Sunday, April 20, 2008

How to Put Photos on a DVD for Storage and Share

by Jessica

Now today in a digital world, many digital photographers always face to tons of digital photos in the laptop and confuse how to deposit and share in a better way. As a shutterbug, I prefer to put photos on DVDs for storage and share.

DVDs are a great way to backup photos from computer for storage and share. With inexpensive prices, a standard single layer DVD can store 4.7GB of data while a dual layer one has a capacity of 8.5GB and both easily to be burned copies by common DVD writer for share. For larger capacity, Blu-ray disc (25 GB single layer, 50 GB dual layer, 100GB 4 layer, 200GB 8 layer) may be a better choice. But problems of these high-tech products are not only the costliness of BD discs, reader, writer and player but also the non-popular of use and result in the disaster of share. So, I still use the common DVDs.

In order to start putting photos on DVDs, a DVD writer is needed. The speed of the writer all depends on what type of DVD drive you have. 1X DVD write speed indicates that the DVD writer can burn your data roughly the same speed that a DVD player can read a DVD. So if your DVD writer writes at 16X that's 16 times faster.

You don’t need to burn a specially formatted disc but just a regular data DVD full of digital photos if you own a DVD player with built-in slide-show features for viewing JPEG images. Lots of new type DVD players have the features such as Sony DVP-NS57P, Pioneer DV-490V-S, LG DN788, Panasonic DVD-S53S/K, Philips DVP5982 and etc. Different types of players with different play menu, photo quantity limitation and so on. So, DVDs display in this style via my Sony player but that on my friend’s Panasonic.

If your DVD player doesn’t have such features, creating DVD photo slide shows via apps will be help and it is a much more stunning and professional way for storage and share. Bellows are kinds of apps.

1. Free apps that can create photo slideshows.

Google’s Picasa, is a free software download from Google. Picasa can make photo slideshows with simple clicks and copy files to DVD media using both the "Backup" and "Gift CD" features, but DVDs create by Picasa can not be played on all types of DVD players.

Windows Movie Maker 2, included free in XP and Vista, helps to create AVI or WMA slideshows. Although it doesn’t natively burn DVDs playable by many DVD players, Windows Movie Maker has many powerful features (say exquisite effects) to magnetize users and adding DVD writing capabilities to Windows Movie Maker with inexpensive applications will figure it out.

2. Commercial apps wholly make for creating DVD slide shows.

Nero PhotoShow Deluxe 5 ($39.99) is famous and powerful software which includes a massive amount of slide-show-authoring options for photo DVDs. Nero has a 15-day trial for PhotoShow Deluxe, while the free PhotoDVD trial lets you create slide shows with up to 100 images. As a sub-product from Nero, it has highly stability on its writing capability.

DVD Slideshow Builder 4 ($39.95), another professional and popular app that can create DVD photo slideshows with photos, video clips and music in high-resolution HD DVD video format and burn directly. It provides a free trial version with Watermark on output, 30-day trial limitation. What it attract me is its plenty 2D/3D transitions and Ken-Burns effects.

Although photo online sharing is a hot trend, such as Flick.com, DVDs displayed via TV set and player can not be instead by other things. It is in a popular style for years.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Introducing New Wondershare Photo Software Website...

Hi, everybody,

Wondershare have just released a brand-new designed official website http://www.photo-to-dvd.com/index.html for their Photo Software ( includes Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder, Flash Slideshow Builder and Photo Collage Studio ).

DVD Slideshow Builder

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

How to create DVD movie with Photo Story Platinum

Making great looking DVDs at home is a lot of fun. In this column, I explain how to use Photo Story Platinum to create a home video with your digital photos so you'll have the best experience burning it to DVD and later viewing it on TV.



At first, Download Wondershare Photo Story Platinum and run it on your computer

Step 1. Add your favorite photos and music

Run Photo Story Platinum, you will see the interface as below. Create your own album, and then import your digital photos and background music. Besides drag and drop to add photos to story board, you can also realize it by double click.

Tip: For changing the photos position on the story board, you can directly drag it to where you wish.




Step 2. Apply the animated templates

The big deal of Photo Story Platinum is "template" style. It offers 200+ animated effects templates to satisfy all your demands for any special occasion. In order to create a stunning flash slideshow, you can choose the dazzling templates to apply flash effects. When you select one template, drag it to the timeline, then double click it to preview the real-time effect in corresponding region below.

Tips: You can select the basic template to single photo, or apply the advanced and themed template to group relative photos. The special group effect templates can make your home movie more funny.




Want to watch more Free templates , you can visit:

http://www.ourpix.com/theme.html


Step 3. Set Intro/ End animation

This software offers different excellent Intro/End effects to choose from, just preview and pick your favorite. You can also add your album information, such as title, director, cast, etc, and set the text effects like movie style.







Step 4. Select the decorative elements

Here you can add your customized text caption with different text effects, stunning scene effect, animated clipart and sound in flexible timeline.



Step 5. Publish DVD movie and share it on TV

After you preview the whole photo movie and feel satisfied with the effect, select "Publish" tab and click "Author/Burn DVD". Make sure your parameter setting and then hit the "next" button, Photo Story Platinum will do the rest.

When finished burning, you can play it on TV using a home DVD player and show your creativity. Enjoy the movies with your family or friends together!


Want to watch more Free DVD-templates , you can visit:

http://www.ourpix.com/resource.html









If you want to experience it yourself, click the link below to get the free trial :

http://download.ourpix.com/psp_trial.exe

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Create Easter Slideshow without flash skills

Boost up your creativity for Easter! There are many tutorials about creating Easter slideshow with flash skills,but Photo Story Platinum added some new features that simplify this obviously. This tutorial shows you the major steps for creating Easter slideshow within few minutes.Things you'll need:

1. Your digital photos in Easter;
2. Digital photo album maker (Wondershare Photo Story Platinum is recommended);
3. Your favorite music (Optional, as backgroud music for movie).

