Soundslides Done Right

The Soundslide craze has swept the newspaper industry. Soundslides Plus is a cheap and easy way to produce audio slideshows with photographs and mp3 audio files. You can download a free demo version of Soundslides. The demo version is fully functional but puts a demo tag on the beginning of your project.
Soundslides Plus goes a step beyond the basic Soundslides program. The Plus version has lower thirds for adding names and titles beneath your photos and it allows you to add motion to photographs. The motion feature is also know as pan and scan or the Ken Burns effect which is widely used in documentary film making.

The Guru has some guidelines for producing Soundslides;
1. You must get good audio. Using an audio recorder with a microphone is key.
2. Keep it simple. 60-90 seconds is optimum.
3. A rule of thumb is 20 photos for every 90 seconds. You want each photo appear for at least 5 seconds.
4. Choose active subjects for your Soundslide project, community events, profiles of artists, actors and musicians and feature stories.
5. When editing your audio remember to include natural sound, it sets the scene and gives you good intro sound and closing sound.
6. Wide, medium and tight shots don’t just apply to video. Soundslide projects need the same attention to detail.
7. Find a character to anchor your story. The character in this story is compelling.
8. If you are using Soundslides Plus, you can add lower thirds and motion to your photographs. Don’t go overboard but one or two motion (Ken Burns effect) can reveal something in your show.
9. Don’t have your subject introduce him or herself during the audio edit. “I’m Val Hoeppner and I am the Manager of Multimedia Education at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute,” gets old. Use Soundslides Plus and add a lower third when the subject’s voice and photo come in.
10. Use a title slide and credit slide to start and finish your project. Text slides be created in Adobe Photoshop by creating a new file 600 pixels wide by 450 pixels high.