Making a Slideshow with iPhoto 5

This chapter is from the book 

extra bits

put photos in order p. 75

• You can reorder your photos later on as well. See page 92.

create a slideshow p. 76

• If you don't see all the options at the bottom of the slideshow window, it's because your window isn't wide enough. In their place will be a double right arrow (>>) which, when you click on it, will reveal a pop-up menu with the remaining slideshow options.

• You can also select a bunch of photos and then click the Slideshow button to create a slideshow out of just those photos. The name of the slideshow still comes from the album containing the photos.

• Theoretically, you could be done already. You can watch your slideshow immediately by clicking the Play button. If you want to adjust your slideshow and play with the transitions and music,read on.

• You can reorder the photos in your slideshow at any time by dragging them into new positions in the photo browser at the top of the window.

adjust default settings p. 78

• You can apply the Ken Burns Effect to individual slides as described on pages 86–87.

• The duration, transition, and transition speed that you choose in the Settings box will be applied automatically to all the photos in your slideshow. It can be overridden by applying a different duration, transition, or transition speed to one or more photos with the Adjust This Slide box, as described on page 84.

• We'll discuss choosing music for a slideshow on pages 98–99.

• There are two principal formats or proportions for viewing pictures on a screen. The standard format is 4:3 and is still used by most televisions. This means that for every 4 inches across, you'll have three inches down. It's roughly equivalent to 1.34:1. Widescreen format has a proportion of 16:9 (or 1.78:1) and is close to the native format of most current movies, which are most often 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. The crucial bit is to choose a format that matches the proportion of your photos, or to crop your photos to match the proportion you've chosen (as described on pages 80–81).

• There are three options in the Settings box that we won't use in this project, but that are pretty self-explanatory: Show titles, Show my ratings, Show slideshow controls. The first displays the photo's title (or filename if you haven't given it a title) in the upper-left corner of the screen. If you check Show my ratings, the number of stars that you've given a photo (see page 11) will be displayed at the bottom of the photo. Finally, if you check Show slideshow controls, the play and pause buttons and other controls will always be visible (instead of only visible when you move the mouse).

crop photos p. 80

• You have to double-click the photo in the central Slideshow window, not the photo browser across the top of the window.

• You don't have to be in Slideshow view to crop a photo. You can double-click a photo from the main window or from a book to get to the Edit mode where the cropping tools are available.

• If you decide you don't like the way you cropped a photo, you can choose Undo right at the moment to go back. If you decide at some later date that you'd rather go back to the full picture, you can choose Photos > Revert to Original. Any changes you have made to the photo (including rotating, fixing red-eye, adjusting highlights, etc.) are removed.

• I find the way the 4:3 DVD option works rather strange. The first time you choose it, a large 3:4 rectangle appears in the middle of your photo. Choose it again, and the orientation changes to 4:3.

• When you edit a photo, the changes take effect everywhere you've used the photo, including any other slideshows or books you've already created or will create in the future. If you don't want to affect earlier uses of the photo, you can create a copy of the photo and change that. You'll go through that process in the next section (page 82).

• Slideshows intended to be shown in widescreen format should be cropped in a 16:9 proportion. You can choose Custom from the Constrain menu and then enter the desired proportion.

duplicate a photo p. 82

• When you duplicate a photo, iPhoto actually creates a new file for the photo, which acts completely independently of the original photo. You can crop it, change the lighting, add effects, or whatever, without affecting the original.

display in black/white p. 83

• The black and white effect only applies to the photo in this slideshow. The photo will continue to be shown normally in the other slideshows or books that contain it, as well as in the main window.

• You can also create a sepia effect (a sort of old-fashioned, yellowed look) by choosing Sepia instead of Black and White in the Effect menu. Again, it only affects the slide in the current slideshow, not in other slideshows or books.

adjust transition p. 84

• We set the default duration, transition, and transition speed back on page 78. These will apply to all slides until and unless you change them as described here.

• You can select more than one photo at a time (in the slideshow's photo browser) and apply a new duration, transition, or transition speed to all of them at once.

• You can also get to the Adjust This Slide box by clicking the Adjust button at the bottom of the Slideshow window or, if the button is not visible, by choosing it from the >> menu at the bottom of the Slideshow window.

