The aftermath — preparing your slide show

by Janet M. Denninger

A young friend of ours, the daughter of close friends, recently returned from a 2-month trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali. One afternoon she surprised us with a slide show of her pictures. It was on two CDs. Uh-oh!

First of all, I have to congratulate her on taking my advice and keeping her new Canon ELF digital point-and-shoot handy at all times. In fact, she hung it from a chain around her neck like jewelry and took many, many, many pictures.

With the camera’s tiny size, a large-capacity card and a small hard drive for storage, her posibilities were endless. She got some great shots. With this new digital technology, we all can shoot as much as we want without worry about running out of film or about the high cost of having it all developed later.

But there is a downside: include too many pictures in your show and you lose the attention of your audience.

To produce a truly exciting slide show, you must make some choices. You must reject some of those precious images. Each one is a memory, each a treasure. You have to favor some of your babies over others, and this is very hard to do.

A rule of thumb is that a show should last no longer than 45 minutes. After that, at least some of your audience will be nodding off. In the slide show we saw, my boyfriend missed most of Bali.

This doesn’t mean that you have to narrow your show to only the very best images. You are telling a story, so you need pictures to support the theme. You may have three or more stunning sunrise shots from Phuket, but you need to choose one. If your shots of the market in Bac Ha are a bit weak, you still should choose a couple of the best to show where you were and why.

Our friend captured wonderful pictures of herself and her traveling companions doing yoga surrounded by curious Thai children, posing like Buddha in a temple window, and enjoying wonderful Vietnamese dinners. But one or two of each is enough. Again, you have to make hard choices.

If it’s out of focus, it’s out. Favor pictures that are well composed, are well lit and clearly show the place. A great picture of a cat or of you against a wall might be anywhere. Choose shots that say “I’m in Cambodia.”

Mix it up with a variety of images: a vista, people, street scenes, some kids, details of a temple or a weaving, yourselves. . . . This way, the show stays fresh and interesting.

Your audience may not have been to these exotic places and may not understand exactly where you are. If you are in the room, you can talk about the shots, but many of us are sharing with friends and relatives across the country by CD or online. A dialogue added to the CD is nice but may be beyond your technical expertise, so look for signs, landmarks and other obvious clues to identify places.

Maps, souvenirs with a name on, flags and airport signs make good titles. Title shots can also be devised later by just writing down the location and other information on a card, then taking a shot to add into the show. Titles can be added in the computer with the software that came with your digital camera, but remember to save the original file without the text; you may want a full-size print sometime in the future.

Each picture should stay on the screen three to four seconds and blend nicely into the next. Your show should have a logical progression in time and from place to place, with a beginning, middle and end. Remember, you are telling the story of your trip.

Sharing your travels in photos is wonderful, for you and for your friends. A little time spent organizing and culling your shots will make the experience much more fun.