Let's begin now !

Step 1. Start the program to add your favorite photos and music

Run Photo Story Platinum(Get free trial here:http://download.photo2vcd.com/psp_trial.exe), you will see the interface as below. Create your own album, and import your digital photos and background music. Besides drag and drop to add photos to story board, you can also realize it by double click.
Tips: For changing the photos position on the story board, you can directly drag it to where you wish; Choose View size by right click in size region.


Step 2. Apply the animated styles

The big deal of Photo Story Platinum is “styles". It offers 200+ animated effects styles to satisfy all your demands for any special occasion. In order to create a stunning flash slideshow, you can choose the dazzling styles to apply flash effects. When you select one style, drag it to the timeline, then double click it to preview the real-time effect in corresponding region below.
Tips: You can select the basic style to single photo, or apply the advanced and themed style to group relative photos. The special group effect styles can make your travel story more interesting.



Want to watch more Free Styles, you can visit:

http://www.photo2vcd.com/theme.html

Step 3. Set Intro/ End animation

Gorgeous Intro/End animation effects can give people profound first impression. This software offers different excellent Intro/End effects to choose from, just preview and pick your favorite. You can also add your album information, such as title, director, cast, etc, and set the text effects like movie style.



Step 4. Select the decorative elements

To make your flash photo album more funny and lively, adding some adorable elements is absolutely necessary. Here you can add your customized text caption with different text effects, stunning scene effect, animated clipart and sound in flexible timeline.


Step 5. Publish

After you preview the whole photo slideshow and feel satisfied with the effect, select "Publish" tab and click "Author/Burn DVD ". And then select the album you want to burn from "album category", you can add up to 5 different albums on one DVD.



Want to watch more Free DVD-MENU templates , you can visit:

http://www.photo2vcd.com/resource.html

Step 6. Select DVD-MENU

Variety of built-in DVD-memu templates are offered for family, love, business and other occasions, what's more, you can add background music and story title to make it look more wonderful!


Step 7. Finish !

Make sure your parameter setting and check "Burn to disk", all left to do are hit the "Create" button and Photo Story Platinum will do the rest.



When finished, share Easter Slideshow on TV with your family and friends together. It's really a happy thing!

Download the free trial and create your own slideshow

Watch new animated styles of Photo Story Platinum

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Create Myspace flash slideshow banner for business

Still confusing how to promote your products or service? Just start to get a Myspace for building business platform. Today, Myspace is fast becoming a great place to network with business professionals! An elegance profile page or blog with flash presentation will first help you grasp lots of eyeballs from tons of Myspace users and attract like-minded individuals in the next place. This tutorial will mainly show you how to create a flash banner to make your Myspace profile and blog more attractive in just simple steps.




Here's what you'll need:

1. Myspace Account

2. Pictures related to your business

3. Flash Slideshow Maker



In the following how-to, I'll create a flash banner for an outdoor sports organization to show their concept about "Sports Make Life Easier!" which may attract the outdoorsy to join in.


Step 1: Get the Flash Software
Download Flash Slideshow Maker , then install and run it.



Step 2: Browse

Import the pictures related to your business, and then process with the built-in editing tool if needed, which include some basic functions like crop, rotate, filter, etc. Especially, you can add a hyperlink for each picture here. Below are pictures about outdoor sports.





















Step 3: Theme & Effect

Here I choose the default theme “RedRight” and “Fade” transition effect. After that, right click on one photo on the Story Board to set the “Duration Setting”. Set “Picture Duration” as 2 sec and “Transition Duration” as 1 sec, then check the option “Apply all settings to all pictures”.



See more Free  flash Templates:








Step 4: Decorate

“Decorate” each picture with texts. Click “New Text” to add texts, select font, size, color, text effect, etc. for your photos. Here I select Font “Happy”, Size “22”, Color “Gold”, Effect “Fade”.







Step 5: Publish

Modify some “Publish Settings” to make the flash banner the best and then click “Create SWF Movie” .






Step 6: Embed into Myspace

Upload the Flash SWF file to any web hosting, and get the URL address of the Flash SWF file. If you don't have a web host, you can upload your flash file to Google Sites for FREE.




Open http://sites.google.com/, sign in with your Gmail account. Check the option "I agree to the terms", click the button "I am ready to create my pages" below, and login.

Click "Choose File" button at the bottom, then browse and select the Flash SWf file on your local hard disk, upload it.

Now, the uploaded file will be listed in the "Attachments".
Now you have uploaded the Flash SWF file to Google Page, you should get the URL address of the SWF file and note it. In Internet Explorer, you can simply click the file, open it with IE, and copy the link address in the address bar. If you are using Firefox, you may right click on the file, in the popup menu, click "Copy Link Location", and get the link address. The link address should look similar to: http://sites.google.com/site/wondersharefamily/Home/index.swf

Login your Myspace account and click "Profile" on the "Control Panel" which bellow your Profile photo.
Before add the HTML code to "AboutMe" or any other sections, please Replace the SWF file link code "http://www.flash-slide-show.com/.../banner550.swf" with your own SWF file URL (http://sites.google.com/site/wondersharefamily/Home/index.swf).





Related Tutorials:
XML Slideshow
Html Photo Gallery
Flash Image Scroller
Flash Slideshow Tutorial
Flash 3D Carousel
Flash Image Gallery
Flash Image Rotator