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Digital photography is a "next big thing" that sort of crept up on us. While digital music players like Apple's iPod are grabbing a lot of hot press headlines, (and there is now even a photo iPod), digital cameras have been quietly revolutionizing the photography sector -- both consumer and professional -- for the past five years or so. The Photo Marketing Association's 2004 Review and Forecast notes that in late 2003, digital cameras overtook traditional film units in sales, and by the end of 2004, 42 percent of all households are projected to have at least one digital camera.
This market phenomenon presents both challenges for users in editing, storing, organizing, and sharing their digital photos, and opportunities for software developers to create solutions and innovations. Photo To Movie is one of the slickest I've encountered in the category.
Photo To Movie uses a special algorithm to optimize each frame, which nearly eliminates flicker when played back on TV, a technique frequently employed by PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, for whom the effect is named. The program incorporates a number of preset motions which can be customized to achieve specific defects, such as zooming in to highlight faces in a group shot.
Photo To Movie of course doesn't animate your still photos, but what it does his let you create an illusion of motion, which makes your slide show look at and "feel" more like video then a static, still photo slide show.
You can view a gallery of Photo to Movie movies at:
http://lqgraphics.com/software/
With Photo To Movie, you can create multiple "segments of motion" such as when you pause repeatedly to scrutinize each face in a group shot when looking at a photographic print. Photo To Movie lets you emulate this by pausing to hold the view anywhere in the range for as long as you choose to configure. You can also ease into and out of motion to make transitions even smoother, and photos can be rotated as well to add visual interest. Photo to Movie allows you to set the motion of the duration along the entire motion path, not just the individual segments.
There are probably a dozen or more slide show applications for OS X, but Photo To Movie takes you beyond the display of static images, adding gentle zooms, pans, fades and rotations to your photo presentation -- a technique known as the "Ken Burns effect," along with titles and background sound track support.
More advanced effects are also supported, such as and crossed motion paths, cross dissolves, wipes, and cute transfers. However, while Photo To Movie has a deep inventory of features, some of which we will get to in a moment, its basic functionality is very easy to use and simple to learn. In a nutshell, to create a basic movie slide show takes just a few minutes with a simple six-step process.
1. Drag a photo or a collection of photos to a new Photo To Movie document window.
2. Edit specific motion effects and photo to a photo transitions using the time line editor. To create simple zoom effects, just drag the key frames to define where the zoom will start and finish. The frames are helpfully color coded green for where the zoom begins and red for where it ends. A blue line pointing from the green frame to the red frame indicates the direction of motion when the movie is played. The multiple key frame view lets you see all of the key frames and the motion path on a single photo. You can edit the individual frames and the characteristics of the motion path by direct manipulation or by selecting the key frames or motion paths and editing their characteristics in the inspector. The single key frame view lets you see the portion of a photo framed by a single key frame. You can edit the position of the key frame by directly dragging the photo or by using the inspector.
3. Add titles and credits. Choose the typeface, size, style, and color (including transparency). If you're running OS 10.3, you can add great looking drop shadows. Position titles by direct dragging, and fade them in and out for smooth display.
4. Add music and/or record voice narration. You can adjust the timing of the music using the timeline and cross fade music pieces by overlapping them. Use the waveform to synchronize motion with specific sounds within your music.
5. Preview your movie in real time to see how it looks and sounds � edit and modify where appropriate
6. Export your completed movie to a QuickTime file and store it on your hard drive for playback or burn it to a DVD or CD to archive or share with others.
That's basically it -- all accomplished in a single, relatively intuitive and user friendly application window and various attendant dialog boxes. The learning curve for Photo To Movie's basic functionality is not steep, and you can be up and running in a few minutes with the help of the clear and concise Quick Start Guide.
For something a bit more complex, we can make a circular motion path.
1. Create a new document by choosing File > New.
2. Drag your photo from the Finder to the new document.
3. Select multiple key frame view.
4. Select sequence view.
5. You will have two key frames already in place. Select the first key frame (the green one).
6. Drag the size of the green key frame until it is roughly 1/4 of the full size of the photo.
7. Choose Edit > Select All or press Command-A to select the other key frame too.
8. Choose Edit > Align > Align Sizes. Both key frames should now be the same size, roughly 1/4 of the full size of the photo.
9. Add three more key frames by clicking on the last + button three times.
10. You will now have five key frames. From left to right in the sequence view, click on the key frames. Arrange them so that the blue path forms a diamond shape.
11. The green and yellow key frames should be on the left of the diamond. The red key frame should be on the top. The blue on the right and the purple on the bottom.
12. Choose Edit > Select All or press Command-A to select all of the key frames.
13. In the inspector, uncheck the Stop motion at this frame button. Then check the B�zier button. Doing this will change the motion path to a curved, circular motion path.
14. Click on the blue motion path in the sequence view.
15. Set the duration of the motion path to 10 seconds in the inspector.
16. Press the Spacebar to play your movie.
17. You can adjust your B�zier paths to make the motion perfectly smooth.
Photo to Movie can do much more than this (see full features list in the Appendix below), but you're getting the idea.
Photo To Movie is designed from scratch to work with digital still photos, rather than as an add-on to full-motion video software. Both wide screen (16:9) and QuickTime VR are supported. No competing application, including iMovie, iDVD, Still Life, or even the more than five times as expensive Moving Picture Producer of can match Photo To Movie feature-for-feature.
I fell in love with this application in the first ten minutes. For the past nine months or so, I have been scanning my 30+ year collection of photographic prints and slides into digital format, and Photo To Movie opens up a whole new world of potential for displaying them.
