Photo slideshow with video - which software?

[Hello.there]

(this question covers photographs, videos, iMovie HD, iMovie 08, Final Cut Express, iPhoto and Photo to Movie....so, not sure where to put it ).

Hello all,

I'm trying to make a home 'movie' mainly made up of photographs, but also of some video clips and music. I know it's very straightforward just making a slideshow of photos (eg in iPhoto) but I really want to add the video as well - plus the usual transitions, titles, etc.

I've tried out all of the programs mentioned above but I'm having some kind of problem with each of them.

I find iMovie HD the easiest to use, for what I'm looking for in this case, but I can't find a way of stopping it seriously reducing the quality of the photos. If I could solve that then iMovie HD would be perfect, but despite endless Googling and searching here I just can't find a workable solution to that problem.

FCE is terrific, but it seems scarily complicated to apply pan and zoom to the photos, which I really want to do.

Anyone out there who makes similar 'movies' - what do you use?

Thanks.

 

[Hello.there]

** cough **

 

[iGuardian]

Try iMovie '08

 

[Hello.there]

Try iMovie '08

Thanks iGuardian, but I did....and it's a horrible program, hence Apple's decision to make iMovie HD freely available to aggrieved iMovie 08 owners.

 

[iGuardian]

I'm not sure then, sorry.

 

[Hello.there]

I'm not sure then, sorry.

No problem, thanks for replying.

 

[rjgonzales]

I do these all the time.... iMovie HD for me!

 

[Hello.there]

I do these all the time.... iMovie HD for me!

But how do you stop it making gorgeous photos look like mush?

 

[66217]

FotoMagico seems to be an amazing program to make photo videos. Not sure if you can include videos tho.

I have made many photo videos, all of them with Final Cut Express. You can't beat FCE. You do need some time to get used to it and learn the keyboard shortcuts, but once you grab the basics things go quick and easy.

Applying kern effects isn't that difficult, granted, it is not as in iMovie, but then, I always found iMovie making horrible pans that I later changed manually.

And with FCE (not completely sure if FCE 4 still has it) you get LiveType, which is an amazing program for titles and so.

 

[Hello.there]

Thanks so much for that Roco. Fotomagico looks sweet, kind of like a cross between iMovie and iPhoto. As far as I can make out from the website you can't include videos, but I'd definitely like to try it out with photo slideshows.

Yep, I think I'm just going to have to figure out FCE....gulp. But definitely, it seems to have it all so I'm sure it's worth working on. Just wish iMovie HD didn't muck up my photos, though.

Thanks again.

 

[66217]

What exactly do you mean by "muckup my photos"?

Do they look bad? Stretched?

 

[tchaap]

Hey Hello.there
I just made a movie similar to what you are discussing. A slideshow of photos with a few small video clips thrown in. I had always liked iMovie HD but tried iMovie 08. I didn't like it at first and still miss some of the effects they removed from HD but my movie did come out good. Finished it off with iDVD and had a cool little DVD to hand out.

My photos looked find...not sure why your are mushy? How do they change from your view in iPhoto to the video?

 

[Hello.there]

What exactly do you mean by "muckup my photos"?

Do they look bad? Stretched?

Sorry, I didn't describe the problem too well! I'm guessing it's a resolution issue (?), the photos look nowhere as sharp in iMovie as they do when I view them elsewhere, in fact they look awful - grainy, etc. I'll be using over 300 photos in the project I'm working on so I'm hoping there's a way of avoiding fiddling with each photo before importing them to iMovie. Can't find a solution, though.

Hey Hello.there
I just made a movie similar to what you are discussing. A slideshow of photos with a few small video clips thrown in. I had always liked iMovie HD but tried iMovie 08. I didn't like it at first and still miss some of the effects they removed from HD but my movie did come out good. Finished it off with iDVD and had a cool little DVD to hand out.

Thank you for that - I'd been trying out iMovie 08 again, having really not liked it at first, because I read that photos come out much better in it than iMovie HD (does anyone know why this is?). So I'll follow up your advice and give it another go - thanks again.

 

[gingi0]

I had the same problem. You have to create a new project in iMovie HD using HD settings (e.g. DV or 720p), not the standard settings. Then your photos will look as sharp as they do on iPhoto slide shows.

 

[MaddMacs]

FCE will work. Goolge key framing and ken burns effects there are tutorials out there that will guide you through it. No guarantees on the quality, though, I had a bit of trouble with the photos being interlaced on my monitor, and grainy when zoomed in. There is a learning curve.