Photoshop or PRE11 for Slidshow Question

[MJK1250]

All
I'm in the beginning stages of creating a project that hopefully will include 50-60 still photos along with 6-8 short (20-30 seconds each) video clips interspersed between the photos for final output to a finished Widescreen SD DVD. I've read pretty much every topic on the PRE 11 community forum and have purchased and read Steve's excellent book on PRE 11.

In my own topic on downrezzing I was able to understand (with everyone's help) that I first needed to resize all my photos to a maximum 1000 X 750 px. which would be a bit oversized but would allow room for pan and zoom. Did that and thought I was ready to begin processing when I noticed Steve's Tips on Slideshows. I downloaded it and read it cover to cover. Since I have PSE 9, I thought it might be easier to produce the slideshow portion of my project in PSE 9 and then import it to PRE11 as suggested in Steve's Tips. I proceeded to create my slideshow in PSE9 including pan and zoom but suddenly realized that this might cause a problem when I import to PRE11.

So, my question is: if I create the slideshow portion of my project in PSE9 and then import it to PRE11 will my photos now be oversized? Also, once I import from PSE9 to PRE11 will I still be able to use the Flicker Removal option in PRE11?

I know I'll have lots more question when I get to the video portion of my project but didn't want to waste time using PSE for the slideshow portion if it won't import correctly to PRE11.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

Sounds like you're on the right track, MJK!

Starting the slideshow in the Elements Organizer (by selecting the tool under the Create tab) has a number of advantages. You should still resize your photos to 1000x750, as you have done. But the Organizer's slideshow creator is very intuitive and offers options for automatically adding random pans & zooms and transitions.

When you're done with it, select the option to Output To Premiere Elements and this will send your finished slideshow to your Premiere Elements timeline. (Don't select the options to output a WMV.) If you select the option to Output to Premiere Elements, the slideshow is moved to Premiere Elements in an interchange format that you can either leave as is or, if you'd like to edit it further in Premiere Elements, you can break apart by selecting the right-click option. Then, if you'd like, you can apply Flicker Removal to the individual photos (which will still retain the pans & zooms and transitions added in the Organizer.)

[MJK1250]

Thanks Steve and I think I get it. However in your reply to a question in my "Down Rezzing" Thread you said the following:

"When you bring your photos into your project, they'll be slightly larger than your video frame (about 30% larger). This is fine because that gives you the little extra resolution you need to do your panning and zooming. Then use the Pan & Zoom tool to create your motion paths."

Since I'll be bringing my photos into PRE11 in a completed slideshow (including pans & zooms) that was created in PS9, I'm worried that they will now be 30% larger than needed as you pointed out above?

Also, I assume that when I import the completed slideshow into PRE 11, I should also make sure the "Scale Still Photos to Frame Size" is unchecked?

Thanks again and sorry to be such a pain.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

Since you'll be creating your slideshow in the Organizer, your photos will already be pre-sized to fit your video frame -- so no need to worry about the Scale to Frame Size setting.

[Barb O]

My suggestion is that you do a short trial video with the PSE 9 (Organizer) to PRE 11 workflow.

1 - Because you are working with different versions of PSE and PRE, I think there is some potential for the "Output To Premiere Elements" process (that transfers the definition of the slideshow from the Organizer to Premiere Elements) to experience problems. A trial on your PC seems to be the best way to predict what will happen for your specific project.

Test on your PC with a smaller trial final video that includes a few typical photos, then a short video, then a few more typical photos should be sufficient as a good indicator of what you will experience with your actual project. Take this trial all the way through and actually create one physical DVD disc.

2 -FYI - Depending on what format of video file you are using, it might not be possible to add video segments when you are in the Organizer Slide show Editor.
(This is not really a problem because the video segments can be added using Premiere Elements. However I mention it here so you are not alarmed if you attempted to add a video segment and it is rejected by the slide show editor.)

3 - One method for building this video in smaller "sections" would be to
--Take the photos from the first photo through the last photo before the first video, make that as a Slideshow in the Organizer and send it to PRE (output to Premiere Elements).
--Then add your video using the Premiere Elements Editor.
-- Then make the next photo slideshow section using the Organizer slideshow and Output it to Premiere Elements. (use the same Premiere Elements project as contains the first slideshow section and first video segment).

