Photo slide show

Photo slide shows are fun to look at and fun to make, as long as you know the basics of working with a slide show maker, like Microsoft Power Point. In November I had someone ask me to help them make a Photo Slide Show for the dad's 50th birthday. They wanted to have lots of pictures to show highlights of his life, from childhood to young adulthood, to parent to grandparent.

So with the brand new photocopier/scanner machine that the Francophone center BDS got for the Bellevue Cultural Center, we were able to mass scan photos, crop and save them using IrfanView and then add them to slides in Microsoft Power Point.

I think the longest process is scanning and making the pictures ready to put into the slide show. I've been using IrfanView for about 10 years now. I find that it's quick & easy to use, you download it for FREE from http://www.irfanview.com/. I showed my MOM how to use it and that's all she uses to edit her photos (and she's got TONS of them).

After cropping and resizing the pictures and saving them all to a folder, the really fun part starts. Making it PRETTY!

There are pre-made themes that are applied automatically to all the slides, we picked a suitable one and went with that to make it easier. You can also create your own theme and apply it to all slides or switch it up as you go. This process takes more time and experience though. I find the easiest way to add photos is to have the folder open in a separate window and then dragging the photos (one or more at a time) into the slide. We also added some effects to the photos, like a shadow or a border. Together we made 100 pages of photo slides to represent his life with family and friends and his fun and hobbies.

I also went to the 50th birthday party for a quick hello and Happy Birthday, and the family really enjoyed the slide show. It made me feel really good to have been able to give them a gift in this way.