• You can leave the Adjust This Slide box open all the time, if you wish. Changes are applied as you make them and thus you don't have to close the box to apply the changes or to start working on other slides.

zoom in and center p. 85

• Zooming in on a photo, in contrast with cropping, does not affect it in any other slideshow or book.

add motion to slides p. 86

• The Start/End toggle simply shows you whether you're looking at the initial or the final position and zoom for the photo. So, if you want to see the initial position and zoom, click the Start/End toggle until Start is selected. If you want to change the initial position and zoom, click the Start/End toggle until Start is selected and then adjust the position and zoom. In the same way, if you want to see the final position, click the Start/End toggle until End is selected. If you want to change the final position and zoom, click the Start/End toggle until End is selected and then adjust the position and zoom.

• You can have iPhoto apply the Ken Burns Effect automatically to all of the photos in the slideshow by clicking the Settings button and checking Automatic Ken Burns Effect (which we turned off on page 79). You can still adjust the initial and final positions and zooms by hand, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

auto enhance photos p. 94

• You don't have to be in Slideshow view to enhance a photo. You can double-click a photo from the main window or from a book to get to the Edit mode where the enhancing tool is available.

custom adjust photos p. 95

• If you don't see the Adjust button, click the >> and choose Adjust from the pop-up menu.

• You don't have to be in Slideshow view to correct the colors in a photo. You can double-click a photo from the main window or from a book to get to the Edit mode where the color correction tools are available.

• You can always remove all your edits and return to the original photo by selecting the photo in the main window and choosing Photos > Revert to Original.

change wipe direction p. 96

• You must rechoose Wipe (without Default next to the name), or iPhoto won't apply the new direction. This is a bug. iPhoto wants to keep applying the default transition direction with the default transition. If you change the transition, (even choosing the same transition without the Default next to its name is enough), iPhoto will pay attention to the new transition direction.

• If you don't see the Adjust button, click the >> at the bottom of the Slideshow window and choose Adjust from the pop-up menu.

• The Adjust This Slide box can stay open as you go from slide to slide. You don't need to close it to apply changes.

• You can use the Adjust button to change the transition without changing the direction. (Or you can change the transition as we did on page 93.)

add music p. 98

• If you can't see the Music button, it's because your iPhoto window is too narrow. You can either make your window wider, or click the >> at the bottom of the Slideshow window and choose Music from the pop-up menu that appears.

• You can also find a particular song by typing a few letters in the search box.

• If you want to choose more than one song, create a playlist on iTunes and then select that playlist in the music box.

• Although we've chosen Repeat music during slideshow, if you choose a song that is longer than the slideshow, the music won't have a chance to repeat.

• Choosing Fit music to slideshow causes iPhoto to change the duration of the slides to fit the music you choose. This seems like a great feature. You pick a song that you like and iPhoto makes your slideshow fit to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well.

• You can find the exact duration of a slideshow by exporting it (choosing Share > Export) and then looking at it with the QuickTime Player or in the Finder with previews visible (see page 101).

play a slideshow p. 100

• You can start a slideshow in the middle by choosing the photo with which you want to start before clicking the Play button.

• Pause a slideshow at any time by pressing the spacebar. Press the spacebar again to resume.

• Preview the effects and transition on a single slide by clicking the Preview button. Preview the effects and transitions of several slides by selecting those slides and clicking Play.

• There are more extra bits about slideshow controls on page 25.

• You can connect your computer to a TV or digital projector with an S-Video cable (assuming your Mac has an S-Video out jack, as most current models do). Then choose Displays in your System Preferences and click Detect Displays. Your computer screen should now be mirrored on the TV or projector. Click Play in iPhoto to start projecting your slideshow on the TV or projector.

share a slideshow p. 101

• You can burn the QuickTime movie directly to a CD or add it to a DVD.

• iDVD, Apple's DVD authoring software, come with iPhoto in the iLife package. It's a good tool for burning your iPhoto slideshows to DVD. You can have iPhoto export your movie in Large format, save it in the Movies folder, and then place it in your current iDVD project automatically by choosing Share > Send to iDVD.