Looking for slide show software?

I have to put together a slide show for a family BBQ and have done some Goolge searches that have given thousands of results (so it seems). I was looking for some help here, what software would you use? Something that is pretty easy, flexible and free would be great but not required.

LightRoom is brilliant for making slide shows, you can add music too, Light room will sync the music to the slideshow and its simple to use, it must be as I use it

photobod wrote: LightRoom is brilliant for making slide shows, you can add music too, Light room will sync the music to the slideshow and its simple to use, it must be as I use it

Thank you, would you happen to know any programs that are free?

i don't know of any free programs. I use ProShow Gold. See it at
www.photodex.com .
It's a very flexible program that will do some neat stuff for you.

Picasa (free at www. picasa.com) has has a "movie" feature that lets you select photos to include in a slide show and add music. It is easy to use and allows adding title slides, etc. The online help is as good as they get. Just follow the tutorial and shazam, a slide show. Also, in the drop downs at the top is a CREATE. Under that is Gift CD. It creates the same movie and allows you in imbed Picasa runtime in it for viewing. I have done this numerous times with great success.
Windows Movie Maker (included in Windows) allows the same thing but can be more difficult to master.

If you're using a PC, try Windows Movie Maker.. It's not a slideshow- but a movie-maker but you can keep the slideshow look if that's what you want..
It's free, comes bundled with most Windows systems, and is very easy to use.. you can add titles, subtitles, music, etc. as well as transition effects and adjust each individual image's timing.. there are tutorials on YouTube also to get you started...
If for some reason you don't have it on your PC, download it for free HERE

Ooops, I see John woke up earlier than I did this morning... Good Morning!

DestinDave wrote: If you're using a PC, try Windows Movie Maker.. It's not a slideshow- but a movie-maker but you can keep the slideshow look if that's what you want..
It's free, comes bundled with most Windows systems, and is very easy to use.. you can add titles, subtitles, music, etc. as well as transition effects and adjust each individual image's timing.. there are tutorials on YouTube also to get you started...
If for some reason you don't have it on your PC, download it for free HERE

Ooops, I see John woke up earlier than I did this morning... Good Morning!

Morning. The video on my profile was done with WindowsMM. My biggest problem was that when I inserted a new photo, it messed with the durations and transitions Did you have that issue?

I'm with Baydream on this one. Picasa's easy to use and free.

download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/

I've used this one before. It's fairly simple, but does the job and it's FREE.

Edited to add that I liked this better than windows movie maker, because it had a particular feature that I needed that WMM didn't, but I can't remember what that was now.

Baydream wrote:

DestinDave wrote: If you're using a PC, try Windows Movie Maker.. It's not a slideshow- but a movie-maker but you can keep the slideshow look if that's what you want..
It's free, comes bundled with most Windows systems, and is very easy to use.. you can add titles, subtitles, music, etc. as well as transition effects and adjust each individual image's timing.. there are tutorials on YouTube also to get you started...
If for some reason you don't have it on your PC, download it for free HERE

Ooops, I see John woke up earlier than I did this morning... Good Morning!

Morning. The video on my profile was done with WindowsMM. My biggest problem was that when I inserted a new photo, it messed with the durations and transitions Did you have that issue?

Honestly, I've only created one movie.. I inserted all the images and transitions, added the soundtrack, then "stretched" each image on the timeline to coincide with the music..

If I had gone back later and inserted another image in the middle of the sequence it would have changed the timeline for everything after it.. But I believe any program would have that issue, right?

DestinDave wrote:

Baydream wrote:

DestinDave wrote: If you're using a PC, try Windows Movie Maker.. It's not a slideshow- but a movie-maker but you can keep the slideshow look if that's what you want..
It's free, comes bundled with most Windows systems, and is very easy to use.. you can add titles, subtitles, music, etc. as well as transition effects and adjust each individual image's timing.. there are tutorials on YouTube also to get you started...
If for some reason you don't have it on your PC, download it for free HERE

Ooops, I see John woke up earlier than I did this morning... Good Morning!

Morning. The video on my profile was done with WindowsMM. My biggest problem was that when I inserted a new photo, it messed with the durations and transitions Did you have that issue?

Honestly, I've only created one movie.. I inserted all the images and transitions, added the soundtrack, then "stretched" each image on the timeline to coincide with the music..

If I had gone back later and inserted another image in the middle of the sequence it would have changed the timeline for everything after it.. But I believe any program would have that issue, right?

I believe Picasa has fixed length exposures and a single transition method so not so versitile (has a "fit to audio" feature that can automatically adjust.
WMM took EVERY photo after the inserted one and compressed to a short duration. Each time I had to readjust EVERY photo. Next time I use it, I will make sure every photo is ready and don't need an insert or delete.

FastStone Image Viewer and Zoner Photo Studio 12 can both create slideshows with music. Both are free downloads.

Kelly Cook

If you're using Mac you can do it in iPhoto.

I have started a website on making slideshows for family. I have reviewed two free software packages--one for Windows and one for Mac.

Last summer I reviewed Photo to Movie by LQ Graphics, which works on both platforms.

Here is the address for my photo slideshow software page . The links to the 3 individual programs are in the text of the page.

Good luck.

I've used Wondershare, Movie Maker, and Smartshow. I can recommend the last one to those who are looking for 3D effects (image animations and transitions). I created mine in HD format using some breath-taking travel photos and put it on youtube.
The samples are here:
smartshow-software.com/slideshows.php