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Teach yourself to make a slideshow with audio

Soundslides is a Flash authoring program developed for use by journalists and used by hundreds of online news organizations to present

slides with a soundtrack. Download soundslides to begin. You can download the program without paying anything and use it for free.

Your work will be labeled "Demo" unless you pay and register your copy of soundslides.

Read over the assembly instructions below before you go out with your camera. You can use any digital camera to shoot your images,

even your cellphone camera. You can download images right to your computer (iPhoto on Mac; Picasa on PC) or register for an online

photo host (flickr, picasa, photobucket, etc) and story your photos online. To get your phonecam pictures online, register for one of the online

hosts and the site will supply you with a phone number or email address that will let you move images from the phone to the Web and

then your computer.

Project instructions:

Goal: To create a slideshow with images, a soundtrack, and captions illustrates "Transportation to Work: My Style."

The Shoot

Step 1: Make sure your camera has batteries and check how many pictures your memory card (SD memory) will hold (the "menu" on the

camera display should show you that.) You need images that are about 300-400 pixels wide and at a resolution of 75 dpi. Set the resolution

on your camera. If your camera has a "better" setting, use that.

Step 2: If you are going to use a voice-over for your audio, bring your digital recorder. Otherwise, you can use any MP3 music file

that isn't "locked" by DRM.

Step 3: Take a photo at each stage of your journey to work. Try to end up with at least 10 photos. You will be able crop and do some

basic editing, but try and frame your shots. Watch your back (ground) -- is there a tree sticking out of someone's head? Go for

shots that have obvious or interesting caption possibilities. When in doubt, BRACKET, or take two shots of the same scene at

different camera settings (flash on, flash off or zoomed at different distances.) Remember you don't have to pay for digital

pictures that you look at and trash.

Step 4: Okay, you are ready to rock and roll with soundslides. Follow the steps below to make the greatest slideshow you

have ever made before.

Assembling the Slideshow

Step 1:BEFORE you open soundslides, you need to have created a FOLDER/Directory of edited, sized, and cropped images to use in your

slideshow. For the slideshow to work well when it is uploaded, limit your images to 400 - 450 pixels wide. If you don't know how to edit

your images look here Image editing and use.

Step 2:BEFORE you open soundslides, you need to have created your MP3 formatted sound track. (Note: newer versions of soundslides don't

require a soundtrack.) Your audio can be voice over or music, or both, as long as it an MP3 file.

Step 3: When you have slides and sound ready, open soundslides and follow the directions to add your slides and sound. Initially, soundslides

will make a timeline that is as long as your MP3, and it will divide the time equally among your photos. So, a 10 sec. MP3 with 10 slides will

show each slide for 1 sec. You can adjust this after the slideshow is created.

Step 4: Customize your slideshow by adding captions, credits, choosing a background color and adding a title.

Step 5: Try out your slideshow. Change as you like.

Step 6: When your slideshow is done, use the export command. Soundslides creates a variety of files. You do not need to know what

they all are for, but DO NOT MOVE or RENAME any of them. One folder is entitled "Publish to the Web" and it is what you will upload to

a website to put your show online.

Step 7: To watch your slideshow from your computer if you do not want to actually upload it to the Internet, simply open the file labeled "index.html

Advanced:

The link you created to your slideshow can be embedded in a blog or web page following these easy directions.