Free Slideshow Maker Comparison and Brief Tutorial

People are fond of free things, say free photo dvd movie slideshow maker, maybe more obviously during recession days. Not you? OK, you are special. Even so, you still could get through this article to know about how to create slideshow with dvd slideshow making software. None of them would cost you a penny. Actually they probably exist in your computer system. So, just locate and run to start slideshow making, at least to kill boring time or relive beautiful memory with photos. This article will contain following parts:

Part 1: Free Photo Slideshow Maker Comparison
Part 2: Using Free Photo Slideshow Maker for Windows
Part 3: Using Free Photo Slideshow Maker for Mac

Part 1: Free Slideshow Maker Comparison

Beside free slideshow maker for windows (Windows Movie Maker), free photo slideshow maker for Mac (iMovie), there are some other free photo slideshow maker for your choice. For example, Photo Story 3 is one of them, which also comes from Microsoft. Meanwhile, some multimedia companies also provide free slideshow maker products for their special customers. Before Mother's Day, Wondershare company has given away 3 light-weight slideshow maker for free: iPhone Slideshow Maker, iPod Slideshow Maker and PSP Slideshow Maker. Below is the brief comparison of these free photo slideshow maker.

Name	OS	Features	Input Formats	Output Formats
Windows Movie Maker	Windows	effects, transitions, titles/credits, audio track, timeline narration, and Auto Movie	Audio: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav and .wma Picture: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf Video: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv	Windows Media formats or DV/AVI
iMovie	Mac OS X	Photo Effects include basic color correction; Video enhancement tools, and transitions effect, titles.	non-tape based HD or non-HD video cameras such as DVD camcorders, HDD camcorders, & AVCHD, 3gp, AVI, DAT, MOV, MP4, MPG	MOV, Disc, CD-ROM,
Photo Story 3	Windows	Create still pictures into slideshow in wizard.	Picture: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf	WMV only, and optimized for Pocket PC, SmartPhone and Portable Media Center
iPod/iPhone/PSP Slideshow Maker	Windows	Storyboard, edit video; backgrond music;2D and 3D transition effects; motion effects; auto sync;	Audio: .mp3, .wav and .wma Picture: .bmp, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, and .tiff Video: .asf, .avi, .mpeg, .mpg, .rm, .wmv, .dat and .vob	MP4 slideshow for iPod/iPhone/PSP

Part 2: Using Free Photo Slideshow Maker for Windows

Windows Movie Maker 2 is an XP-only download that gives you the tools to create free photo slideshow. Compile and edit free photo slideshow with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, music, and narration with ease. Share your photo slideshow over the Web or Email. Follow these steps to create your free photo slideshow.

Step 1: Import Media Source

Windows Movie Maker needs you import first media files into the collection before adding to your photo slideshow project. Following media formats are supported by this free slideshow maker for windows.

Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav and .wma
Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf
Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv

Step 2: Edit Photo Slideshow

- Add transitions and special effects
Make your photo slideshow more polished with special effects and professional-looking transitions between photos.
- Add titles and credits
What's your photo slideshow called, and words you want to express to audience? Add titles, credits, and text to your photo slideshow to let the world know.

Step 3: Save your photo slideshow

Now save your photo slideshow in formats that you want. Windows Movie Maker allows you to save photo slideshow:

* To your computer
* To a CD
* To a DVD (with the help of third-party DVD burning software)
* For the Web
* For e-mail

Access desired task to the left hand side Movie Tasks and follow on-screen instructions.

Part 3: Using Free Photo Slideshow Maker for Mac

iMovie is a free slideshow maker for Mac users to enhance their photos. It is now a Mac OS X only application bundled in the iLife suite of Macintosh applications. iMovie also comes with a powerful organizing library, from which you can easily create photo slideshow with movies, photo and titles. Get through these steps to create photo slideshow for free.

Step 1: Create project and organize photos

iMovie is built for easily sharing photo slideshow with friends and family from iMovie library. To getting started, create a slideshow project and import photos to the library from iPhoto program. Quit iPhoto after you add all the desired photos and return to iMovie.

Step 2: Edit photo and add to Timeline

Add effects to your photo by clicking on the photo, and then on the desired effect on the tool bar. If you are not satisfied with the effect, simply click the reverse button. Click on the photo and move the slider to adjust the size of the photo, or move the second slider to adjust the emphasis of the photo effect. Next, simply drag photo to Timeline in the order you want them to display.

Step 3: Apply transition effect

Click the Transitions button to view all available transitions and select the one you want. After specify the effect's duration by dragging the Speed slider and when you are satisfied with the effect shown in the preview window, drag the transition to the space between the two slides where you want the effect.

Step 4: Add titles

Titles give necessary information about the whole slideshow (slideshow intro) or specific to single photo. To add titles, firstly select a thumbnail in the Clip Viewer and choose title style; type the title; choose options for font, size, color, and duration using the controls in the Titles pane; and drag the title style at the desired position just to the left of the picture.

Step 5: Export slideshow

Export your slideshow in QuickTime format. To do so, select Export Movie from the File menu and select QuickTime. In addition, iMovie includes some commonly used settings for exporting to different movie sizes, such as Web Movie, Email movie, or CD-ROM movie.

Appendix

• Make Free DVD Slideshow
After the slideshow is created with these two free slideshow software, you may need to burn slideshow to DVD for playback in Media Player or on TV. For Mac, you could use the iDVD, while for Windows, free DVD slideshow maker, like DVD Flick is available. Alternative, I have found commecial slideshow maker Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder could make slideshow and directly burn onto DVD. I have to say, free DVD slideshow maker surely exist, however, you need to search for it. Or anyone could suggest one?
• Convert DVD Slideshow
You may find out that the output formats of slideshow made by free slideshow maker described above are limited. But sometimes slideshow in other formats would be required. Well, video converter could help you. In fact, so many of them are flooding out there. You could google for some. As for me, iSkysoft iMedia Converter for Mac is my favorite. In Windows, you usually have no need to buy anything, free media converters are already enough. What I recommend is FFMpeg. It's free and powerful command line tool. Have heard that Youtube also use this tool? Maybe, but it really deserves your usage. Download Free media converter here: FFMpeg