If you have
never heard of Photodex, and you love to create
photo shows or multimedia presentations, Then you
really must consider the products they have to
offer. In this review we will be considering their
top of the range flag ship package PRO SHOW
PRODUCER 3.0. This software application has not
long been released as an upgrade to the previous
version 2.0 , but I can tell you that there are
some exciting new features. But before we consider
these, I think first I should inform you about its
main features and benefits.
First of all, it should be noted that this package is designed for the professional in mind, anybody that would consider spending $250 on presentation software does so because of the nature of the business their in, as well as the fact that they have very a good grasp of presentation and how computer software technology can manipulate graphics and other media for stunning and top of the range professional output.
First of all let us consider the graphic user interface, you would think that this would look cluttered and complicated, but I was surprised to see that it really looks identical to the home user version of Pro Show Gold 3.0 (which will be considered in a further article.), what immediately strikes you is how the buttons are clearly marked and defined for quick and easy access, there is a screen to your right, and windows explorer to your left, and the buttons we have just described situated along the top of the interface, all the windows can be resized for personal preference, once I took a good look and explored some of its tools, I began the next step of visiting their website to watch a series of tutorials and watch some presentations created by other users, this is something I would recommend, in that order, it really prepares you for use of the application. Watching these it provided me inspiration of what I could do if I familiarise myself with the interface, I was astounded at the power of the program, never before had I have ever seen so much potential in one graphical presentation software, really your imagination is your only limitation.
Secondly let us outline its main features :
Layers
• Add an unlimited number of layers to any slide.
• Drag and drop to easily add content to a show.
• Supports 100+ file types.
• Transparency support for PSD, PNG, TIFF and GIF files.
• New! Turn any layer into a fully-customized mask to conceal or reveal aspects of
underlying layers.
• New! Add a gradient or solid color as a slide layer to a layer to get incredible results.
• Spice up a presentation using interactive slide actions to launch PDFs, spreadsheets,
Web pages and more.
• New! Set transition effects for individual layers.
Editing
• Optimize your workflow using built-in image correction tools like sharpen, colorize,
saturate and more.
• New! Create enhanced borders for your photos and videos with ProShow Producer's all-
new vignette effect.
• New! Create Hollywood-style greenscreen effects with the all-new Chroma Key
Transparency Tool.
• Specify opacity for any layer on a slide.
• New! Add depth to your composition by adjusting the color and opacity of a shadow on
any layer in a slide.
• New! Crop and rotate your photos and videos with precision.
• New! Use the red-eye removal tool to correct any photo in your show in seconds.
Effects
• New! Use adjustment effects to produce spectacular effects. Make a video move through
color shifts or create a sequence of photo fades.
• New! Add multiple keyframes to each adjustment effect.
Motion
• Add motion like pan, zoom and rotate to any layer on a slide for a cinematic effect.
• New! Zoom X and Y coordinates for a layer individually and zoom out further than ever
before.
• New! Create complex motion paths by setting multiple keyframe points on the keyframe
timeline.
• New! The fully-customizable slide preview grid allows you to accurately position your
photos and videos on a slide.
Captions
• Control the font, size and color of captions in your slides.
• New! Use caption keyframing to create multiple caption motion effects on a single slide.
• New! Animate your captions with more amazing effects to choose from than ever before.
• Add interactive captions to launch actions like Pause, Resume, Next Slide, Previous
Slide, Write Email and many more.
• New! Gain greater design control over captions with ProShow Producer's new caption
styles, caption line spacing and caption character features.
Music and Sounds
• Enhance slide shows by dropping in any MP3 or WAV audio file.
• Save an audio track directly from a CD and drop it right into your slide show.
• Crop your audio and set fades using the built-in Audio Trimmer.
• New! Built-in soundtrack waveform in slide list.
Backgrounds
• New! Add interest to your slide shows with solid colors, gradients, or videos as
backgrounds.
• New! Use the new, built-in backgrounds to spruce-up your slide shows.
• Control the adjustment levels of your background content.
ProShow Prodcuer 3.0 Output Formats
• DVD (with PC playback)
• VCD (with PC playback)
• Autorun CD
• Self-contained EXE
• Share shows via email
• Streaming web show
• Free online show sharing
• New! Streaming Flash video
• New! Compressed AVI
• New! Uncompressed AVI
• New! QuickTime video
• New! High definition video (HD)
• New! Windows Media Video (WMV)
• MPEG 1 and 2
• Screensaver
Productivity
• Use slide show templates to boost productivity.