[MJK1250]

Steve & Barb

Thanks for the responses and I'll give your suggestions a try, but as usual, I have a few more questions. My project will include 60 still photos (each with pan & zoom) and after approximately the first ten photos I want to add a 20-30 second video, then ten more photos followed by another 20-30 second video, and then follow this format throughout the entire project.

If I understand Barb's suggestion, I should create the first ten photos in PS9 and when satisfied, import them into PRE11 using the command "Output to Premiere Elements."

First question is will these import to the Project Assets panel of PRE11 or directly to the PRE11 timeline? And, as Steve has recommended in his book, can I somehow put these into separate folders in the Project Assets panel (labeled SS1, SS2, SS3, etc.) for final placement on the PRE11 timeline? If that's not possible and each segment of still photos must go directly to the PRE11 timeline, I assume there is some way to reorder the segments into the proper order - I'm assuming that when I import each segment of 10 still photos from PS to PRE11 they would go to the front of my PRE11 timeline which would be exactly the opposite of what I want.

Next question: A while ago I created a simple slideshow in Windows Movie Maker that included a nice transition feature called Fade out to black and then Fade in from black which I used between each photo. I like this format for my slideshows but could not find it in PS9 so as a work around I've added a blank slide (full black screen) between each of my still photos with a duration of 3 seconds and the fade transition. This works for what I want to accomplish but it means an additional 59 blank slides and I'm worried this might cause some rendering problems? If it won't cause rendering problems then I need to know if I should include a final blank slide as described above after the last still photo in each segment - to allow a fade in from black to each of the video segments I want to add to the final project. If so, then I guess I'd need to add a blank slide to the beginning of each subsequent segment after the first one. I know this sounds pretty confusing but essentially I'm trying to find a way to have a nice 3 second fade in and fade out between each photo and each video clip.

Next question: On my current PS slideshow I somehow have a transition located after the final slide that I can't get rid of. The final slide is a simple black background with white text and that's where I want the entire project to end but somehow I have a transition after it and even when I clicked "none" on the transition it still appears and somehow after the final text slide, the slideshow jumps to an earlier photo in the slideshow. I guess I could just add another full black blank slide after my final text slide but I gotta believe there's an easier way.

And lastly, I want to include music and a narration (after reading through Steve's book I understand that these should all be converted to WAVs before adding them to my project in PRE11 and I have a conversion program to do that ) to my full project and want to know if I should do this in PS or wait until I have everything where I want it in PRE11 and then add the narration and music tracks at that point.

I'm so grateful for all your help and I think if I can just get these few workflow and detail things sorted out I can begin to move on to the actual video editing process - of course I'll have lots of questions on the video editing portion as well but those are problems and questions for another day. It's embarrassing to realize that my simple project would probably take one of you about two hours to compile and I fear it will take me over a month. Oh well, that's the curse of being old and not up to date on the latest technology but with your help I'll just continue to muddle my way through.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

It gets a bit complicated when you pile the questions on like this, MJK. But I'll do my best.

Fade to Black is not an option for adding in the Organizer's slideshow maker. You'll need to add that manually when you port the slideshow over to Premiere Elements and break it apart.

You can probably also get rid of that pesky final transition the same way.

It doesn't matter when you add your music. But, if your music is going to continue through your slideshows and video, it makes sense to wait until you have all of the elements on your Premiere Elements timeline before you add your wav file.

In fact, at this point it might be best to try a couple of experiments rather than asking more questions. Not that we won't willingly answer your questions as best we can. But I think, once you actually start creating these slideshow segments and moving them over to Premiere Elements to combine with your video, most of your questions will probably answer themselves.

[MJK1250]

Steve - Got it and apologies for so many questions at once. I promise to try to limit them from now on and will just experiment on my project and see how it goes.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

MJK

[Steve Grisetti]

Not a problem, MJK. And never a need to apologize. Let us know if you get stuck!

[Barb O]

Some specific comments

My experience is that doing a subsequent Send to Premiere Elements command (from the slideshow creator of the Organizer) to an open Premiere Elements project adds the new material to the END of the Timeline.

I agree with the approach of adding the music using Premiere Elements, which has many more controls for volume, fade in & out, etc.

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