Creating Slideshows

Pipwax wrote on 8/18/2009, 5:17 PM

I need to creat a slideshow that will be shown on a large screen. any one have any idea what size I should make the Photos?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/18/2009, 6:33 PM

It depends on the resolution of the delivery method. If you're making a DVD then the resolution is fixed at about 655x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL. If you make your photos larger than this you're just wasting resolution.

If you're making a BluRay disc then your resolution is 1920x1080.

If you're playing the video on your computer going directly to a projector/monitor then the resolution will be whatever the projector/monitor can handle. Unless you have boatloads of cash, this is probably no better than 1920x1080, possibly less.

The only reason for using larger picture sizes than this is if you want to zoom in on the image. In that case, the image need be no larger than enough for the zoomed in area to match the above resolutions.

Pipwax wrote on 8/19/2009, 3:42 PM

This will be played on a DVD Player and shown on a projection screen. I don't have blu ray equipment. Standard USA equipment is NSTC?

Chienworks wrote on 8/19/2009, 6:09 PM

Correct. So your pictures will have a resolution of 480 lines high. No need to use pictures larger than this.

Tim L wrote on 8/19/2009, 6:34 PM

Correct. So your pictures will have a resolution of 480 lines high. No need to use pictures larger than this.

It's worth pointing out again (as Kelly did at the end of his first post) that many people (or dare I say most people?) do some zooming or panning on stills during slide shows just to liven things up. In this case, you'll want the photos to be > 480 lines high so that when you zoom in on them the zoomed part of your photo is at least 480 pixels high.

As a rough rule of thumb, consider scaling your photo to something 25% to 50% bigger than your target output in each dimension. Even doubling your output's pixel dimensions is reasonable. This gives you some room to zoom or pan and still retain sharpness.

So maybe scale the photos to 'whatever' x 600, or 'whatever' x 800. As Kelly suggests, it easiest to just think about the vertical pixels and let the horizontal pixels scale accordingly.

Tim L