• ProShow Producer provides native support for RAW files from digital cameras.
• Use ProShow Producer's Projects mode to streamline workflow.
• New! ProShow Producer's refreshed user interface includes a soundtrack waveform, a new slide options dialog and a favorites pane.
• New! Get a close-up view of your work with a click of the mouse using the new Full Screen View.
• New! Recover moved or misplaced files from a show easily with the new Find Missing Files feature.
• New! Take complete control over show timing with the new timeline view.
Business Oriented Features
• New! Capture Frames feature allows you to output JPeG files of each slide for printing.
• Watermark all the slides in your show with one click.
• Include your personal branding information and logo on PC shows and DVD menus to promote your business.
• Copy Protect CDs and EXE slide shows from unauthorized copying.
As you can see there are many reasons why a professional or enthusiast would purchase such a powerhouse application, for instance my personal favourite is the ability to add unlimited amount of layers, simply by pressing the CTRL key as you drag and drop into the timeline, by clicking the storyboard thumbnail you bring up a pop up interface that allows you to have complete control over the effects, motion, captions, plus much more, you can set default programs to edit pictures video and music.
Additionally another new feature that I am pleased to see is the Flash Video export, mainly I am a mac user and so if anyone uses mac it is going to be difficult but not impossible to view presentations, so I feel FLV format is a welcome new output feature. Add to this 280 quality transitions, and preset masks Vignettes, Zoom Control, Key Framing tools to amaze your audience, I feel this is money well spent.But this software is not just for Photographers it also great for Corporate and Business presentations.
I have to say there is much more that could be said about this application, I could spend several more hours trying to put into words the immense power of this program, one of the nice things about Photodex is really that they are the pioneers of the TRY BEFORE YOU BUY policy commonly known as shareware, So I wholeheartedly ask you to give this a try, you will not be disappointed, I am going to make a statement of fact now by saying “THIS IS IN MY OPINION THE BEST PHOTO PRESENTATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND IT CAN’T BE BEAT”
A bold statement ! I know, well everyone is entitled to their opinion. Consider what you can do with photo presentations, and try to think of something Pro Show Producer 3.0 can’t do, that is indeed a challenge, it has everything a professional could ever want, I feel very privileged to be asked to review this software package. If you feel $250.00 is to much to justify, then you will be pleased to know that ProShow Gold 3.0 is available, and has power too, but with not quite as many features, however they do not skimp on them either. Look out for that review.
First of all, it should be noted that this package is designed for the professional in mind, anybody that would consider spending $250 on presentation software does so because of the nature of the business their in, as well as the fact that they have very a good grasp of presentation and how computer software technology can manipulate graphics and other media for stunning and top of the range professional output.
First of all let us consider the graphic user interface, you would think that this would look cluttered and complicated, but I was surprised to see that it really looks identical to the home user version of Pro Show Gold 3.0 (which will be considered in a further article.), what immediately strikes you is how the buttons are clearly marked and defined for quick and easy access, there is a screen to your right, and windows explorer to your left, and the buttons we have just described situated along the top of the interface, all the windows can be resized for personal preference, once I took a good look and explored some of its tools, I began the next step of visiting their website to watch a series of tutorials and watch some presentations created by other users, this is something I would recommend, in that order, it really prepares you for use of the application. Watching these it provided me inspiration of what I could do if I familiarise myself with the interface, I was astounded at the power of the program, never before had I have ever seen so much potential in one graphical presentation software, really your imagination is your only limitation.
Secondly let us outline its main features :
Layers
• Add an unlimited number of layers to any slide.
• Drag and drop to easily add content to a show.
• Supports 100+ file types.
• Transparency support for PSD, PNG, TIFF and GIF files.
• New! Turn any layer into a fully-customized mask to conceal or reveal aspects of
underlying layers.
• New! Add a gradient or solid color as a slide layer to a layer to get incredible results.
• Spice up a presentation using interactive slide actions to launch PDFs, spreadsheets,
Web pages and more.
• New! Set transition effects for individual layers.
Editing
• Optimize your workflow using built-in image correction tools like sharpen, colorize,
saturate and more.
• New! Create enhanced borders for your photos and videos with ProShow Producer's all-
new vignette effect.
• New! Create Hollywood-style greenscreen effects with the all-new Chroma Key
Transparency Tool.
• Specify opacity for any layer on a slide.
• New! Add depth to your composition by adjusting the color and opacity of a shadow on
any layer in a slide.
• New! Crop and rotate your photos and videos with precision.
