Picture Slideshow Techniques

Elements of Consideration

Many elements play a part in making a good slideshow; for example, Mike Yared of DVD Photographs Inc. strongly suggests knowing your audience and choosing a variety of pictures that will interest them. WindowsMovieMaker.com suggests that when making a slideshow, you pay attention to a variety of features that can add professionalism and creativity, including picture clarity and organization, transition timing and audio effects.

Before adding pictures to a slideshow, it is important that you choose the best from your pictures and then make them as clear and free of imperfections as possible. Mike Yared of DVD Photographs Inc. recommends mostly using landscape-formatted photos instead of those in portrait format because screens dimensions are typically in a 4:3 ratio and landscape photos fit without gaps. The use of photo correcting programs, digital camera photo correction or the photo tools in the Windows Movie Maker program can eliminate problems with red eye, blurriness, incorrect lighting and wrongly rotated pictures, explains WindowsMovieMaker.com.

Timing is important in the creation of a good slideshow because you need to give the audience enough time to view each picture without boring them. Mike Yared explains that a typical slideshow of 8 to 12 minutes is sufficient for most gatherings with an allotted time of 3 to 5 seconds per picture. However, if you are giving a speech narrating the slideshow, the time on each picture should be increased to allow you to hit your main points. Transitions add creative interest to slideshows, explains DVDPhotographs.com. It notes that adding movement can enhance slideshow quality.

Adding audio features, such as narration or music, is a good way to give context to pictures and enhance the personality of your presentation.

Instead of having your pictures lay still on the slide, you can use a method called the "Ken Burns Method" in which zooming in and out on a picture adds motion to the slide.