Last week, Dominey Design, the makers of SlideShowPro, announced that they have created a new version of the popular slideshow software that works within Lightroom. Ever curious to find new ways of using Lightroom I downloaded a copy of the software and have been playing with it all weekend. The array of slideshow options is dizzying. The interface is excellent - basically it is like using any other module in Lightroom. The only downside to the interface is the bewildering number options. Hence, it will take some time to figure out all the possible changes that can be made. It is hard to call options a downside though - just more to figure out and I'm sure the results are worth it. Below is a screen shot in mid-production of a slideshow I made using SlideShowPro in Lightroom's web module.

Strangely enough the SlideShowPro software eliminates some keystrokes while working in Lightroom. For example, while in the web module - which is where you work with SlideShowPro - if you want to get back to the Library tapping the "G" key does nothing. You have to physically go up to the upper right menu to chose Library to get back to the grid. Not to worry though, the software is powerful and incredibly customizable and a little strangeness is worth it. Once you exit the web and SlideShowPro module then all of the keystrokes work normally.

Looking around the web, you might be surprised to find out how many photographers have used SlideShowPro to display their images on the web. I have seen a few websites that were pretty much entirely built around SlideShowPro galleries. As you can see in the sample slideshow layout below the resulting slideshows are simple and elegant.

While working on a recent slideshow I realized that for the best results, i.e. to have your images sized properly and sharpened correctly it is best to export the images and constrain them to the size that you'll create your slideshow. For example if you are creating a slideshow that is 800 x 600 pixels, export horizontal images so they are 800 pixels wide and verticals are 600 pixels tall. I would then apply some sharpening to the images in Photoshop (in a batch) and then re-import those images into Lightroom to build the slideshow so they will look their best. This is kind of a pain but it works nonetheless - and since I don't know how to use Flash very well it is easier to use SlideShowPro in Lightroom.

Once you are finished with your slideshow, you can preview it just as you can with any Lightroom web gallery and you can also export it to your desktop or upload it to a website directly from Lightroom. The SlideShowPro software pretty much acts just like any other web gallery template except it is building slideshows and flash web galleries. What would be nice is to be able to customize the gallery around the actual SlideShowPro interface in a similar manner as the other web templates offered by Adobe.

If you are interested in checking out SlideShowPro you can download a copy here.

At $25, the software won't be breaking any banks. It is one heck of a deal for the money. I am going to start playing around with a few slideshows and look into incorporating them on my website. I have put up a sample slideshow created in Lightroom just so you can check out what they look like. To see it go to:

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/slideshow/index.html

That's it for this session. See you next week.

Adios, Michael Clark