track support).
Note: I had much application trouble creating my very first slide show! I immediately needed on-line support (excellent support from Adobe is always given) to set the cache parameters (otherwise the application screen goes wild and can only be accessed by ….). Cache settings are under Edit>Preferences>Cache. With help from support I had to purge/compact the cache and increase the cache size to the middle of the slider get a slide show of only 15 slides to work. This was on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine with a 4-way I7 processor and plenty of memory.
