Slideshow Presentation Specification?

I have been asked by a camera club to do a presentation on some of my images, to make sure they show their best via a laptop and projector to screen, what would the recommeded spec be for files.

I was thinking of saving my .tiff files as a 300dpi high quality jpeg, which will work out to be about 1MB per pic.
Most of the tiffs are 3000 pixels wide, landscape.

Is the above OK?

1920x1080 72dpi is standard for high def, 1080i.....

(landscape shots are best), "Ken Burns" pans and zooms are nice.....

so basically anything higher than screen res is going to tax your laptops video capabilities, and slow you down.

I get the highest quality, when I run my slideshows from Apples iPhoto, after setting aperture to share previews (set to fit 1920x1920, 72 dpi) then share the iPhoto images on an Appletv to project at 720p...

You need to really know what equipment your using and taylor it for that.....

if in doubt, burn your slideshow to dvd and run it of a dvd player... you may or may not get the best image quality possible, but at least you'll get predictable results, off unknown equipment....

Most standard projectors have a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. If this is what you are using, I would suggest you limit your pictures to the same. But as said above, check the specifications for the equipment available.

I have tried to make a DVD presentation of some pictures, but the result was terrible. Sharpness completely lost.

jpegs ? med high or max? any difference

I go highest quality....(you'll be down converting at some point to project) but you may not see any difference.
truth is even a high quality, high def projector isn't going to match a print, an old slide projector, or computer monitor....

I'd be more concerned about the projector, the laptop, and even HOW the laptop connects to the projector.

for example, my macbook...

I've got several of those little white box mini dvi adaptors... (from worst to best) (Mac specific advice here...)
video out (lowest quality, standard def)
s-video out (looks ok for dvd's)
vga out (lower res screen mode)
mini dvi to dvid out (or with dvid to hdmi cable(high res screen out) (will match best projectors).

you definately want the connector that'll give the fullest resolution the projector is capable of.

The best program to use is Pictures to Exe, which can be downloaded for a modest fee that includes a lifetime of free upgrades.

There is no point using large files as the screen will only show a 1024x768 image at 72ppi. Best therefore to use this size as the video card does not need to resample it.

For P2E prsentations the files should be JPEGs.

that looks a nice programme John, thanks for that, and thanks to all for info, will resize to 1024 width at 72dpi highest jpeg quality.

No need to wish you luck...You'll surely knock'em dead!
Have fun!

Always find out what the resolution of the projector is first, don't make presumptions that it will be 1024x768!

Ask them what resolution their projector is, if they do not know, ask them for the make and model then visit projector central and look for the native resolution.

Presuming you have a PC laptop, the vast majority of those have a VGA connection, as do the majority of projectors, so that would be the way to go, unless DVI / HDMI is available on both.

Most imaging software have decent enough slide show presentations that you can use without buying specific software, and I'm sure that there are plenty of freebies out there that would do a more than acceptable job. Would even recommend, if you have access to either, an XBOX 360, or a PS3 which has some cracking slide show options!

If you really want to get techy, using the laptop you can use the projector as just another external monitor. This causes problems for a lot of people because they set the laptop to do a mirror image of its screen for the projector. This is normally the wrong thing to do as normally the laptop and projector resolutions are different. What I normally do is set the projector up as another seperate screen, with a seperate resolution, which then leaves the laptop screen free for you to do other work on at the same time. Use a piece of software called Multimon, set up the hot keys, then you can instantly swap what's on the laptop screen to the projector screen.

Sounds like a pig to set up, but is actually very easy and is a very versatile setup as you can always set something up completely different (like a webpage for example, where you may have got inspiration from), to go straight onto the projector screen at the press of a button. Its great having a 2 screen setup where you can see both, but everyone else can only see the projected screen, and once you've got used to it becomes 2nd nature as it is so flexible.

Of course your camera club probably already has everything setup, and all they need from you is photos, in which case just resize them to the native projector resolution and let them do it all for you!

Lilly - pl also expect the projected image to be a less than perfect representation of your work. Images will appear "over exposed", so a lot of the richness of the colur will be lost - the lap top screen will look OK though and sometimes you may feel it useful to swing the lap top round so the audience can see it. As the audience is a camera club, they will be already aware of the limitations of the equipment from previous presentations.


Steve

Lilly,

Have a look at the For Sale section. You might find something of interest.

G

PS Posted here because I think (perhaps wrongly) that you browse selectively.

I know this is an old thread but one thing some might find useful.

If you use powerpoint, you can simply drop in your images (as jpegs) at whatever resolution you wish. When you have done (or the machine starts groaning), right click on the image and choose format picture from the pop-up menu. Then click on the "compress" button, choose all pictures in document and compress for web/screen. This will then compress all the photos in your document at one go saving quite a bit of time doing it an image at a time. I have seen 150mgb presentations drop to 5mgbs!

You may not like abandoning this to software in this way (especially for a photographic lecture) but as I give quite a few non-photography lectures (its my job after all) it saves me lots of time, and ppts compression routine isn't too bad. At the end of the day one is at the mercy of the projector and unless it is your own there isn't much you can do. I would suggest taking along some prints that people can look at during the after-lecture cup of tea...

In the fine art department they have refused to abandon slide projectors because of the control of colour they have with 35mm slides. Across the rest of college the slide projectors have been removed and junked.

Cheers, Kris.