I have been having some fun with Aperture 3 today and am really digging how easy and fun it is to make a slideshow. There are a few different themes you can choose from while making a slideshow.
- Classic – This displays your images on the screen with no effects. Just one image after the other.
- Ken Burns – The famous effect that zooms and pans your images for added dramatic effect.
- Photo Edges – Displays the images with photo edges, sort of like if you had them in a photo album.
- Scrapbook – Automatically arranges your shots in to a “scrapbook” and displays them like you are looking at a scrapbook! (see the video sample on this page!)
- Shatter – A 3D effect where the transition is actually the image spinning and breaking apart. Kind of cool, but gimmiky.
- Sliding Panels – Images are presented in a series of panels with slide and wipe transitions.
- Snapshots – One of my favorites. The images float up in a collection of “snapshots” that float and scroll up the screen in random positions.
- Watercolor Panels – Bright “watercolor” backgrounds.
My faves are Snapshots and Scrapbook. I whipped up a quick slideshow to show you how fun they can be, and making one is so simple! I just clicked on “New”, then “Slideshow” and then I dragged and dropped images from my HD in to the timeline. I picked one of the fun songs included in Aperture 3 by Randy Newman and Aperture did all of the work!
To make a slideshow just choose “New” at the top of the Aperture screen and then in the drop down menu choose “Slideshow”. It’s so simple and the integration with other Apple products is awesome. After the slideshow was done it was one click to Itunes and Apple TV! Then I easily imported it to Imovie and added my main title, then one button click to youtube!
So here is a demo of a slideshow that took me under 20 minutes to do from start to finish. Just a bunch of old and new family shots set to “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” by Randy Newman, which is included in Aperture 3 as one of your Slideshow song choices.
I know other software has the slideshow options as well but I love the way Aperture 3 executes it. Plus the integration with other Apple products and software is so cool. BTW, B&H has Aperture 3 at a $10 savings over Apple, plus no tax 🙂
Very good job on this slideshow! It reminds me of all the old albums at my mother’s house.
Thanks Ed. Apple did release an update for it already today but still no m4/3 support 🙂 I have no idea how they overlooked that one but hopefully it will be coming soon.
Way cool! I made the decision to go with Lightroom early on but I’m seriously reconsidering Apreture again. I’m definitely going to use it for a family history project I’m starting (mostly scanned old photos) but I think I’ll also use it for a new street photography project I’ve started, even though it means I’ll have to reprocess the selects I’ve already captured. Luckily I’m doing most of my shooting for this project with a G1. The loooonnng lead time for Aperture support of new cameras, especially the newly popular M4/3s is a major concern.
I’d be very interested on any of your thoughts about Apreture 3 as you investigate it further.
-Ed