• New! Use the red-eye removal tool to correct any photo in your show in seconds.
Effects
• New! Use adjustment effects to produce spectacular effects. Make a video move through
color shifts or create a sequence of photo fades.
• New! Add multiple keyframes to each adjustment effect.
Motion
• Add motion like pan, zoom and rotate to any layer on a slide for a cinematic effect.
• New! Zoom X and Y coordinates for a layer individually and zoom out further than ever
before.
• New! Create complex motion paths by setting multiple keyframe points on the keyframe
timeline.
• New! The fully-customizable slide preview grid allows you to accurately position your
photos and videos on a slide.
Captions
• Control the font, size and color of captions in your slides.
• New! Use caption keyframing to create multiple caption motion effects on a single slide.
• New! Animate your captions with more amazing effects to choose from than ever before.
• Add interactive captions to launch actions like Pause, Resume, Next Slide, Previous
Slide, Write Email and many more.
• New! Gain greater design control over captions with ProShow Producer's new caption
styles, caption line spacing and caption character features.
Music and Sounds
• Enhance slide shows by dropping in any MP3 or WAV audio file.
• Save an audio track directly from a CD and drop it right into your slide show.
• Crop your audio and set fades using the built-in Audio Trimmer.
• New! Built-in soundtrack waveform in slide list.
Backgrounds
• New! Add interest to your slide shows with solid colors, gradients, or videos as
backgrounds.
• New! Use the new, built-in backgrounds to spruce-up your slide shows.
• Control the adjustment levels of your background content.
ProShow Prodcuer 3.0 Output Formats
• DVD (with PC playback)
• VCD (with PC playback)
• Autorun CD
• Self-contained EXE
• Share shows via email
• Streaming web show
• Free online show sharing
• New! Streaming Flash video
• New! Compressed AVI
• New! Uncompressed AVI
• New! QuickTime video
• New! High definition video (HD)
• New! Windows Media Video (WMV)
• MPEG 1 and 2
• Screensaver
Productivity
• Use slide show templates to boost productivity.
• ProShow Producer provides native support for RAW files from digital cameras.
• Use ProShow Producer's Projects mode to streamline workflow.
• New! ProShow Producer's refreshed user interface includes a soundtrack waveform, a new slide options dialog and a favorites pane.
• New! Get a close-up view of your work with a click of the mouse using the new Full Screen View.
• New! Recover moved or misplaced files from a show easily with the new Find Missing Files feature.
• New! Take complete control over show timing with the new timeline view.
Business Oriented Features
• New! Capture Frames feature allows you to output JPeG files of each slide for printing.
• Watermark all the slides in your show with one click.
• Include your personal branding information and logo on PC shows and DVD menus to promote your business.
• Copy Protect CDs and EXE slide shows from unauthorized copying.
As you can see there are many reasons why a professional or enthusiast would purchase such a powerhouse application, for instance my personal favourite is the ability to add unlimited amount of layers, simply by pressing the CTRL key as you drag and drop into the timeline, by clicking the storyboard thumbnail you bring up a pop up interface that allows you to have complete control over the effects, motion, captions, plus much more, you can set default programs to edit pictures video and music.
Additionally another new feature that I am pleased to see is the Flash Video export, mainly I am a mac user and so if anyone uses mac it is going to be difficult but not impossible to view presentations, so I feel FLV format is a welcome new output feature. Add to this 280 quality transitions, and preset masks Vignettes, Zoom Control, Key Framing tools to amaze your audience, I feel this is money well spent.But this software is not just for Photographers it also great for Corporate and Business presentations.
I have to say there is much more that could be said about this application, I could spend several more hours trying to put into words the immense power of this program, one of the nice things about Photodex is really that they are the pioneers of the TRY BEFORE YOU BUY policy commonly known as shareware, So I wholeheartedly ask you to give this a try, you will not be disappointed, I am going to make a statement of fact now by saying “THIS IS IN MY OPINION THE BEST PHOTO PRESENTATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND IT CAN’T BE BEAT”
A bold statement ! I know, well everyone is entitled to their opinion. Consider what you can do with photo presentations, and try to think of something Pro Show Producer 3.0 can’t do, that is indeed a challenge, it has everything a professional could ever want, I feel very privileged to be asked to review this software package. If you feel $250.00 is to much to justify, then you will be pleased to know that ProShow Gold 3.0 is available, and has power too, but with not quite as many features, however they do not skimp on them either. Look out for that review.
Photodex ProShow Producer 3.0 Review
