Posted on November 13, 2008 by Heidi Sogn

Christmas Gift Idea: A Photo DVD

Okay, so I know photo DVD’s aren’t exactly breaking news but I wanted to share a software program that I think is pretty cool (all you Mac users can just ignore this posting because I’m sure you have even cooler programs at your fingertips. This posts’s for PC users).

I have always loved making slide shows out of photos. I’m a sentimental fool who loves technology so it’s a natural fit and somehow I became the go-to slide show queen for my friends and family. I made slide shows for weddings, funerals, retirement parties, birthday parties, vacations, you name it and I always used to use PowerPoint. PowerPoint worked fine for what I was doing but it’s more of a presentation tool so I had to get a little creative at times. Plus adding music was a bit touchy because only certain formats worked. Plus the timing was inconsistent and I never was able to successfully burn the show onto a DVD.

Then my dad got me started on ProShow Gold made by Photodex. It’s really easy to use. Anyone can create professional looking slideshows and burn them on to a DVD. You can easily add photos, music, video, menus, voice over, narrative, etc.

So, here’s an idea for Christmas. If you’re making a DVD for someone, narrate it by recording your own voice. You could even go a step further and interview other people telling stories to go along with the music and photos.  Videos work well too if you can pull it off.  Just a short personalized intro or story takes the slide show from being really cool to being a treasured keepsake.

You can use a program like RealPlayer to mix the voiceover onto the song, adding fade ins and outs.

As an example, for my parent’s retirement party, I had my aunt in Germany leave me a voicemail message describing life with my mom growing up. I then transferred the voicemail to my computer and used her story in the slide show. Imagine my mom’s surprise when during the slide show she suddenly heard her sister’s voice, speaking in German no less.  Imagine all of our surprise when my aunt, uncle and cousin decided this was a party they didn’t want to miss and flew in from Germany just for the party. It was priceless and it all started from the slideshow!  
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