Slideshow – and Lightroom 5….
There have always been some pretty obvious weaknesses in Lightroom’s Slideshow, and assuming nothing new appears in Lightroom 4’s final release, it might be interesting to speculate on what may come down the track before too long, and to ask what people think. So in descending order of priority, for me these improvements would move the workspace from “good enough” to “best of breed”:
- A timeline
- Multiple audio tracks
- Transitions like Ken Burns
- Add video clips to slideshows
- One feature that would fit slideshow’s presentational role is speaker’s notes just like Powerpoint. So you would run the show and see your reminders or scripted comments on your own screen. Low hanging fruit in software terms, but very rewarding for the user whose presentation appears so much more polished.
I find people apply the term “slideshow” to three different activities – a web gallery, a Powerpoint-style public presentation, and a standalone show with separate sections, such as wedding DVDs, for example. Lightroom’s Web and Slideshow cover the first two, but not the third.
So to broaden my original enquiry, to what extent do people think Slideshow should be extended into authoring standalone shows? Like Proshow, for example, which is so popular with wedding photographers, it would allow you to create a front menu with access to individual slideshows (preparation, ceremony, reception etc) and might export to various formats – DVD, iPad etc. It’s a big extension from the current Powerpoint-style presentation that Slideshow provides, but for certain groups of users it would provide a much more efficient way to accomplish their existing workflow. Should this be a priority for 5?
I also teach photography workshops and allowing me to do everything from within LR would be amazing.
Ditto with exclamation marks!
First of all, I’d like them to fix the Sync to Music feature that already exists. I find that I have to still fiddle with it to get it synced properly. iPhoto does a better job!
Then, I pretty much agree with your suggestions John. I use Keynote (on a Mac) for presentations, but if I could quickly build a presentation within LR without exporting images and such, it would be so much easier. I also teach photography workshops and allowing me to do everything from within LR would be amazing.
I make several Audio Visuals every year. I use ProShow and the excellent PicturesToExe; unfortunately neither is available on the Mac so I have to keep a Windows machine running.. The features you’ve mentioned integrated into Lightroom would be brilliant for me. Particularly as on the Mac there are only very limited programs available; FotoMagico is one but its feature set nowhere near compares with either ProShow or PicturesToExe. I might be able to retire my Windows PC !
An alternative would be a very tight integration between LR and a good AV program; much like a Publish service.
Here’s hoping !
Steve.
I also use Proshow Producer on my PC but mainly as a DVD slideshow authoring tool – hence my reference to wedding DVDs. On Mac – confession coming – I export JPEGs and use Aperture’s slideshow feature which has timelines, multiple tracks and various transition effects.
My feeling is that Adobe do acknowledge there’s a need to brush up Slideshow and those first 4 bullet points are pretty obvious. I’m particularly intrigued to see if people want the Proshow style slideshows.
I agree that LR Slideshow is a tad “under powered” however I don’t think it’s much of a priority as there are better ways of achieving ones ends. I prefer “Pictures to Exe” for doing AV and also PP-type presentations.
However, if LR Slideshow included the speaker’s notes option on the primary monitor with the show on the secondary monitor then I could be tempted to think again for the PP presentations.
PS I have a natural aversion to PP – long story!
Yeah, but it’s always worth deliberately recommending a Powerpoint feature to wind people up!
I like the idea, it would make me a tad bit grumpy for buying Pro-Select (like they’ve added “Books” after I bought AlbumDS), but that’s how it goes.