I have mentioned before that i do quite a bit of photography. As part of that I create slideshows. Slideshows are very, very popular at events like family reunions, birthday parties, wedding receptions, and class reunions. There is always laughter, and ooohs and ahhhs in the crowd as people watch old photos of themselves or loved ones pop up on the screen. After the event, the guest of honor is given a copy on DVD to be enjoyed at home. And other attendees very often ask for copies as well.
Creating a nice, eye-catching slideshow can be a lot of work. I have a program that I have used for years, and I still do love it. But, I was recently asked to review Wonder Share DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe and I must say that I am very impressed. You see the program that I usually use is not exactly for working with photos, but more so for creating movies, so while it does get the job done, sometimes I am limited in the effects that can actually be added to each photo.
Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe is all about slideshows which means it is all about photos. There are several things that you can do to each slide to fully customize them and make a stunning slideshow.
Some people think less is more, but when it comes to a slideshow for something fun like a birthday party, the flashier the better. The birthday boy or girl will squee in delight! 🙂 There are plenty of options to get that done!
Each photo can have a style applied to it. Some of the effects that can be added include fashion, holiday, and love themes. There are also cartoon effects, clipart, and fun effects like bubbles that can be added. I see myself having a ton of fun with this when it is time to create slideshows of my kids photos.
The program could not be easier to use. They take into account that not everyone is tech savvy, so there is a Standard Mode, which can automate just about everything for you. And for the more tech savvy there is an Advanced Mode. When you open the program you can choose which you want to use. Advanced Mode has the added advantage of allowing you to manually choose from a ton of transitions to be used between photos. This is right up my alley. It will start you out by preselecting a bunch for you, and you have the option of changing them.
And if the many options included in the program are still not enough you can download more free templates from the Wondershare website.
I created a couple of sample slideshows for the purpose of this post. Although it is a DVD slideshow creator it also allows you to save your movie for use on your computer or the internet. You can save as mp4, avi, wmv, mpeg, 3gp, and Flash. You can also save the files for use with your Apple device, or other mobile devices. And of course you can send it directly to YouTube. The below slideshow includes 20 photos taken on a trip to San Diego. I changed only a couple of the transitions that it populated for me and I added an intro and credits screen.
It took about 10-12 minutes to render the movie I think. I admit that I forgot to time it. Of course the more photos and transitions, etc. you use, the longer it will take to render. So, start it up and work on something else while you wait. I also uploaded this one manually to YouTube, but the automatic YouTube upload option works great as well.
Just imagine all of those photos that are now sitting on your computer hard drive making awesome gifts for family and friends.
Wondershare DVD Builder Deluxe can be purchased for $59.99. And it is worth every penny! Want to try it out first? You can download a free trial.
Disclosure: Although this is a compensated review post, all opinions are my own.
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