For my first Photo To Movie project, I used a collage of photos of my beloved old 1967 MGB. In less than half an hour, I had put together a very slick and professional looking little movie, although I had barely scratched the surface of what Photo To Movie can do. The possibilities seem endless. Very cool.
And I can't overemphasize how easy and pleasant this software is to use. Its a Mac-only application, and it exemplifies the elegant, intuitive quality that always has been characteristic of the best Mac software.
At $49.95, Photo To Movie is inexpensive enough to appeal to casual consumer users who can employ it to enhance the entertainment value of their vacation, birthday, special event, and so forth snapshots. However, it's also powerful enough to be a valuable tool for skilled amateur photographers, photographic professionals, and computer graphic artists � essentially anyone with the desire or need to present digital photos in more innovative, entertaining and artistic ways than as possible using standard static slide show software.
Businesses might also use Photo To Movie to create presentations, product and service promotions, and training tutorials, that for example could employ a zoom effect to highlight specific elements of a product or instructional technique, or gentle motion to direct the customer's attention to particular points.
Wedding photographers could use Photo To Movie to create spectacular DVD photo albums for their clients, and presentations to promote their work. The program also strikes me as full of potential as a classroom tool, both for creating an instructional presentations and for student multimedia projects.
Photo To Movie doesn't even require especially fast or powerful Mac hardware. The minimum operating system supported is OS 10.2, and the suggested minimum hardware is a 400 MHz G4 with 256 megabytes of RAM.
It certainly started up and ran smoothly and smartly on my 550 MHz G4 Pismo PowerBook, with no lags or hesitation noticed in the program functions, although saving movies to disk in QuickTime format was, well, less than "quick." That should be much less of an issue on any current Mac.
Stability seems excellent as well, and I have so far encountered no evident bugginess. There are a few shortcomings that I noted -- the worst being that it doesn't properly support vertical compositions.
In summary, however, I have almost all good things to say about Photo To Movie. It's modestly priced, performs as advertised, and does very cool things with your digital photos. I have no hesitation giving it a full 5-star Applelinks rating.
Photo to Movie 3.1.11 (December 6, 2004) is a free upgrade for users who have purchased or upgraded to version 2.5 or later.
For more information, visit:
http://lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
or
http://lqgraphics.com/software/
Appendix
Recent New Features
Adjust the audio volume of individual audio tracks.
Record voice narration for your movie.
Insert blank images into your movie.
Add titles to your movie.
Use a variety of new transitions between photos.
Inspector now displays original file location.
Inspector text turns red when key frames are below required resolution.
Stretch all photos at once for easy adjustment to audio duration.
Significant performance improvements, especially with hundreds of photos.
Benefits
Brings the power of complex Hollywood effects to all users.
Create movies from your photos, ready to export to DVD.
Add a soundtrack by dragging in music.
Add titles with the full power of Mac OS X font technology.
Easy to use with built-in preview of rendered movie.
Focus audience attention on specific parts of a photo.
Smooth motion along B�zier paths with easing in and out.
Timeline editing to set motion durations and cross dissolve durations.
Frame by frame rendering optimization to avoid aliasing effects that cause flicker.
Motion at constant speed over curved, multi-segment paths, resulting in smooth movement.
Features
Photos
Drag photos from the Finder or iPhoto into Photo to Movie or its dock icon.
Flip and rotate source photos by 90 degrees.
Automatically reads EXIF tags for proper photo orientation.
Use any QuickTime photo format, including JPEG and TIFF.
Use QuickTime VR movies too.
Handles large photos, non-standard d.p.i., and non-standard pixel formats with ease.
Insert blank images into your movie.
Key Frames
Preview any frame in the movie using the timeline.
Move to any key frame using the graphical key frame sequence list.
Zoom, pan, and rotate key frames directly using the mouse.
Enter specific values for zooming, panning, and rotation directly using the inspectors.
Make minor adjustments using arrow keys to nudge frames and paths.
Edit key frames by viewing them as they will export, or as frames on the source photo.
Optionally display title safe markers while editing.
Rearrange key frames by cutting and pasting.
Warning indicator (red text) in inspector when resolution too low.
Motion Paths
Use predefined motion presets for common motions over your photos.
Preview movie in realtime using timeline preview.
Adjust eases, motion durations, and cross dissolve durations using the timeline.
Create multi-segment motion paths the smoothly follow straight lines or B�zier paths.
Control the speed along a motion path by easing into and out of motion.
Keep motion at constant speed over curved, multi-segment paths, resulting in smooth movement.
Rearrange motion paths by cutting and pasting.
Titles
Add titles to describe your movie.
Choose the font, style, size, and position of titles.
Easy drop shadows if you're using Mac OS X 10.3.
Position titles by dragging them.
Adjust title timing by using the timeline.
Soundtrack
Add a soundtrack to enhance your movie.
Drag music from the Finder into Photo to Movie.
Record voice narration for your movie.
Preview the movie and soundtrack in realtime using the timeline.
Adjust the audio volume of individual audio tracks.
Adjust the timing of the soundtrack using the timeline.
Set the in/out times and the fade in/out durations for each track.
Transitions
Choose from a variety of transitions between photos.
High quality cross dissolves, wipes, slides, pushes, and more.
Color burst and slide changer transitions too.
Rendering
Optimize rendering frame by frame to avoid aliasing effects that cause flicker.
Render cross dissolves using professional quality custom cross dissolve algorithm.
Exporting
Export to widescreen (16:9) or normal (4:3) movies.
Export to any QuickTime format, including e-mail, web, CD-ROM, and DV.
Export to NTSC or PAL.
Usability
Includes online help and tutorials.
Localized in English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Reviews ï Utilities Reviews ï MooresViews ï
